My first round edits came back for FIRE IN THE WOODS, which has been contracted with a three-month deadline to publication. I took a deep breath, knowing that the completed edits were due back in FIVE DAYS.
I was pretty surprised, though. This is the content edit phase, and they asked for very few changes. In one spot, they thought the father should have reacted more quickly. I fixed this simply by editing the dialog a smidge.
The next thing they said, which made me sweat a little, was that they didn’t buy the reason why my MC was afraid of another character. So I thought this over, and realized they were right when they said it felt like a forced conflict. I really hadn’t developed that secondary character at all. He was too flat, and had no history.
So I thought over why she might be afraid of him, and gave him a 100 word history based on a strategically placed inner thought/flashback. I have to admit, this little change really gave both the MC and the secondary character depth.
Another thing I had to fix was a product of the multiple revisions this manuscript has seen over time. Jess comes to a conclusion about “what’s going on” with no reason for it. After thinking it over, she had a very good reason to come to this conclusion. The problem was, I never let the reader in as to HOW she came to this conclusion. Again, an easy fix with a simple inner thought right before she comes to that little epiphany that drives the story onward.
The other changes were simple. A missing word here or there.
Then I hit the OMG part. And I will admit, this was totally MY DOING. In the spirit of always keeping my posts short, I’ll tell you all about it in my next segment. This is something I usually check for. I don’t even know how I missed it.
Contact information. No matter who you are sending your work to or how many times you have sent them work before, you always—let me repeat that—ALWAYS include your full contact information in the upper left hand of the page. (The editor could be your brother, and you should still follow this rule, if nothing else but because it is common courtesy and shows you respect the relationship between hopeful author and potential publisher.)
legal name, mailing address, email address, and optionally, phone number. I can’t tell you how many times I have received manuscripts without this information. Usually from an author I’ve worked with before, but not always. See, we fall into a trap of informality thanks to the internet. With so many manuscripts being submitted electronically we don’t always consider that the email might become disassociated with the manuscript file, thus leaving the publisher no way to contact the author. Bad enough when what is forthcoming is a rejection. An absolute tragedy when they want to send you an acceptance. Face it…they have to know where to send the contract…or the check!
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One can write many, many, many first books. First of a series. First of a trilogy. First of a set of books in some set of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. These are still all ‘firsts’, no matter how many you’ve written.
Jennifer M Eaton 