Everyone has read a book. Everyone has picked up a book, turned it over, held it in their hands. The book, however, wouldn’t be there without the writer. The writer created it out of nothing but ideas. Neither would it be there without the editor and publisher. The editor took the story from the writer and smoothed out the blemishes and mistakes until it was perfect for the reader, and then the publisher took the story from the writer and put it onto paper and got it into the reader’s hands. This is why publishers and editors are important. Without them, there would be no books.
For most people, the process involved in the publication of a book may appear rather dull. They don’t need to know how the book came to be in their hands. For writers, the opposite is true. An understanding of and ability to navigate through the editing and publishing process is essential to getting their books out into readers’ hands, which is the ultimate goal.
The process starts when a writer has a finished manuscript. She has planned and sketched and written and revised and edited herself. She has a solid copy, something she can be proud of, something that she’s willing to show to other people. This is when she makes her first choice, between traditional publishing methods or self-publishers. Should she choose self-publishing, there are still many different choices that she must make along the way concerning publicity, self and peer editing and, of course, which publisher to choose. But self-publishing is relatively new and fairly straight-forward process. Let us assume that our writer chooses traditional publishing.
Her next choice is whether to hire an agent or not. Some smaller publishers will work directly with a writer. For a new writer, this might be the best course to take. Finding an agent who will accept a new writer is as tricky as finding a publishing house to do the same. Agents are of more help to established authors wanting to negotiate a better deal with their publishers. We shall say that our writer does not choose to find an agent but instead sends her manuscripts directly to the publishers that she has chosen. The one thing that all writers have in common is having their work rejected. Publishing companies must reject a majority of the work they receive as they weed out the weak and badly-written pieces and decide which ones they want to publish. It may take several tries, but eventually, our writer’s manuscript is accepted by a publisher. The editing process has already started.
The first editor to handle any piece of work is the acquisition editor. This editor chooses the pieces that the publishing houses accept. He choose the pieces based on audience, relevance, skill of the author, and many other elements of the piece. This editor does not change the piece in any way, simply makes sure that it is what it is supposed to be. Once the acquisition editor has chosen a piece, it goes to the development editor.
The development editor reads the piece and begins to decide what is good and what is bad in the piece. She must know how the piece fits in with the audience’s interests and what should change or could be improved to better fit the demands of the audience. The development editor sits down with the author of the piece and has a discussion about what should change, and together they decide how the piece will be changed and improved. The author then gets her piece back to make those changes. When she is finished with her new and improved manuscript, it is next taken to the line editor.
The line editor is in charge of structure, grammar, fluency, voice. Like the title implies, he will read the piece and go over it line by line. He will help the author reword and rewrite the parts that need it. He will make sure that there are no inconsistencies with the voice, and no distracting or awkward language to interrupt the fluency of a piece. He will work with the author to make changes directly to the writing. When the author has made the changes that she needs to, and the line editor is satisfied with the piece, it will then be given to the copy editor.
The copy editor deals with the language used. He makes sure that the language used is correct and, more importantly in some cases, consistent. When it is needed, the copy editor checks the facts in the manuscript to make sure they are correct. He also formats the manuscript so that it is in the correct form to be published.
When the copy editor is done with the manuscript, it is ready to be published. The publishing house will print, market and sell the book. Someone will see it somewhere in a bookstore and will pick it up and buy it and take it home to read. The process is complete.
~Jill P.
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