Debut Author Interviews

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

• Marlane Kennedy on...After-Sale Revisions
• Paula Chase on...After-Sale Revisions
• Carrie Jones on...After-Sale Revisions
• Kelly Bingham on...After-Sale Revisions
• Stephanie Hale on...After-Sale Revisions
• A.C.E. Bauer on...After-Sale Revisions
• Melissa Marr on...After-Sale Revisions
• Eric Luper on...After-Sale Revisions
• Ruth McNally Barshaw on...After-Sale Revisions
• Judy Gregerson on...After-Sale Revisions
• Greg R. Fishbone on...After-Sale Revisions
• S.A. Harazin on...After-Sale Revisions
• Jo Knowles on...After-Sale Revisions
• Paula Jolin on...After-Sale Revisions
• Sarah Beth Durst on...After-Sale Revisions

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

When the offer was made, my editor told my agent my manuscript didn’t need much in the way of revision. When my revision letter finally arrived it was only about a page and a half long—and the first part was actually how much they loved the story and how excited they were to be publishing it. My editor wanted more of the main character’s best friend and asked that I add a few scenes having to do with the father’s veterinary practice and family dogs. Pretty painless stuff. But she also thought the ending should be changed. That threw me for a loop at first, but once I gave it some thought I was able to tackle the revision and it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. My editor gave excellent feedback and I’m grateful for her advice. The time and work I spent in doing the revision was well worth the end result!

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

Once my book was under contract, I was anxious to get to edits. However, my editor indicated she edited based on priority, focusing on those books that needed the most editorial attention first. She indicated mine was right in the middle - didn’t need the most/didn’t need the least.

My editorial letter was about seven pages long and most of it was about making two of the characters more distinct.

For the second round, the editorial letter was only a page long and it was primarily things that needed to be “cleaned” up a bit.

All total, edits took six weeks. And I believe I could have cut that in half if I had the luxury of writing full-time. Since I have to switch gears from one career to another, it can take some time to get comfortable in my character’s skin…and that adds time to my revisions.

I have to admit, the editorial process was very humbling for me. There’s a certain level of pride you take in reaching each new step in the process. It’s easy to forget that the story can always be made tighter or better focused.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

Because I want my book to be as good as it can be I am pro-revision. Revise now. Revise all the time. Go revising! (Imagine pom-poms). Every time I revise I feel as if I’m adding another layer of depth into the story. I love it.

My manuscript was SO FAR from perfect when I sent it to Andrew. He took it anyway. He’s a good man. Revising with him was my favorite part of writing the book. It went quickly. It was fun. It also gave me confidence. This was a book no one else saw. No mentors at Vermont College. No critique groups. Just Andrew.

Here’s what Andrew said about revising and his Editor Man attitude:

Anecdotally, I know this can vary enormously. Of the Flux authors you’ve probably revised at least as much as anyone else I’ve worked with, and there have been a few authors who made comparatively few changes. I know one of my authors who published dozens of books with another small house said he was very surprised (pleasantly, thank god) at how much time we invested in revisions with him. I have read many YA books from small and large presses that felt to me like they were too raw, a couple drafts short of their best.

I suspect this also varies depending on what kind of agent you’ve got (and how much editing she does).

Personally, I will bend all sorts of rules to accommodate further revisions if I feel like the author wants another go at the ms.

Is it any wonder I call him Sweet Editor Man? I’m sure he’ll stop me sometime, though…

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

Extremely little. And almost all of it centered around making the poems fit into the line limit per page. (There are a certain number of lines per page, and a few poems got cut off in a page turn right at an emotional moment, so we felt they’d be better off shorter.) My editor has been wonderful to work with on this novel and I love her ideas and the way she always expresses positive, complimenatry notes whenever the book is discussed at all. Such an attitude goes a long way to making me feel open and willing to tackle any revision she may ask.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

The email I got from my editor was probably half a page long. She didn’t really ask for anything to be changed just to add a few more mentions of things I already had in the manuscript. Everything was painless, but I went through and changed some other stuff and added about 5K. I’m a tad bit Type A! So far I’m pretty convinced that my editor is the nicest, most easygoing person on the planet! YEAH! :)

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I did a lot of revision. The first set of revisions was structural: I had three story lines that had to mesh just right. My editor asked me to reshuffle the structure to make all three lines move together more evenly. I felt like I was handling a deck of cards: each chapter was a card, and I had to get all of them in the proper order. I mapped out the entire novel, re-ordered the chapters, removed some, rewrote others, and added one. I took out entire scenes and created new ones. It took me two and a half months to complete. It was a challenge, but one I really enjoyed.

The second set of revisions dealt with characters. In addition to some minor issues, my editor picked out the one plot point that didn’t work because it wasn’t true to my character. As it turned out, this was the hardest revision for me to make—so far. I completed it in a month, but I angsted over it the whole way through.

The third edit was a line edit—language, flow, and details. Not hard, and kinda fun.

Next came the copyedit… Not too difficult.

Throughout, the story hasn’t changed. The characters have remained true to who they were, from the beginning. The revisions made the same story better.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I’m not sure how one quantifies “how much.” My editor claims the text didn’t require “that much revision at all.” Hmm. I’m not sure we define “that much” the same way though so I’ll share the steps I took.

Step 1
My editor (the lovely Anne Hoppe) sent me a letter & the manuscript. This letter included everything from a bit about her to the house’s dislike of the title to why she loved the book. It also had a list of what they wanted more of and (pout) a couple scenes they thought needed omitted so as to not spoil surprises. The text had scrawl that ranged from smiley faces to questions. I read & pondered this, spoke to Anne at length, & then spent a couple weeks in my 14-hour-a-day mood.

The word change was about 4-5k (out of 76k total).

Step 2
A few weeks later, I received another letter from Anne. This was mostly specific to the added chapters & more little stuff. The requested pages were in the package too.

The word change was about 1-2k (out of 76k total).

Step 3
I received a letter from my second editor, my UK editor Nick Lake, with his comments. That letter had Anne’s responses to Nick remarks in it. It was fascinating to get the two opinions.

The word change was about 1-2k (out of 76k total).

All said, I’m told that the changes were minor ones, but each phrase, each nuance, each gesture has been examined by two editors, so in the midst of it all, sometimes it felt pretty intensive.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

This is an interesting story:

I submitted my completed manuscript to my editor and he liked it. I did not get that famous phone call everyone loves to talk about, but I did get a very cool e-mail. The e-mail had some editorial suggestions that my editor wanted me to address before he took it to acquisitions committee. So, of course, I did those. They weren’t particularly far reaching and they were certainly within my comfort zone as far as the content of the changes go.

Those changes deleted certain subplots and changed certain characters somewhat, but I was okay with it. Heck, that contract was so close, I could taste it!

Within weeks, FSG offered me a contract and the e-mail, which I have tacked to my wall, says “no revisions necessary.” What I soon learned was that “no revisions necessary” means “a heck of a lot of revisions are going to be necessary.” I am on my second go-through and we are still changing things around. Whole chunks are being added and whole chunks are being deleted.

I will say that the novel is far better, far tighter, as a result, but when I thought that ship had sailed, I had no idea that it would return to dry dock several times!

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

When I sent my book, ELLIE MCDOODLE, to my soon-to-be agent, I expected many revisions requests, but she sent it out as it was.
A few months later the contract came from Bloomsbury, I signed it, it mentioned revisions, the revisions didn’t come for many months… I thought maybe I would get away with no revisions. Silly me.

A few months later I met in person with Bloomsbury staff, and they gave me a 3-page letter of requests for revisions which scared me.
Most were things like, add more of these, do more of that.
Also: Consider taking out one character, consider making this scene more climactic, consider adding to the last page. Maybe change the girl’s hair. Add 50 - 70 pages.

I’d been reading Donald Maas’s WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL WORKBOOK (not the main book), and congratulating myself on what I’d already done right, and adding a few things suggested by Maas.
I had a ton of new ideas to use, too, from thinking over the past year.

With the first rewrite came my chance.
It took about 2 - 3 weeks to put it all together (art and text - my book’s a graphic novel) and submit the revision to my editor.
She loved it and a couple weeks later sent back a smaller list of ideas for revisions:
Consider making this kid the main character’s brother rather than cousin. Take out this character. Change this word, that word, add this phrase, move this to that page, move that to this page…

I made those changes in a couple weeks and sent her round 2 which she sent straight to the typesetters, and now I am working with the Art Director to figure out exact placement of text and art. This will take another few weeks, and then I think the book is done.

Total production time for the revised art and text: About 3 to 5 weeks, stretched over about 9 weeks of time. I loved the work. It was fun. And I know it made for an even stronger book, because now they’re mentioning sequels. ;)

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

My editor didn’t give me a huge revision but she did want some changes on the beginning and some on the end. And there were some things that I wanted to change, so I threw that into the revision. I worked on the book for about four months and was pretty sick of it when I was done.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I added 15,000 words to a 25,000-word book in my first revision. Then I cut 15,000 words in my second revision. Then I wrote a new ending. Then I wrote a new opening.

No, I wouldn’t say that’s a wholly unreasonable amount of revision. :D

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I did one round of revisions for my agent. The revisions for my editor were intensive. He asked me to delete a character, deepen other characters, and add some flashbacks. He also asked for a tone change in one section of the manuscript and for a couple of plot twists. He asked for different scenes at the end. I reshaped the manuscript. I did two large revisions and a couple of smaller revisions. My editor provided an enormous amount of insight and guidance. The book became more because of him.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I’m still revising.

Can I get back to you on that one?

;)

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I did two rounds of structural revisions, and then we went one round of page by page, focusing on details like word choice, etc. The first round was the hardest. In the course of shopping the book, I’d already cut 20,000 words - I was astonished that my editor wanted me to cut another 10,000. Plus he suggested - very gently, his suggestions are always gentle - that part of those cuts include a subplot that I absolutely loved. The subplot, about the main character’s fantasy world, had little to do with the main plot, but I felt that it deepened the character and gave her extra layers. He felt that the subplot cut the tension - as the book goes along there’s a bit of mystery and intrigue, and the subplot drew the reader out of that world. So I asked all the beta readers who had read the book before, and they revealed something very interesting: all the writers thought the subplot was great and should stay in, but all the readers thought it was confusing - some of them had even skipped over those sections! So I decided to try taking it out - and sure enough, my editor was right. The book read much smoother that way, and the tension was higher - I found even I was turning pages quickly, and I wrote it!

The second round was just minor scenes - one that he felt didn’t have enough in it to forward the part, another that he thought was a little confusing. All three rounds together took about three months.

How much revision did you do AFTER you sold your book to your publisher?

I did not nearly as much as I thought I’d have to do. After the book had been sold, my editors sent me a very insightful editorial letter, full of lots of comments that really improved the book. But for the most part, the requested changes were much less extensive than I’d imagined they would be. They said the text was already quite tight and clean, which may have had something to do with the 37,842 revisions that I had already done by that point! Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant surprise. We went back and forth for three rounds of relatively minor edits before the book moved on to the copyeditor.