What Does A Book Editor Do? Part One!

The right editor is like the other half of your heart, and they might just save your book (and career). I answer all your questions from "Do I have to make their changes?" to "How do you rewrite?"

I am currently knee-deep in edits for my next novel, The Page Turner.

About a month ago, I received the editorial letter from my editor about the initial manuscript I had submitted. The letter was more like a novel itself: When I printed it out, there were six single-spaced pages of suggestions, big and small, huge and minute. I may have cried, I kid you not. I may have shut down for a few days. My agent may have reached out and asked if I were going to be okay, and I may not have replied at first because I honestly didn’t know. And then I pulled on my big boy panties and began to go through my editor’s notes over and over again.

This is always the make or break moment for a book.

Was my editor right with all of her suggested changes? Had I, to pardon the pun, “lost the plot” on the novel I was writing (my words here), and the messages I intended? Yes. Yes, she was. One hundred percent.

Me and Gary with my former editor, Laurie Chittenden, and my literary agent, Wendy Sherman, celebrating a book deal in New York City.