As an author, you’ve probably been there: you’ve written a story that you’re proud of and that your writing group or test readers liked. You send it out on a call to subs. You wait with fingers crossed, for four, eight, twelve weeks. And then you get a form rejection.
You send it out again. And get another rejection.
And another one.
And another one. And … you get the idea.
The rejections say something like “sorry, your story is not for us at this time.” They are invariably friendly and polite, and utterly unhelpful as to why the story is being rejected.
Was the one story that was accepted before a fluke, and my writing sucks after all? Or am I just at the wrong place at the wrong time? At my stage of the writing journey, I suspected it was more of the latter.[1] I’ve been writing both fiction (for fun) and non-fiction (for work) for more than two decades now, so I should have achieved most of the quick wins of writing improvement by now. (I hope.) Especially since I’m not afraid to put my work out there for others to read and give feedback on, and I do listen to feedback.
How can I really know which it is? It was time to ask a professional, someone who regularly works with more advanced writers and helps them lift their work to the next level. Something local, face-to-face was not going to work for someone who lives in rural France and writes in English. So I looked at online courses first. But even the Masterclasses of this world, while interesting, didn’t really provide feedback, or have a low teacher-to-student ratio. No, it would have to be an actual editor, even if that would cost me a penny.
Just as I was mulling how to go about finding the right one for me, serendipity struck: my favorite writing podcast, Writing Excuses, had an episode about hiring an editor! The guest, Callie Stoker, spoke to me on several levels, personally and professionally, so I reached out to see whether she would work with me. And she agreed to take me on as a client!
For the next three months, Callie took a look at a cross-section of my writing to pinpoint the weaknesses. We started with the query material for “A Basquet of Cats”, i.e. the query letter itself, the synopsis and the first three chapters, all those things an agent wants to see. Next, some short stories and the beginning of my next novel. By this point, I already knew two important things. First, no, my writing doesn’t suck. Second, there was a clear area of improvement: character voice. Too often, my sentences were statements of fact, instead of infused with how the character sees the world. It was a revelation!
So for the third month, I revised the starting section of Basquet, the chapters Callie had already seen, along these lines [2], and we went over the new version again. And lo and behold, I had nailed it this time! I now had a blueprint on how to look at all my stories with fresh eyes, especially Basquet. And after the revision, the book is now better.
Bottom line: my answer to the question in the title is a clear “yes”. For someone like me, at my stage in the writing journey, yes, much yes. Are there cons? Well, the service is not for free, but I wouldn’t list that as a con; after all, value has its price, and this was high value.
Unfortunately, I still get rejections. Because the best editor can’t protect you from being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Notes:
[1] And, to be fair, some calls have several hundred subs for a dozen or less slots. There are many damn good writers out there.
[2] It was actually only for one of the three PoV chars, but he’s the MC and has about 40% of the story.