Katherine Pickett recently spoke on"Editor’s, Who
They are, What They Do and How they Can Help You" at the Carroll County Chapter
of the Maryland Writers' Association. She also discussed how writers can make
it easier for their editors and help smooth the road to publication.
Katherine
Pickett is the owner of POP Editorial Services, so she knows what she is
talking about when she talks about editing. She also is
the author of
Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book
Publishing Process Like a Pro, published in 2014.
Her keys to success: educate yourself, be flexible
and work only with people you trust. Everyone needs an editor, Katherine said.
But a well prepared manuscript can save you time and money. She shared lots of
information about what to look for when searching for an editor, such as rates,
time factors and their track record. You also need to feel comfortable with
them.
I enjoyed hearing about self-editing, since I am at
that stage now with my YA novel. It seems I can go over it again and again and
still find minor errors. To a writer, although there are different levels of
problems, but no error is minor. Even after all this rereading, I was still
dissatisfied. I was looking for more ideas about how to edit my work and Katherine
delivered.
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Katherine Pickett talks with Kerry Peresta,
President of Carroll County Chapter MWA |
She stressed that self-editing can save money and
time. First take some time off, create some distance from your work. Then as
you approach it again try different methods. Read it aloud and pay attention to
places where you pause. Look for punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors.
Change to a larger font. It’s easier to find
punctuation errors. Print your work and read it on hard copy. Run your fingers
under the words as you read. Then go deeper.
Move to a new location while you review your work or
try a different time of the day. Check facts, the timeline, characters and
consistency. Is the tone consistent? Everything has to be in there for a
reason.
Some people even edit it backwards, starting at the
end and moving back to the beginning. Approach
your writing from different angles. Think of your audience. Are you speaking to
your ideal reader.
Too often we see what we expect to see, not what is
actually there. Question motives. Then again, question everything. The idea is
to trick your brain. See what is actually there and how you might be able to
make it better.
Revise, revise, revise!
Katherine explained that there are developmental and substantive editors. A substantive editor ensures appropriate and consistent tone and
smooth transitions, checks for consistency in point-of-view, eliminates
ambiguity, and ensures that dialog sounds natural.
More editing follows as a book is prepared for publication. A proofreader goes through a book's layout and tries to
catch anything the copy-editor missed. After receiving a manuscript proof, the
author should evaluate the editing, answer any queries as completely as
possible, make necessary changes and return the manuscript on time.
The better you have prepared your manuscript, the
less time editors will need to spend on it and the less it will cost you. The
better your manuscript, the more chance it has of publication and becoming
popular.
Pickett’s company provides
copy-editing, proofreading, and developmental editing to authors and publishers
across the country. She has been involved in the publishing industry since
1999, including five years as an in-house production editor with McGraw-Hill
Professional and two years with Elsevier Inc. Although the majority of her
experience lies in nonfiction trade books, she also has edited children’s,
young adult, and adult fiction, memoirs and more.
Her book Perfect Bound
was a silver award winner, 2015, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards and a Finalist, 2014 Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB
Book of the Year Awards.
