What I Learned by Hiring an Editor to Critique My Novel
By: Susan Poole
Tags: Writing Life, Novel Writing, Writing, Writing Tips, Publishing

What I Learned by Hiring an Editor to Critique My Novel

It may have been less about my writing and more about me.

Photo by Chivalry Creative on Unsplash

I’ve been chasing my dream of becoming a published author for almost six years. Three manuscripts later — all of them collecting dust on a shelf — and I still feel like I’m making forward progress. That’s the good part.

Deciding to finally “retire” an unpublished piece and move on to something new is difficult. It feels like such failure to admit no one’s interested in the story you’ve agonized over for countless hours. But I’ve grown some thick skin over the years. Learned how to embrace each rejection as an opportunity to learn and improve.

Part of the learning process includes making the most of available resources to develop your craft. For writers, there are plenty of them out there. Conferences, online workshops and writing groups. Immerse yourself in them all if you can. Critique partners and beta readers are critical too. If you’re the only one to read your novel before thinking it’s ready for publication, it’s not.

While I had taken advantage of plenty of these resources along my journey, I still wasn’t gaining enough traction in terms of getting published. I’d been told my writing is solid, but knew I was missing something. Something important. It wasn’t until I sought an opinion from one of my author friends that I realized I didn’t know the first thing about the business of publishing. Things like pacing, character arc and voice are important, but so are knowing what genres are popular at any given moment, how to hook an agent or editor with the first page, and which literary tropes have been overdone. Therefore, I set out to learn everything I could about what I now believe is my next (and hopefully last) step in getting published.

For me, I decided to do this by hiring an editor. Up until that point, I had never paid anyone for a critique, relying solely on my friends and a few random readers I’d connected with whom I believed would give me professional and objective feedback. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m grateful for all the time these people have taken to help me polish my work. But there’s a lot to be said for engaging a paid professional, someone only concerned in performing the work they were hired to do and not afraid to hurt your feelings if necessary.

My primary goal in identifying this person was to find someone with industry experience. I used an online service called Reedsy that gives authors access to a variety of editorial and publishing professionals. All you have to do is search for the type of service you’re interested in (I was looking for a developmental edit of a romantic suspense novel) and search through the profiles of people willing and able to do that work. You can sort by different criteria including price, genre, experience level and timeframe, put a quote together and submit to five professionals at a time. I was able to hire an editor who had experience with a major publishing house and who specialized in romance and mystery. And she was willing to work within my budget. The perfect fit.

Now that I’ve received her feedback, let me just say — or shout — it was money well spent! Not only did she help me polish my content, but the tips she gave me were invaluable. So much so, that I felt compelled to share them with anyone else out there struggling to launch their writing into the world. Here’s what I learned.

1. The rules of proper English may not always apply.

One of the “random readers” I referred to earlier happens to be a retired English professor. She’s read through all three of my manuscripts and has taught me a lot about how to employ the rules so perfectly summarized in Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. She’s a stickler for proper punctuation, has helped me clarify when to use past perfect tense, and loves to sprinkle adverbs into my writing for greater detail. She’s been a godsend and I can’t imagine writing anything of length without her.

At the same time, when I received feedback from my developmental editor, I was surprised to see that she often reversed the changes my English professor had suggested. Sentence fragments seem to be encouraged in modern-day novels. Adverbs should be used sparingly. And the only dialogue tag apparently needed is “said.” Using phrases like “she retorted” or “he growled” are believed to violate the rule of “show don’t tell” and can slow down the reader’s pace. One acceptable exception seems to be when denoting volume as in “he shouted” or “she whispered.” I questioned these principles at first but have since found plenty of confirmation that these truly are industry standards. Hm. Who knew? Again, money well spent.

2. Important details may only live in your own head. Set them free!

One of the biggest criticisms I received is that too many relevant facts were being kept from the reader. My editor at times even found this insulting, as if she couldn’t trust my main character. Whoa! I had no idea. But after I went back and read the passages she had been referring to, I realized she was right. And it was not intentional. As a writer, you know your characters and plot lines inside and out. The challenge is making sure everything you want people to know is communicated properly in writing. I hadn’t planned on leaving the reader guessing about certain details but failed to put all my thoughts down on the page. Luckily, this was an easy fix and now I’m more intentional about making sure the reader is “in the know.” No more mind reading required.

Sometimes it takes a second and third time to effectively communicate a particular point, and it’s okay to repeat yourself for emphasis. I know I appreciate this myself when I’m reading a book, especially one with a complex plot. That’s something my editor confirmed and counseled me about — how to weave reminders throughout a manuscript to ensure clarity of understanding. Without that piece of advice, many of my ideas may still be stuck inside my head, leaving my readers confused. Nobody wants that.

3. Stereotypes can dissuade agents from representing your work, not to mention offending your readers.

This is a biggie, and probably the most eye-opening piece of feedback I received. I didn’t realize that having my Spanish-speaking character use broken English throughout the manuscript could be offensive, or that portraying an Indian American character as an Ivy leaguer with a genius IQ could be a turn-off as overly stereotypical, but my editor strongly discouraged me from employing these techniques. She also cautioned against describing shoppers at a popular big box retailer (you can fill in the blank here) in a negative fashion, even if that’s how many people across the country may characterize them. “You automatically isolate yourself from a large number of potential readers — those who shop at that particular store.” Ironically, the use of some of those stereotypes was an attempt at humor, not contempt in any way. But if that’s the way it was perceived, I’ll absolutely heed the warning. I may even seek out a sensitivity editor in the future to make sure I’m not making any further “no-nos.” If there’s a market for that type of editor, which apparently there is, it’s obviously something that needs to be on my radar.

An unlikable protagonist could be the kiss of death.

Here’s where I needed to make the most drastic change. My protagonist’s love interest was originally portrayed as somewhat crotchety, kind of a curmudgeon with a strong bias against young people. (Think Mr. Magoo but not quite so old, and not that crotchety). Most of his opinions were based on his experiences and observations about Millennials, and the plan was to have his character evolve throughout the story and learn to appreciate the younger generation for their strengths instead of penalizing them for their perceived faults.

Unfortunately, this strategy backfired with my editor. She was quick to point out that she herself was a Millennial, as are many of the agents and editors working in the industry, and that she personally would not have made it to the end of the book. My curmudgeon struck a chord with her. She even identified the point in the manuscript where she would have stopped reading, unwilling to wait and see whether he had a change of heart by the end.

Good to know, right? And not anything that would ever had occurred to me.

4. Pay attention to the current culture when making decisions about your characters.

There’s a scene in my novel where the protagonist gets drunk and ends up inviting the other main character back to her hotel room. It’s actually one of my favorite scenes as the chemistry between the two characters is pretty intense. But I was advised to make sure the woman wasn’t too drunk to consent to whatever eventually happens in that hotel room. Before the #MeToo movement, such a scene may not have thrown up any red flags, but now it does (and rightfully so). I didn’t have to alter the scene too much to fit within safe parameters, and that exercise definitely opened my eyes to being more conscious about similar issues moving forward.

In summary, I sure learned a lot through the process of a developmental edit. I have to admit that I didn’t agree with all the feedback at first. There were moments when I wondered whether I was being encouraged to kowtow to the gatekeepers of the industry and whether this is how passive-aggressive censorship works. (Please don’t judge. They were only fleeting thoughts).

But then I took a step back and really reflected on the observations being offered. I realized that some of my own cynicism and/or bias may have been creeping into my characters. What a lesson in self-awareness that is! I’ve always worked hard to be objective, fair and diplomatic in everything I do, but especially in my writing. And even though one editor’s subjective opinion is not the be-all, end-all, I really respect and appreciate her candor. If I want to get this book published, (or maybe the next one after that), it’s important to know how to best my best foot forward. The truth can be harsh sometimes, but better to face it now than when I’m staring down a negative book review!