I sold a piece of fiction recently. I used to think when someone bought a story I submitted that the purchase was the end of the interaction—an editor read my work, liked it and thought it would bring eyeballs to their platform, and offered to pay me for it. End of story. In fact, way back in the early, early days I published a short story (for no money) and got very bent out of shape when the editor proceeded to engage in what I considered excessive editing, coming back at me with questions and suggestions over and over again. Why in the world would you publish a story you obviously thought needed so much work?
Now I understand that selling a story is often just the beginning. Being published is a relationship, and that means you’re going to be challenged even though you’ve already cleared the hurdle and gotten your work ?approved’ on some level. The lesson is simple: Be ready to be challenged.
Good to Great
Editors often see potential in a story even if they believe there are flaws. Sometimes those flaws are purely mechanical and it’s just a thorough copy-edit that’s needed, but sometimes even though they like a story (or even a full novel) they’ve got concerns about certain plot mechanics, certain character motivations, or other aspects of the tale. In other words, they see a good story that could be great with a reasonable amount of work.
As an author, you have to balance out a knee-jerk rejection of any further changes simply because you considered the story finished long ago with the fact that you’re the author and thus the ultimate judge of whether edits are improving the story or not. In other words, when you sell a piece of fiction you should expect to be challenged, you should expect the editor to push you—but you also have to decide when to plant your feet and decide their suggestions aren’t right.
It’s not an easy balance to strike, sometimes. But being prepared for the push back is half the battle. Knowing that selling a story or book doesn’t mean there isn’t work to be done is half the battle.
I sold Writing Without Rules this year and submitted what I thought was an excellent manuscript. I got feedback from my agent and revised accordingly. I got feedback from my editor, which ranged from mechanics to conceptual suggestions, and I took or left those suggestions as I saw fit—but I still wasn’t finished, because I currently have copy-edits to review, and the copy editor is also challenging me throughout questioning assumptions I’ve made and highlighting what they see as flaws. Half the hard work, in other words, comes after you sell something. And you just have to be prepared to defend all of your decisions. In my experience, no one’s going to force you to make a change that you disagree with—but they will want your reasoning, and it had better be good.
None of this is why I drink. I drink because after you publish the book the reviews and feedback from readers comes in—and it’s too late to make any changes.