A tell-all interview with author Mike James about his experience going through editing—twice, now!—and living to tell the tale.
If you’ve never been through a good and proper manuscript scrub before, it can be daunting to reach out to an editor for the first time. So, I thought it might be useful to hear what a seasoned author has to say about it! Mike and I have polished the first book in his “Hotel” series, “The Hotel at the End of Time“, and we’re on the final chapters of the sequel, “The Well at the Bottom of Everything“. Like many indie authors, he’s been through a combination of coaching, developmental editing, and line editing, with the occasional pause for lunch.
Check out what he has to say about the process below!
Alex: You’ve published a little before working with an editor, haven’t you? What was that like and what made you decide to delve into editing?
Mike: Yeah, my first book, Trapped, was only lightly edited. I’d had a fairly bad experience early on that soured me on the process, but a lot of reviews for Trapped carried a similar message of “great book but needs editing”, so I knew it was something I’d need to invest in if I wanted to be taken seriously. I was suffering from burnout. Trapped was a tough book to write, and nothing I worked on after that seemed to click. I was discouraged and exhausted.
I had a completed book on the shelf (The Hotel at the End of Time), that I hadn’t really done anything with and thought—okay, this is a fun book with a lot of potential. Why not use an editing partnership as a way to reinvigorate myself and my writing? I’d always loved the idea of working with someone, not on correcting grammar, but finding a person that would really work to understand my voice and make it as loud as possible.
Writing is a lonely process and I think I was tired of being by myself.
Alex: Would you be willing to talk a little about your negative experience with an editor that wasn’t right for you?
Mike: This is part of why Hotel was shelved. The first editor I ever worked with reached out to me through my website and offered to dev/copy edit my first chapter. In fairness, l liked the work they did and thought we’d work well together. Now that I’ve worked with real editors, in retrospect, there were a couple of flags I should have seen.
There was no back and forth on the edits, it was more ‘thanks for your manuscript, I’ll give it to you in six weeks’. No up front discussion about expectations or process or style, it was a very one-sided engagement. When I got the document back, I realized something was off. It wasn’t anything I could put my finger on, but I was reading my story, thinking ‘this doesn’t feel right. I don’t remember writing this’.
It was finally about a third of a way through. A character told a joke that I would never tell. It was a stupid, hackneyed joke that wasn’t at all my style. Long story short, I realized this editor had changed my story with no markup. They’d added their own lines. They removed some of mine. They changed my sentences. Overall, they rewrote about 20% of my story. The worst part was that some of it was marked up, making it even more confusing. Just the whole thing was a complete mess. I ended up having to scrap basically all the edits, because I couldn’t even tell what was mine and what they did. Just so discouraging.
Alex: What about a healthy editing relationship? What has the process of editing been like?
Mike: Each day through the week, I get a chapter back with a bunch of markups. I go through them, and if there’s any I don’t understand or where I want to debate it, I’ll reach out for a fast discussion. Getting those chapters is my favorite part of writing. As I’ve learned, a great editor is a combination cheerleader, therapist, drill sergeant, and teacher. When all of those elements appear in a chapter, it’s a beautiful thing. All of the changes / suggestions are marked up, with comments about the rationale behind it. I feel like I learn so much from the process, because once I understand why a change was suggested, I can hopefully make sure I incorporate the learning into my future writing.
Getting those chapters is my favorite part of writing. As I’ve learned, a great editor is a combination cheerleader, therapist, drill sergeant, and teacher. When all of those elements appear in a chapter, it’s a beautiful thing.
Mike James
You’ve experienced both line editing and developmental editing. What’s the difference, and the difficulty level?
Mike: Line edits—suggesting wording /structure changes at the sentence or paragraph level—are never taxing for me. They’re my favorite edits. If anything, they improve my mood. It’s like someone showing me the solution to a puzzle. If I’m exhausted and worn out, line edits perk me up. I could do line edits all day.
Developmental edits are changes to overall plot, structure, characters, motivations, arcs, all of it. The really really hard stuff. Dev edits are hard to absorb because at their core, it’s someone telling you one of two things—either your good story needs work to be exceptional, or worse, parts of your story aren’t working. And the fix means a ton of rewrites. Rewrites to a story you’re already sick of, that’s you’ve already spent months on (or years, in some cases), that you’ve already read ten times.
There was a point in book 2 where I remember writing you and saying “okay I guess I’m just going to rewrite the whole book” (sulk, sulk) because I felt so lost. And you said “let’s get together for a dev session and really talk about what needs to change“. Once we did that, it didn’t seem so bad, and I was back to being energized again. That’s where the relationship aspect comes in, and why I’d say once you find an editor you connect with, cling to them forever. Because I trust you and I’ve worked with you, I’m able to remember you have the interests of my book at heart and you want me to be successful.
I suppose the last thing I’ll say that while taking in dev edits can be exhausting, rewriting based on dev edits is awesome. Like now that I’ve incorporated a bunch, I can see how much better my story is. It’s a wonderful feeling.
Alex: How about when you get edited for sensitivity issues? What’s that like, can you give us an example and talk about how it feels?
Mike: There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what sensitivity reading/editing is, I think. A lot of people in the writing community seem to equate it to being muzzled or having their freedom of expression stifled, but that’s not what it is. I had a joke in Book 1 that relied on gender as the punchline. You pointed this out and suggested an alternate structure. The joke itself stayed but we made the punchline accessible to greater audience.
To me, that’s all sensitivity editing is. How do you say something in such a way that you can include as many people as possible? I don’t even get why people would object to that. It’s not about restricting, it’s about expanding. It’s about taking something that’s perhaps narrow and opening it up. There’s also this embarrassment that goes along with it. Like <blush> oh god I can’t believe I said that. But hey, only you and I see the drafts. I screw up sometimes and I try to get better.
Alex: What happens if you disagree with a sensitivity—or any—edit?
Mike: There are some where I’ve disagreed because I’m sure what you’re telling me, or why. We usually talk about those. But there are some where I get it and still don’t take the edit. When all is said and done, it’s my book and I own the final results. I have to do what I want and what feels right. It’s my voice and my story and I need to be an expert on what I want to sound like. No matter how good an editor is, I own my product.
Alex: Which brings us to the other point you were making; demystifying what editing can and can’t do for you.
Mike: Right. Editing is working off a foundation, and if the foundation is wobbly, there’s only so much editing can do. If you hand over a first draft to an editor, filled with plot holes and spelling mistakes and inconsistencies, there’s only so much they’re going to be able to do for it in one sitting. I almost think of it like editing can move your story up a few levels. If you hand over a 1 out 10 manuscript, an editor can maybe get you to a 4 or 5. They can’t get you to a 10. So it’s in your best interest to hand over the cleanest draft you can. Editors can help your good story be great and they can maybe help your bad story be good. They can’t make a bad story great.
Alex: You’ve already published one book that’s been edited to your satisfaction, and are now working on a second. How much of a difference do you think it’s made to your sales, to your reviews, and to you, personally?
Mike: Let’s start with sales. An editor doesn’t help you sell your current book, they help you sell your future book. Book sales depend on about a hundred variables, all of which are outside an editor’s control. What a well-edited book can do, however, is leave you with satisfied readers that will be happy to buy more of your work.
For my reviews, there I think it’s made a huge difference. Let’s be clear—if you are a self-published author, you could have a team of 200 editors work on your book for six months, and I guarantee you will still get at least one “needs editing” review. It’s part of the environment. Those outliers aside, my reviews now focus on the content, not the editing, which is exactly what you want.
Lastly, to me personally, I feel like I went through a writing course. There’s so many tips and tricks I’ve picked up through this process. I know what to look for now; I know how to evaluate my own work better, and it’s unquestionably made me a better writer.
I feel like I went through a writing course. There’s so many tips and tricks I’ve picked up through this process. I know what to look for now; I know how to evaluate my own work better, and it’s unquestionably made me a better writer.
Mike James
