Working Together

I work with authors whose goal is publication. They range from seasoned writers (including best-selling novelists and non-fiction authors), to those who have never published a word but have a compelling story to tell. 

On projects already slated for publication, I collaborate with the author, in-house editor and agent to shape the book’s final version, delivering a manuscript ready for copy editing.  Agents also refer clients whose current book could use some revision before submission to publishers, or changes based on responses by in-house editors who have passed on the book but are open to considering a new draft.

My engagements range from consultation on a book proposal and outline, to guiding authors through several drafts over the course of a year or more.

I’ve worked in partnership with already successful authors when they seek an outside editor as they break new ground. They have included best-selling authors Emily Giffin, Richard Preston, Karen Abbott.  I was privileged to work with Seymour Topping, then head of the Pulitzer Prize committee and former managing editor of The New York Times, when he ventured into fiction.

A number of the first novels I’ve helped develop have become best sellers, including The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly.  These authors and I continue to collaborate on their next books.

The Process

The Details

  • "There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are," admitted Somerset Maugham. Each book I've worked with has its own wonderful unruliness, and a key to revision is respecting that, so there is no set process.  But the first step is often an overview read resulting in an editorial report pertaining to the book as a whole, with margin notes and line editing as illustration.  Common goals of this stage include ratcheting up dramatic tension, deepening portrayals, and further exploiting setting so that the book opens a window on a world that readers have never seen in quite this way.

    For memoirs, biographies, history and other narrative non-fiction, I often function as an architectural consultant, helping to build a structure upon which to place complex material. I suggest ways to expand the research or further plumb personal experience. 

    In all genres, I note passages where the language really sings in order to help the authors become more conscious of the strengths of their style, and to urge them to take chances with new voices.

  • In consultation with the author, I’ll either return the manuscript for revision after the global suggestions, or do a more detailed edit of each chapter. The latter often entails flagging passages to consider deleting, condensing, or moving; and suggesting new scenes or ways to expand to build irresistible rising action.

    For non-fiction books, I’ll mark junctures where more information or color might be added or insights developed; and when needed, assist with research and suggest new lines of inquiry and sources. Basically, I ask a lot of questions!

  • "The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug." — Mark Twain

    Once the book takes its final shape, I often work with the author on the sentences, helping to find the right word to replace a nearly right word; keep the dialogue percolating; vary syntax to create texture; hone images and analogies. I’m a devotee of what Adam Gopnik calls “the eloquence of the eraser.”

  • “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.” — Oscar Wilde

    Perhaps one of the most useful functions of an independent editor is to help the writer know when there’s no tinkering left to be done. At this point I’ll advise on agents and publishers (though I’m not a conduit to any one agent or acquisitions editor); refer clients to a copy editor if necessary; brainstorm ways to build or expand a platform. I recently recommended a client’s investigative journalism book to producers who are now developing it into a TV series.

If You’re Interested

Send at least the first 20 pages of the manuscript as an attachment with the word EDIT in the e-mail subject line. Please also send a note including:

  • the plot (if a novel) or the subject (if non-fiction);

  • what kind of help you’d like from an editor;

  • any prior publications or relevant life experience.

I'll let you know if I think I'm the right editor for the job and, if so, provide a fee quote and time frame.  I charge a straightforward hourly rate, mindful of a project’s budget and keeping the client apprised of time spent as we go along.