So, if you read my twitter, you may have come across my ranting about the developmental editor i was trying to hire. I really needed someone outside the genre who had nfi what Shattered Glass was to comb through NSI with fresh eyes(so that if a new reader picked it up, they wouldn’t be confused). That made my life a lot more difficult because I couldn’t really ask for advice on editors.
Looking for a developmental editor has been the most frustrating experience of my fucking life. I’ve written the rant below so you can ignore it if you don’t wanna hear my ragey rages that raged and are, apparently, still ragifying.
ANYWAY, I finally found one and he got back to me quick and he seems stoked \o/. I’mma get a sample edit this time and see how we work together first.
I’m three weeks behind schedule (part of the ragey raging below). But that’s not too bad cuz i gave NSI another once over. Ended up making very few edits for continuity(always a good sign)
And I also maybe found a great line editor who I can’t wait to work!
And now you’re all caught up to my misery.
cat tax at the bottom.
—-Rant begins here—
Editor one: I had super high hopes. A famous romance author uses this editor. Her website was professional and her first response was immediate. I was, no exageration, mega-fucking-excited to work with her. She told me to send her a synopsis and either the whole novel or a few chapters. I labored over (my very first ever) synopsis(turns out this is a specific kind) for a couple of days and then sent it, plus the whole novel, to her. The synopsis explains the basic premise, middle, and ending of the story in just 545 words. Keep that small word count in mind.
This is how it went after that:
May 5th: She replies and asks me which editor I would like to work with (Annie does mysteries and is available in June, Tasha does romance available in September) . NSI to me is more of a thriller. I reply immediately and choose Annie. She replies with this literally an hour later:
Then I hear nothing.
On the 18th of May, I email her this:
almost 2 days later, I get this:
If you’re following along, you’ll notice the response times between emails got longer .
And also if you were following along on Twitter, you might have seen me in panic mode going “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?” Since i thought ‘out of her wheelhouse’ was a big fancy shmancy code for something. IE: your book sucks we dun wanna work with you.
This she sent me this follow up(Which comes into play later):
I sent an email asking what the issue with the novel is on the 20th of May .about twelve hours later I get this response(keep in mind they’ve had my novel and teeny tiny synopsis for two weeks. Until I emailed asking what happened, they suddenly rushed a response saying it was ‘out of their wheelhouse’ and now are saying the promised June date would have been changed to August because apparently this editor has decided i needed to rewrite the whole book, according to her(yes I extrapolated that XD) :
Anyway NOW they’ve decided they can deign to give me a quote.
And i’m mad. So I respond with this rudeness(ugh i hate being rude)
I’mma do that old school ‘what’s really in this letter’ breakdown of her response.
Except she did have my manuscript, the whole fucking thing, for two weeks. And I guess she’s forgotten that it was out of her wheelhouse. Now the problem is how much time it’d take. (Part of my whole frustration is the panic I’d had already about this whole thing. The other part is being treated so shabbily. I bet her ‘NY Times best seller doesn’t wait two weeks for a response)
What do these deadlines have to do with a completely different editor’s time issues? I hadn’t chosen “this’ person as the editor. I chose one of her contractors??
Really? Really?
So if’ you’re keeping track the novel that she would still like to work with me on both out of her wheelhouse and needs so many extensive changes that she has to block off an entire month+ for just me.
Anyway, I ignored that quote and, much to my chagrin, sent a request to Editor 2, the one Editor One recommended, who *also* made me wait a week before responding that it was out of her wheelhouse (which, yeah, I did feel it was after reading through her former projects). It’s just that I’d written what the novel was and what’s the fucking point of those short synopses if not for an editor to glance at and see if it’s IN THEIR FUCKING WHEELHOUSE?
*screech*
Editor 3:
????????????????????????????
No response from 3 other editors.
And that’s the sad tale of my experiences. Fun, right? Right?
Cat tax (newbie in his own bed in the crib)
