Inkslinger Editing LLC

What a developmental editor does...

A developmental editor does just what the name suggests--she helps develop a written project.  Every manuscript has unique strengths and unique problems.  A developmental editor identifies these and helps a writer come up with a revision program that enhances the strengths and solves the problems.  While many readily-available books offer excellent general advice on the art of writing and the business of publishing, the eccentricities of every manuscript demand a more tailored approach.  When agents regularly received 250-500 queries every day or week, a fiction or nonfiction manuscript needs to be better than very well written or a fresh take on an exciting subject.  Manuscripts--and their pitches--need to be exceptional.  It is more than worth your time and resources to get the opinion of a devoted developmental editor before pitching your project to agents and editors.  At the very least, it will give you ease of mind that your manuscript is ready to face the steely gaze of publishing.  At the very most, the experience will generate new ideas to take your narrative, argument, and prose to another level.

I tailor my advice to resolve issues specific to the manuscript before me.  I treat every project as a fresh challenge while also bringing eight years of experience to bear on it.  I see my job most simply as presenting options.  This might include advice on the following issues:

• Making sure the pitch and the manuscript work as a team

• Adjusting narrative point of view so that individual scenes are easier to follow and the manuscript is unified

• Shifting how nonfiction arguments open and develop
  

• Identifying a more exciting opening for a narrative and keeping the narrative engaging from beginning to end

• Compressing characters and managing their internal voice
  

• Changing passages of telling prose to showing prose

• Presenting theme through action

• Presenting character motivation and development more powerfully through action
  

• Reworking the ending

 

How to get the most out of the writer-editor relationship... The Initial Evaluation

When beginning to work with a writer, I encourage discussing your current project and your goals as a writer with me.  This can happen over the phone or over the email.  This conversation can be as free-form or as polished as you wish, but I'm looking for answers or insight into these areas:

• What's the story or argument concisely?

• Where will your book be located in a bookstore?  What's its genre or category?

• What's unique about your angle, characters, or plot within your genre/category?

• What expertise on the subject matter do you bring to the project?  Is this as a voracious reader of fantasy or mainstream women's fiction?  As a restorer of antique furniture?  As a collector of indigenous textiles?  As a blogger with a devoted following?  Expertise can mean almost anything.

Once I have the answers to these questions, I can begin to work on your manuscript. 

 

For FICTION and MEMOIR, the first thing I want to do is an INITIAL EVALUATION. 

It is important for an editor to know the strengths and weaknesses of a book before deciding how--and if--to edit it.  For the author, it is equally important to know how an editor understands and interprets the work, as this influences comments and suggestions for revision.  I readily acknowledge: Not every editor is a fit for every manuscript.  

For an Initial Evaluation, I require submission of the entire manuscript.  By reading the manuscript from beginning to end, I can properly judge the development of lines of tension, characters, and themes.  After examining the manuscript, I send back 3-4 pages of substantive comments.  I identify structural and/or technical problems that affect the work overall and explain how I will address these concerns through editing.

There is a fee for an initial evaluation: $1.50/500 words. Manuscript should be formatted in the standard way acceptable for agent submissions:

• Microsoft Word .doc/.docx

• Times New Roman or Courier fonts, pt. 12

• double-spaced text

• no extra lines between paragraphs, each paragraph indented .5"

• chapter breaks indicated with page breaks

• title page with contact information and word count
  

I mean for the initial evaluation to provide enough commentary for you to begin revising.  You will come away with a direction to consider and to implement.  A number of writers first pursued revision based on the initial evaluation, then returned with a fresh draft for more detailed editing.

Contact me for further discussion.

 

For NONFICTION PROPOSALS, the first thing I want to do is an INITIAL STUDY.

Proposals are the typical method for shopping and selling a nonfiction project in today's market.  Memoirs can be submitted as either completed or incomplete projects--but everything else is generally taken under representation and sold before an author finishes writing.  This has a fabulous benefit: Not only does the author know the book has found a home, but often an advance accompanies the contract, thereby funding the project.

The length of proposals varies depending on subject matter, complexity of book structure, and the publishing profile of the author, running anywhere from 15 to 100 pages.  Proposals typically include: Summary/Overview, Chapter Summaries, Sample Chapters, Marketing, and Author Credentials.

The most important aspect of a proposal is to establish what makes your "take" unique.  How does it fill a notable gap?

Examining a proposal--or the material to shape into a proposal--takes time.  Despite the brevity of the proposal, I need to research the marketplace.  If your angle needs adjusting--you and I need to know this before any thoughts about shaping and editing can be entertained.

The Initial Study, therefore, examines the quality of the proposal materials and researches the marketplace (as delineated by your proposal, but which includes books, journals, and the internet).  I will send back 3-4 pages of comments and suggestions for reshaping, rewriting, and polishing the piece.  At that point, we can discuss possible editing options now or in the future.

The cost of an Initial Study of a Nonfiction Proposal depends on the complexity of the proposal and the amount of research to be executed.

Contact me for further discussion.