What Editors Want
Increase your chances of publication and/or polish your writing
As you possibly already know (and if you didn’t, you will in a second), I have my fingers in a lot of pies. One of which is editing. This is part of what I do for a living, both on a freelance basis and for a small press. I work with all kinds of fiction in varying lengths, and have done for some time, so hopefully you’ll find something here to help you impress editors, whatever it is you’re writing. Or, if you’re looking to self-publish, something to help you improve and tighten your work.
As well as often having the say on whether a piece is accepted for publication or not, editors are there to polish your work until it really shines. But if you want to endear yourself to an editor, make your work and your name memorable to them (for positive reasons), and have them genuinely enjoy working with you, then make their lives as easy as possible. It’ll make yours easier, too.
Scary Times
When you send your work off somewhere for consideration for publication, it’s a scary time. But you just have to learn to let go and get on with other stuff, and try not to stress about it. After you’ve read this article, though, hopefully you’ll be a little less concerned, because you’ll be armed with more information on how to make your work the best it can possibly be, and increase your chances of publication.
Things to Watch
If you’re submitting to a themed anthology or call for submissions—stick to the theme. This probably sounds like an utterly ridiculous thing to say, but trust me, it isn’t. In the past, I’ve had to turn down fantastic stories, purely because they didn’t fit in with what had been asked for.
Think outside the box. This is a great way of making sure you and your story stand out. You’ll also increase your chances of publication if your story isn’t the same or too similar to dozens of others.
Read the requirements. This may sound a little bit like I’m repeating my first point, but I’m not. Every editor and publishing house is different, and they’ll all have different requirements. Make sure you know what they are, and exactly what they’re looking for. The last thing you want is to get an instant rejection from someone for something you could have easily avoided. This can be anything from double spacing, indents, quotation marks—learn how to use Microsoft Word or Open Office properly—they are your friend! Save guidelines. Read them before you start your story, read them as you’re writing it, then read them again before you submit. Follow them to the letter—editors and publishers are busy people, and if you’ve sent a story that isn’t formatted how they’ve asked for it, they may just reject it outright. If you’re not sure of something, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Most people would rather help you get something right first time, than have to fix it later.
Changing point of view. Personally, in a short story up to something around five or six thousand words, I don’t think it’s needed at all. Just write your story from one perspective, and make sure you don’t head hop. But if you’re desperate to write in more than one point of view, make sure it’s not too often—maybe half a page in each head. Not a paragraph each, and certainly not a sentence each! It’s not needed—if you really want to get the other person’s POV across, have them do or say something that shows this. In a longer piece of work, a long short story onwards, then you can play around with this more. Personally, I don’t tend to switch POVs within a chapter—I’ll write one chapter from a single POV, then the next from another. Just be strict with yourself, because head hopping is a big no-no and is a lot of work to correct—making it likely an editor or publisher would turn you down because it would be too labour intensive to sort out.
Repetition. It’s something we’re all guilty of, every single one of us. Whether it’s phrases we use a lot, gestures characters make or words we overuse—teach yourself to keep it to a minimum. A good way of doing this, which I borrowed from a friend a long time ago and continues to be useful, is to keep a notebook nearby when you’re writing. If you spot you’re overusing a word or phrase, add it to the book. That means you can refer back to the book when you’re polishing your drafts and do a check for those words and phrases, and ditch or change them if necessary. Also, you’ll find your brain is trained over time not to use them as much, because you’re more aware of it.
A form of repetition, but not quite the same as above. Don’t start too many sentences or paragraphs with the same word—i.e. he, she, I, they. Any word. What this does is interrupts the flow of a story—it’s easier to spot if you read your work out loud. It’s also pretty easy to fix—you can rejig the format of a sentence or use other words. You don’t have to get rid of every instance of this, but try to keep it to a bare minimum, especially in the same paragraphs and pages.
Last but not least—don’t put two spaces between sentences. This was something that used to be done back in the early days of word processing, but is no longer necessary, and is just a pain in the rear. So please don’t do it, or if you have, please go back and fix this (replace function in Word is good for this). While you’re at it, make sure there are no stray spaces before or after sentences or paragraphs (you should be using paragraph formatting for indents, not the ‘tab’ or ‘space’ key). This probably won’t prevent you getting published, but it will endear you to an editor, especially if they have to fix formatting before submitting a manuscript to a publisher. Submitting a nice, tidy manuscript will get your name remembered for all the right reasons.
This is just a little overview of some things I’ve seen frequently during my years of editing. I’ll be creating more articles in future, some more in depth and with examples, so please do consider subscribing to be kept up to date.
Also, please do share this article with folks you think will find it useful.
Happy Writing!
Lucy x