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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Feedback and Editing: The Right Eyes at the Right Time

September 15, 2022 by LISA POISSO - Resident Writing Coach

Unless you wrote your book exclusively for your own satisfaction, once your creative vision is on the page, it’s time to zoom in on how the book works for readers. The key is getting the right kind of feedback for where you are in the revision and editing process—and dodging the kind that will pull you off track.

Much of this choice hinges on your editorial budget. You could do most or all these steps for yourself at no cost, but the quality of your book will reflect the quality of the production behind it. Most writers end up drawing on both free and paid feedback options.

Let’s make sure you’re leaning on the right options at the right time.

Writing Feedback: Stage by Stage

With a newly complete manuscript

Volunteer feedback is perfect at this stage of your book’s development. One or two alpha readers (often a spouse, critique partner, or close friend) provide that initial gut check on what’s hitting home and what’s missing the target.

During second and later drafts

As you continue working through early drafts, crowdsourced feedback continues to be your best bet. Lean on your peers in critique partners and groups, collecting enough opinions to sort out which point to genuine issues and which simply refer to personal taste.

Active drafting can be an opportunity for coaching or mentoring on story problems identified by critique buddies—a character arc that refuses to gel, saggy pacing, a general lack of zing—if your budget and time comfortably allow it. A little one-on-one help from a pro now could prevent you from filling your manuscript with pernicious errors that will inflate your editing rate down the line. (Incorrect use of dialogue tags and action beats, I’m looking at you!)

Before you’re ready for professional editing

Once you sense you’re nearing the limits of your ability to improve your book on your own, it’s time to bring in beta readers. Beta readers provide high-level, subjective, personal feedback such as “the pacing felt slow in the middle” or “I just didn’t like that character at all.”

Although paying for beta reading ensures the readers will finish the book and return feedback, it’s not necessary to hire a pro. In fact (unpopular opinion ahead), an editor is the wrong choice for beta reading. The reason is simple: Beta reading is not Editing Lite™. It’s designed to generate genuine reader reaction, not analysis from a trained professional.

When you’re ready for professional editing

When you’re ready for professional editing, marching in with a request for a particular type or level of editing puts you at risk of getting precisely what you ask for—whether your manuscript needs it or not. It would be like relying on Dr. Google to diagnose a physical ailment, then convincing a local doctor to prescribe strictly the medications and treatments you’ve decided you need.

Choose your editor with care. You deserve a specialist who resonates with you and your work, not whoever offers the lowest rates and immediate availability.

Once you’ve found the perfect editorial collaborator, let them recommend what your manuscript needs. Their recommendations should be based on what will best support your story, your writing, and your publishing goals. If your editor hasn’t reviewed all those points, you can’t be sure you’ll get what you need.

Between edits

Another popular point for beta reading is in between edits. For example, betas can check whether the revisions you made after a developmental edit satisfy the needs the edit identified.

Don’t use beta readers beyond the point at which you’re willing to make big-picture changes. Once the story is settled, it’s time to move forward into editing.

Before you query

Raw talent shouldn’t mean raw material, and having your manuscript edited before you query agents and publishers helps you get your foot in the door.

“Our agency consistently see proposals that are okay, but simply not written at a level that is needed to break into the market,” writes literary agent Steve Laube. “Agents are not freelance editors so there is only so much we are willing to do to fix a project. I have said it this way, ‘If I get something that is 90% ready, I can take it the rest of the way. But if it is only 80% ready I will kick it back to the writer with a rejection. We are looking for the best of the best.’”

Agents are not there to provide you with free editing. In The Shit No One Tells You About Writing (season 2, episode 1), literary agent Cece Lyra advises writers not to expect feedback from an agent until “your writing is so, so good to the point that your agent is actually ready to sell it, then he’ll give you editorial feedback. … Your agent’s job is to sell your work. You need to have other sources of feedback too.”

Authors like Bianca Marais (The Witches of Moonshine Manor) seek out professional help before sending their manuscripts to agents. “I think as writers, we need to get into the habit of seeking out the expertise that we want, and that means paying for it,” she notes in The Shit No One Tells You About Writing (season 2, episode 1), “but it makes the agent’s job that much easier to be able to sell the work because the work is so much more polished and professional at that time.”

Before you self-publish

Self-publishing your work means assuming the responsibility for producing a professional-quality product—and that means paying for professional-caliber editing.

A developmental editor will help you master and refine the principles of story structure, genre, and storytelling technique. Your need for this level of editing may diminish as you master the craft, but you can’t afford to launch your writing career with limp storytelling.

And when it’s time for line editing and copyediting, your friend the English teacher can tell you if you have a problem with dangling participles, but they probably haven’t the foggiest about publishing industry standards for fiction style and punctuation. Get a professional copyedit.

Proofreading could be a suitable time to loop in friends and family who’ve promised to help. Vet their recommendations carefully—their knowledge of current grammar and usage or publishing industry standards will not always be on target—and be clear that you’re asking for help identifying typos and objective errors. Collate and compare volunteer findings, then get a professional editor or proofreader to review the results. You may be able to get this done as part of your editing follow-up or at an extremely low rate.

Keep Hold of the Creative Reins

Finally, follow these three guidelines for incorporating feedback into your work at any stage.

1. Don’t seek creative feedback from anyone you wouldn’t entrust with molding your book’s creative vision.

2. Take responsibility for learning your craft. “The conscious writer listens to everyone, tries everything, but follows no one; they are their own guru,” advises story development consultant Jeff Lyons. “(The conscious writer) takes responsibility for their failures as well as their successes and knows that they, not some fortune cookie, are the only ones who can solve their writing problems—and they love that responsibility.”

3. Don’t get sucked into an endless feedback loop. Gather constructive input, make your decisions and revisions, and move on to the next novel. You want a writing career filled with books, don’t you?

Onward!

LISA POISSO - Resident Writing Coach

Lisa Poisso specializes in working with new and emerging authors. As a classically trained dancer, her approach to coaching and editing is grounded in form and technique as the doorway to freedom of movement on the page. Writers have referred to her Plot Accelerator/Story Incubator coaching as an indispensable “pre-edit in a bottle.” Find Lisa (and her industrious team of #45mphcouchpotato retired greyhounds) at LisaPoisso.com, and hop over to her Linktree to get her newsletter, download a free Manuscript Prep guide, and more.

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Filed Under: Critiquing & Critiques, Editing Tips, Reader Feedback, Resident Writing Coach, Revision and Editing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hrvey Stanbrough says

    September 16, 2022 at 8:13 am

    “Unless you wrote your book exclusively for your own satisfaction, once your creative vision is on the page, it’s time to zoom in on how the book works for readers.” I guess I’d have to ask “how the book works for which readers?” Is any reader’s opinion more valid than the opinions of other readers?

    • Lisa Poisso says

      September 21, 2022 at 9:33 am

      No book is for everyone, and there will always be a variety of opinions about even award-winning, bestselling titles. My two-star book may be someone else’s five-star—and that doesn’t mean the book is “bad.”

      When you’re seeking specific feedback, as I noted about beta reading, the idea is to get enough views that you can spot patterns. It’s the difference between overall impact and personal preference.

  2. MINDY ALYSE WEISS says

    September 15, 2022 at 6:10 pm

    Thanks for sharing such helpful advice, Lisa! I’ve always run manuscripts through critique partners before paying for a professional critique. But I’ve seen so many new writers try to head straight for paid critiques, when they’ll get so much more for their money if they can clean up their manuscript first so the editor can dive in deeper.

    • Lisa Poisso says

      September 21, 2022 at 9:36 am

      It really does make such a difference on the editorial side. It’s always painfully obvious when someone sends in a 1.5 draft that they got tired of working on. Your time is definitely noted and valued!

  3. Raymond Walker says

    September 15, 2022 at 1:26 pm

    Good article and “to the point” lol though you did not mention “turning three times widdershins” to make the book a success. Perhaps that is a good thing. Thanks for the sensible advice.

    • Lisa Poisso says

      September 21, 2022 at 9:37 am

      If it works for you … 🙂

      Thanks for reading!

  4. Kay DiBianca says

    September 15, 2022 at 1:24 pm

    Excellent advice, Lisa. I love this statement: “The conscious writer listens to everyone, tries everything, but follows no one; they are their own guru.” Such wisdom.

    I have one question: I ask critique partners to review the first couple of chapters of a ms to see if I’m getting the voice of the characters right. When I get maybe 25K written, I’ll send it to my developmental editor to see if she thinks the plot is working. I can continue or make changes based on their feedback. Does that sound like a reasonable approach to you?

    • Lisa Poisso says

      September 21, 2022 at 9:43 am

      Jeff Lyons’s advice is brilliant, right?

      Your approach sounds reasonable if you’re a discovery writer. In terms of looking for initial plot structure, engagement of conflict dynamics, and so on, you could get the same results from an outline review before you put in all the writing time. It’s no guarantee that the written manuscript will pull that off, but as a gut check, it could offer a quicker, less expensive alternative.

  5. Angela Ackerman says

    September 15, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    Such great guidance here. WE all know writers are on a budget and this is a great blueprint for what they can do to lessen their costs and focus their dollars on the right help and the right time for the book!

  6. Linda says

    September 15, 2022 at 9:19 am

    Thank you. This is a great help.

    • Lisa Poisso says

      September 15, 2022 at 11:46 am

      I walk through this process with writers all the time, so I’m glad to have the chance to get the info out nice and early. Thanks for reading, Linda!

      • Linda says

        September 15, 2022 at 12:23 pm

        Hi Lisa,
        I’m a new writer and I’m surprised at the amount of information available and the many options. I self published my first
        children’s book and now I know I should have researched the process further before signing with a self publisher.
        I think my book is almost ready to go to a publisher. It is hard to know when to take that step. It will happen, I am sure of it.
        Thanks,

        • Lisa Poisso says

          September 21, 2022 at 9:45 am

          When you start hearing the same feedback over and over, you’ll know you’re “done.” Good luck!

  7. BECCA PUGLISI says

    September 15, 2022 at 8:53 am

    So much great information here, Lisa. Thanks for sharing insights from the inside of the process :).

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