I received a letter today from Erin Brown, an editor to whom I pitched East of Jesus.* In her letter, Brown announced that she is leaving the publisher to work directly with authors as a freelance editor.
Before I pitched to her, I did a lot of research. I became familiar with her resume and with the books she acquired for a couple of houses. When I met with her, I was very impressed. She was open, honest and generous, both with her time and her expertise. She ultimately rejected East of Jesus, saying it was too dark for her tastes (she isn’t the first to say that), but she sent me the most specific, most helpful rejection I’ve ever received.
As a writer who is (I think) getting close to publication but who does not yet have an agent, I’m in an awkward spot. I could use some professional editing, and many agents and editors recommend exactly that for writers trying to break into print. But there are many scammers who prey on wannabe writers, so it’s hard to know who to trust. And reputable agents cannot recommend a freelance editor. If a writer is lucky, she has a friend who had success with a freelancer, but even then, the editor may not be experienced in her specific genre.
Enter Erin Brown, Professional Editor. She’s worked for seven years in major New York publishing houses, acquiring and editing manuscripts in a mix of genres: women’s fiction, mystery, memoir, literary, political non-fiction, self-help and commercial fiction. Her rates are on her website, and they appear to be reasonable. And though I haven’t worked with her as an editor, from what I have seen, her skills are top-notch. And her personality is delightful.
Heck, I may book her myself.
*I have to tell you: I tried to write “an editor I pitched EofJ to,” which is conversational and more the way I write here. But I found myself incapable of writing a sentence that used Erin’s name and ended with a preposition.
January 23, 2008 at 11:25 am |
Haha! I can’t dangle prepositions either, even though they say it’s perfectly acceptable now. I’ll rewrite a sentence to death before I let it happen most times, but every now and then I force myself to do it.
Hmm. I’ll have to set this editor’s name aside – thanks for passing her on!
January 24, 2008 at 1:28 pm |
LOL. I can do it in my blog and sometimes in my novels (I have a very breezy writing style, even there). But in context with an editor? Nope. Couldn’t do it.
Erin’s wonderful. You would enjoy working with her (and learn a lot too).
May 3, 2008 at 7:03 am |
Be CAREFUL going after editors who advertise in the back of writing magazines–do you want a mercenary with no background in the type of writing you do mangling your manuscript, leading you in directions you don’t want to go? Here in Canada we have professional writing organizations you can join and they often have an editing or mentoring service–does your state or region not have the same? Just a suggestion.
My own view is that a writer should work and grind away on a manuscript until it’s at the point where all it really requires is a bit of copyediting, in case you misspelled words or repeated a particular phrase throughout the manuscript. I spent more than three years writing and revising my novel SO DARK THE NIGHT (just posted to my site for free reading and downloading) and while that time frame was daunting and the work horrifically hard, I’m satisfied those efforts were more than worth it. And my readers seem to agree…