Getting editor etiquette

Hi, all

What're the 'good' ways to ask for an editor? Via the site form? Here? Another way?
- Are there practical or functional differences between the options?

Is it rude/weird/a waste of time/etc to request input from more than one editor?

If it's bad form to ask more than one, what would you consider a reasonable amount of time to wait before asking a second editor if the first one doesn't reply?

Assuming more'n one editor is an acceptable thing, what's the best way to address it?
- series [editor A gives feedback, then sent to editor B] o
- parallel [sent to both A&B simultaneously, get separate feedback from both]
- As a group [everyone sends comments to author and all editors, and debates/discussions about various points are welcome] ?

Thanks in advance from a newb

Volunteer editor

If you are wanting an editor the first thing you should do is tell what category the story will be submitted for, and what the word count is. Normally you should get one or more volunteering their services. It's up to you to see if they fit what you are after. I tell any author who seeks me out that I use Microsoft Word with "track changes" enabled so they can see an changes. I also tell them I edit for plot and character development plus flow, grammar, punctuation, spelling and consistency. I edit each story twice.

Thanks for the reply

I was hoping there might be generic rule of thumb type answers to these questions, my bad.

I’ve started an open ended fairly slow burn sf/f tale featuring themes from Arabic myth (genie, wishes, etc) titled, "Hinn". I have a frankly quite messy file containing background research, significant plot points, personalities & capabilities partially mapped out but not sure how many words between each plot point yet. I’m a dm with decades of experience running tabletop RPG games, and this approach is what I developed for that environment. A bit of an experiment to see how well the approach works for writing a story, rather than a game.

Currently posting updates at approx 1 to 2 lit pages in size, but willing to discuss changing that. The first 4 submissions are up on my profile, a fifth has been submitted and am ~20% into writing the 6th. I will likely not be able to maintain this current writing pace due to rl time issues, but that is tbd.

Have submitted edits on first 3 submissions to address numerous small issues from grammar to italic < i > formatting to character dialog consistency - one character does not use contractions, that kind of thing.

Currently writing in ms word docs but am used to juggling multiple formats as need be. A part of my rl job is tech writing & polishing group submissions.

Hope this is useful

Since you are a tech writer you should be aware that spellcheck does not tell the author if they are using the correct word but only that the word used is spelled correctly. For this reason I edit each story twice. I also read each story slowly in an effort to make sure I didn't miss something. I keep an old-fashion dictionary by my side when editing or writing so I can check to see if a word is to be hyphenated or two separate words or all one word.

Automatic spellcheckers and grammar checkers are useful, but you're quite correct that they aren't a silver bullet solution. A LOT better than nothing, but the human brain has no equivalent [yet] for handling the mess of rules that we call language.

I regularly use both of these types of checker - MS Word is pretty impressive, even as much as everyone likes to knock M$. I know that I make mistakes, plenty of them, and every little bit helps make certain I'm not confusing my audience TOO much. When editing I keep a browser open with many queriable tools bookmarked - dictionaries of many varieties, thesaurii, syllabaries, style guides, etc.

Writing prose, that same browser is open. I'm weird tho' that while writing poetry I much, much prefer pen and paper and no references. If I get absolutely stuck on just one word or phrase, I'll go dig out references, but for whatever reason that I don't fully comprehend, I feel more productive, authentic, something like that, when I use the minimum tech.

For all that, I'm no bard - my memory isn't anywhere near that good, pen and paper for the win!

Although I have not submitted my stories, when I wrote them I used pencil and paper before transferring then to Word. My intention was to finish what some would call chapter two but which could be considered a stand alone story. After editing for several years for various authors and reading the comments I found I did not like the way I opened the first chapter. I created a new opening but I've not put it down yet. I also gave more thought to what my editor said about explain things already in the story so I have more changes to make.

Obviously not having read them, I'll just note that sometimes, "the perfect is the enemy of the good enough"

Thanks for your replies, you've been quite helpful.

Tigersman said:

Since you are a tech writer you should be aware that spellcheck does not tell the author if they are using the correct word but only that the word used is spelled correctly.

Click to expand...

This is so true. Spellcheck only tells you if there is a word with that correct spelling, even if it's not the word you mean at all. That leads to grotesque things like

"He explained what we were looking for, and then lead us to the spot."

"He gave us free reign to pursue the case on our own." (Yes, we see it, but it's wrong. We editors even see "free rain" from time to time." Despair is never far away from us.)

I'm still looking for an editor. I'm at 65k words, 193 MS Word pages, and finishing the second day's activities in the story. As stated in the 3rd response on this thread, above, this is a modern fantasy setting with hidden magical creatures - starting with genies and the like of ancient Arabic myth but extending beyond that significantly. Thus far there are Celtic/Germanic, Slavic and Haitian mythoi involved and plans are in my head to bring more in.


This is based on and follows the pattern of a technothriller, in that the technology [or, in this case, the magic & myth] is as much a character as any of the humanoid bodies moving around in the text. There are sections explaining aspects and portions of the magic underlying various effects. I've successfully made these be dialogues between characters thus far, not wall-of-text info dumps.


I expect that the current crisis I'm writing will make a good end-of-novel point, with a second novel starting immediately after this point. I'd guess the novel will be in the 70-75k word range, around 200-210 MS Word pages of text.


I quite understand that's a lot. I'm charging ahead anyways, but would appreciate any editorial assistance I can get. I am using the MS Office spelling & grammar tools. I don't care what format I deliver the text as, it's all HTML <encoded> for copy/paste into the site without losing the rare bold or italic text. So if you prefer Office, OpenOffice, Google Docs, text, email, what-have-you I'll be glad to comply.

UsuallyPresent said:

Hi, all

What're the 'good' ways to ask for an editor? Via the site form? Here? Another way?
- Are there practical or functional differences between the options?

Click to expand...

The impression I have of trying to find an editor by going through the editors list is you are unlikely to meet with success but don’t let that put you off. I’ve been asked to edit and, by accident, I had someone editing for me. When I’ve been asked to edit it’s been because of what they consider to be constructive comments on their and others stories.

One alternative would be to leave comments on their stories you’ve read and liked and which you consider well written. Don’t just write you consider their story the best you’ve ever read but explain why you liked it. You may then discover if you decide to ask them to edit or proof read (there is a difference) they might agree. On the other hand you could just write to an author (obviously one better than yourself) who writes in the same category as yourself and ask them to look at one of your story for general advice.