Beyond The Slushpile Part 2 – Featuring editor Jessica A. Weiss

So, my second, and final guest, is editor Jessica A. Weiss. She’s also taken some time out of her busy schedule to grace my blog with her presence. I hope that this will give you a bit of a glimpse into the life of your every day editor and what they endure for us writers.

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I found it! Now what do I do?
Jessica A. Weiss

1 a.m.

I’ve been reading through email after email of submissions and though there have been many good ones, I’m searching for a great one. With blood-shot eyes, I click open the next attachment and with a
few short words, I am hooked! I have found my great story, I can’t stop reading. I excitedly send the author an acceptance, a contract, a thank you, and fall into bed feeling buoyant.

The Next Morning

Now that I’m fully rested, I reread the wonderful piece of fiction that hit me like a double-shot espresso and realize it really needs some work.
By work I mean spell check, punctuation, end of sentence prepositions, spaces between paragraphs, different styles of em dashes, and the dreaded double-spaces. These are all common errors in every story (I even find them in my own work.) and not deal breakers. After all, the story was good enough to tune the editor-in-me off and take the reader-in-me on a memorable journey.

The Next Week

As I run through my checklist of common editing mistakes, I come across things like here instead of her and the main characters eye color keeps changing from blue to brown and back to blue. These are things my nifty Microsoft Office 2007 can not do automatically. Now it is time for line-by-line edits. It is also time to go to my real world job, so I hit print, grab the pages, a red pen, and head out the door.
I carry the hard copy with me to lunch, doctors and vet appointments, and even to bed (it is more comfortable than my desk chair). After three or four reads, I make all the changes on the computer document. I’m still not done.

Is This The End?

I’ve formatted the entire document, burned it to a CD, and shipped it to be typeset and hopefully off to the printer. This is not the end, though. I still have to read and approve the final book draft.
By now my great story has become a part of me and isn’t as exciting. (Sorry, but once you’ve read the same thing five or ten times you can read it in your sleep and you’re tired of seeing it.)

The Book Arrives

It feels great to hold a labor of love in my hands. I nearly cry as I open the beautiful cover and read over the copyright page and table of contents. I don’t read anymore than that, I know every word, dash, scene break, and dramatic pause. I place it on my proud bookshelf and let out a sigh of relief—It Is Over.
And on to the next project to find that great story….

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I know how you feel, Jessica. I’ve been in that same situation before–with eyes so bloodshot that you can think about nothing but sleep, yet you have to press on. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to write this.