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Three top LA editors discuss
“How to Work with an Editor” and the many benefits
of a great editor/writer relationship.
FROM KATHLEEN KAISER
Every writer needs an editor. Period.
I learned this in my teens while working for a music magazine, and it has been true throughout my career as a writer.
And every potential author needs one even more.
Why? Because if you have spent the last few months, years, or as long as a decade writing a book, it means you are often too close to see any inconsistencies, for example:
- Did you change a location or a minor character’s name nine months ago but missed changing it in a chapter?
- Have you expanded the story to get more pages, not realizing you have weighed down half of your book with too much SHOW and not enough TELL?
- Is your first chapter really where the story begins, or are the first two or three chapters just set up for the real story opening in chapter four?
- Are all your characters living, breathing beings, or are secondary characters merely two-dimensional?
These problems and many more can be resolved by working with a professional editor who can identify and supply the level of editing that your manuscript requires: developmental editing, content editing, line editing, or copy editing.
This month I am very happy to announce that we have three members of the Los Angeles Editors and Writers Group to discuss the best ways to work with an editor and how to select one who’s right for you.
About the speakers
Jenna Rose Robbins is a writer and editor who has ghostwritten more than 12 books, including two New York Times bestsellers. Her memoir, Faithful and Devoted: Confessions of a Music Addict, was a finalist for the BookLife Prize (the independent-publishing division of Publishers Weekly) and the winner in its genre. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Jenna went on to receive her Master’s of Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. When she’s not getting eyestrain at her computer, Jenna can generally be found trying to avoid emergency rooms around the world.
Deborah A. Lott is a writer, editor, college instructor, and a former chair of IWOSC. Her essays and creative nonfiction have been published widely and her recent memoir, Don’t Go Crazy Without Me, has been acclaimed by author colleagues including Mark Doty, Abigail Thomas, Paul Lisicky, Karen E. Bender, and Hope Edelman, among others. Her earlier book, In Session: The Bond Between Women and Their Therapists, received wide praise for its unprecedented look at boundary and transference dilemmas in psychotherapy. She teaches creative writing and literature courses at Antioch University in Los Angeles, and over the past twenty years has helped her author clients to develop, write, edit, and publish all manner of print and multimedia. Her clients include authors, agents, publishers, scholars, physicians, medical centers, universities, corporations, and nonprofits.
Monica Faulkner PhD is an editor, writing coach, publishing consultant (and longtime IWOSC member) who turns writers into successful authors. A former journalist, she edited physician Ramon Resa’s acclaimed book Out of the Fields: My Journey from Farmworker Boy to Pediatrician, which was made into a film, and international business guru Ari Galper’s trust-based “anti-sales” program Unlock the Sales Game. She offers guidance and support to writers of fiction and nonfiction clients throughout the writing process, from initial manuscript evaluations through developmental editing, one-on-one coaching, copy editing, and submitting to agents and publishers. Her editorial services include links to design, production, and marketing professionals for authors who wish to self-publish.