Great response, It IS hard for some people to communicate effectively – and that even includes some editors in trying to express what they did to a manuscript and why.

I do try to think of the client, too. A LOT of my clients are fairly new to the writing game, so they tell me up front, “I need a LOT of help!” As a result, I do more “teaching” style editing than I might to someone who has been around for a while, knows some things, and just want their manuscript cleaned up. I’ve never had a client make a comment about how I edit. In fact, I tend to get clients who come back and ask, “OK, you said THIS about this section of the story – what suggestions/ideas do you have?” or “Why did you say that?” because they are looking for explanation to understand.

For some who work for authors wanting to have their work professionally edited before it is submitted, or for those who work for companies owned and managed by someone else, the desired result of the editing process is at least somewhat dictated by entities other than the editor. I would think that the question of who is paying for the editing would impact upon the philosophy of the editor at least to some degree.

Since I edit for Black Velvet Seductions, a company that I founded and own, my philosophy of editing is one that I have developed over the years. Since the pieces that I edit are those which have been contracted for publication I see the people I work for as those who buy the books that we publish. I believe that my first responsibility is to those readers. When I edit I am making or suggesting the changes that I think I will improve the book and make it a stronger read for the reader.

That my first responsibility is to my readers doesn’t mean that I don’t also care about authors. For authors books are a labor of love and they usually have a strong feeling about what the theme is and what they want to communicate. I do not want to change an author’s message during the editing process. I want to show them how to make their message stronger, how to make it resonate more with their reader. For this reason most of the editing that I do is in helping authors to integrate deep point of view which works to make the experiences of the character as rich and multi-dimensional as possible so that they will resonate with the reader.

You sum up your philosophy as wanting to help writers become better at writing. That is a big part of my editing philosophy too. Much of what I do both in my editing chair and out of it is directed at helping authors become better at the writing craft.

I see the task of editing as one that is focused on two things, giving the reader the best book the author can create, and helping the writer to craft that book in the strongest way possible.

You mentioned seeing the editing process as a teaching opportunity as well. I know many editors simply make the changes when they edit. While I do make some small changes to punctuation and grammar, most of the time I make notes on the manuscript about ways that the author can make the story stronger. About 99% of these have to do with deep point of view and showing the character’s experiences through his or her perceptions of the events as they unfold.

I guess if I were to sum up my editing philosophy it would be that I seek to help authors create the strongest books they can, to create books that will allow the reader to share a vicarious experience through the characters. I also want to teach authors so that they gain an understanding of deep point of view and other aspects of the craft of writing so that they can integrate them into their own work.

Monica Marie Jones
Author
http://www.monicamariejones.com

If they argue with you, what do you tell them?

I don’t write books, but if I did, I’d want someone with your editing philosophy.