WHAT I DO



 A writer who has worked with me on two books and several shorter works describes the service I provide this way: "One-stop-shopping in an increasingly specialized field; you're good at the whole process, not just editing, or agenting questions, or negotiations." I like to think he’s right, but there is a degree of specialization in what I do. I concentrate on the development of my clients’ work, from early on. That almost always produces better results than coming in later and trying out fixes.

The big obstacle hit by most projects when they go out to the market is simple: they’re not ready. Novel, memoir, screenplay, collection of stories, biography, essay—whatever the intention, the vast majority of written work gets passed over by buyers or those who can get material to buyers primarily because it’s still undeveloped. At the critical point of submission to those professionals, a book or script can be less then perfect, or even unfinished, but it has to be complete by one measure: the ability to get its reader involved.
The developmental editor's responsibility is helping the writer achieve that. I have to start by seeing what the project is—the story it tells, the argument it makes, or the course of instruction it promotes. The aims of any piece of writing are visible in aspects from the big-picture stuff—structure, strategies of narration or argument, author’s or narrator’s voice—down to word choice and sentence construction.

Once the writer and I share a clear idea about the work’s aims, we’re able to figure out its real potential. We’re also ready to decide whether writer and editor have compatible views on how the work should be developed.
When a writer and I do our jobs right, and emerge confident the work can speak for itself in the market, my role expands to helping get the work read, understood, agented, lawyered, bought, promoted, publicized, and adapted.