A Praise Song to Human Editors

Will Chatty GPT ever learn to edit itself?

As I wrote in my last post, AI is extremely chatty. Any writer who’s received one of those spam messages urging you to connect with a famous author or get a book promotion package you never requested, will see that the fulsome praise of your work can take an entire page not to mention minutes of your precious time. Recently, I got an invitation from an AI generated scam focused on editing my published picture book Lucy and Henry Are Twins. The scam email is 144 words longer than the entire text of the book including the title. (How and why I would want to edit a published book is a mystery to me.)

I have been publishing traditionally for (eek) fifty years and through all those decades, I have been both challenged and supported by dedicated editors who love stories and readers, and who have spent their lives making good books better.

I sent my most recent manuscript, the fourth in my series that began with The Castle in the Attic, to Margery, the editor who has worked with me on the series from the beginning and who is a talented and prolific children’s book writer herself.

Margery knows all my quirks and with great patience, she points them out to me every time. She and I both prefer the penciled line edit to a digital program, so here is a sample of one of the more lightly touched pages.

I use the words just and even too often. I repeat words usually in the same paragraph and occasionally, in the same sentence. She cuts my unnecessary explanations, my long descriptive passages, and urges me to replace pronouns with the characters’ names. She is alert to my continuity issues. (Ex. See p. 88, line 8. William knows that Tolliver is not around.)

But more than that, she is attuned to what I’m trying to achieve in the story and how best to help me realize it. As every good editor knows, the way to get a writer back to the page with a sense of energy and excitement is first and foremost to tell them what they are doing right, what in the manuscript is working. I happen to love the revision process because I know it’s my opportunity to get closer to my original vision for the book. Once I’ve taken the time to absorb what she is saying, Margery’s editorial letters always send me back to page one with enthusiasm.

Every experienced writer knows that we are our own worst editors. We fall in love with our characters, our settings, our descriptions and when we type THE END on the bottom of the page/screen, there is a feeling of such joy and achievement that we have little objectivity left. That’s why I try to take weeks if not months away from the book to let it rest. With time off and the help of an editor like Margery, I’m able to see my work more clearly and cut more drastically so that the story moves as swiftly as it needs to do in this age of short attention spans.

Will AI replace the human editor? Many feel it already has, but I’m not one of them. AI is a mathematical tool without conscious awareness, an inner life or lived experience. Those are the qualities I look for in the editor casting her eye and wielding her pencil over my hard won words.

ON FINDING AN AGENT!

September 9, 2024 2 Comments

Okay, so you’ve accomplished the impossible. An agent has expressed interest in your work and you’ve signed a contract. All those months (maybe years) of sending out your novel have paid off. Not only do you have an agent, but she’s in New York, on Park Avenue. A respectable established firm.

Now what?

You wait.

First, give up the notion that the agent will want to see everything you’ve ever written. Maybe she’ll politely glance at some of your things, but she has to keep building her list. Taking time to read your backlog of writing keeps her from reading promising manuscripts from other writers.

Forget the idea that she’ll want to discuss your career with you. After you’ve sold something, she may want to work out a plan for future projects, encourage you to try out certain directions. But first you have to be financially viable and make money.

I know, you’ve thought agents shared your idealized opinions about art’s supremacy—that we’re all in it for the sake of art, that art comes first, money second.

Not on your life. This is strictly business.

Look at it from her point of view. Articles don’t make her money. Anything that has a regional audience won’t make her money. Most small presses won’t make her money. Agents are only interested in what can make them money. This is their livelihood.

Also don’t expect her to send out your manuscript indefinitely. She’s losing money if she does—and time. And don’t assume she’ll stay on top of submissions without an occasional reminder from you, showing you’re interested in knowing what publishers have received the book and where it’s going next.

You’ll find it’s a fine line. You don’t want to bug her every week or so, but you also don’t want your novel to grow cobwebs when it could be out working for you. A call or email every couple of months sounds about right.

Trust is a nice word and an honorable one. However, people usually have to earn our trust. Agents are no different. Assume the worst but expect the best—demand the best. After all, it’s your future; you’re the one who has put uncountable hours into this project

So initially, at least, put away your great expectations. The publishing world is raw, rough, and unpredictable. If you’re used to being the only child or in sharing your parents with only one or two siblings, you’re in for a shock. The agent will have many clients, all of them like you, hungry for attention, for feedback, for a sale. You’ll have to be happy with the crumbs that come your way.

There are some payoffs. While an editor might not buy your book, she may say you’re a very talented writer. Those three words can give you much-needed inspiration to keep writing.

And maybe one day, one of your books will sell. Maybe it will even hit the best seller list and you’ll graduate to your agent’s inner circle, become one of the writers whose career the agent does want to direct. But until then, don’t waste your energy wishing for what can’t be.

At least now you can tell people you have an agent. It’s almost as good as selling a book.