It often pains authors to have to shoehorn themselves into a category or genre. It seems like an unfair constraint cooked up in some foreboding tower by a cackling publisher, who maniacally decreed one day that authors everywhere must sort themselves into groups before being allowed to enter the gates.

And sure, if you’ve let an original idea guide you rather than setting out to write in a particular genre, you may end up with a book that combines a little of this and a little of that until you find yourself with a vampiric unicorn novel set in a technologically advanced future, leaving you with absolutely no idea whether it’s fantasy, paranormal, science fiction, or horror. I saw many projects when I was an agent that felt like genre alphabet soup.

But it’s crucial to know where either a novel or a nonfiction book will sit on the shelf (or virtual shelf) before seeking either traditional or self-publication, and it’s helpful to figure this out relatively early in the process.

In this post I’m going to cover:

• What are categories and genres?
• Why you need to know your genre
• The bookstore test
• It’s important to understand the expectations of your genre
• How to find your genre
• Even if you mix genres, be firmly planted in one

What are categories and genres?

Three important words for your book publishing glossary: category, genre, and sub-genre. These overlap, but refer to slightly different concepts.

Categories are top-level buckets that determine where a book gets shelved at the bookstore. Think: Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Picture Books, etc. If you’re talking about where your book will sit on a bookstore shelf, you’re probably talking about category.

Genres are a sub-classification within a category that gets more specific about the style and flavor of the book. Think: Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Self-Help, etc.

There are also sub-genres that get even more narrow, like Cozy Mysteries as a subset of Mystery/Crime; genre-agnostic stylistic sub-genres like Dark Academia, which can be applied to Literary Fiction, Mysteries, and Science Fiction; and market-oriented sub-genres like Upmarket, which connotes a degree of literary merit and a particular audience, but can be applied across different genres.

You must know your genre above all. If you simply say your book is a “Coming of Age” story, that’s not helpful to an agent because that could mean categories ranging from Middle Grade to YA to Adult and any number of genres from Historical Fiction to Science Fiction and everything in between.

Yes, of course, not all books slot neatly and tidily into a specific genre, and it’s okay to straddle genres to a point (more on this in a bit). But you still must know where your book falls on the book publishing rainbow.

Here’s why.

Why you need to know your genre

If you pursue traditional publishing, you need to know your genre for several important reasons:

• Literary agents and publishers specialize. In order to find a suitable literary agent (and later on a suitable publisher), you need to approach an agent who will accept projects like yours. When you are researching literary agents, knowing your genre will help narrow down the agents who might be a fit. As you move through the publishing process, agents will then target editors at particular publishing houses, who in turn have sales and marketing teams that are all oriented around knowing their area of specialty. And those tend to be highly calibrated to particular genres.
  
• Agents expect you to treat the publishing process like the business it is. One of the most crucial ways of conveying professionalism is knowing where your book fits into the marketplace. You should know (and ideally have read) your competition and know who your potential readers will be, knowledge that’s crucial when it comes time to market your book.

You must list your genre in your query letter. Full stop.

But that’s not all.

The bookstore test

It’s not just agents and publishers who care about genre, and this matters for self-publishing too. Because you know who else cares?

Readers.

Walk into a bookstore. You’ll see that sections are arranged by category, and some genres as well. Go to Amazon or BN.com. The sections are arranged by categories, and there are search mechanisms for genres and sub-genres. If you self-publish, you’re going to need to name your BISAC categories and have correct metadata.

These sections don’t exist as a means to torture authors. They exist because readers often know what they are looking for ahead of time and are browsing for something in particular. They are looking for genres.

Whether you go the traditional route or self-publish, your book will be very specifically categorized. And it’s best to know this in advance.

It’s important to understand the expectations of your genre

Readers have expectations, particularly ones who focus on a favorite genre. For instance, there are optimal word count bands for different genres.

These word count rules aren’t ironclad, and it’s okay if a book is long or short (to a point), but if you write in a genre with more particular standards for length and plot contrivances (such as Science Fiction or Romance), it is rather helpful to know these ahead of time. Romance in particular has a whole slew of subcategories and organizational rules that you should research heavily before you start.

And there are big differences in subject matter and sensibility between, say, Middle Grade (books for 8-12-year-olds) and Young Adult (12-18-year-olds), which are now increasingly shelved differently in bookstores.

Even if you’re planning to bend some genre rules and break new ground, it helps to know the genre conventions, and thus your reader’s expectations, ahead of time, so that you can break these rules to maximum effect.

Perhaps the greatest example of convention-breaking is George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. Martin knew the High Fantasy genre backwards and forwards, which for decades had been dominated by hero stories and redemptive plotlines, such as a dishonored knight who saves his realm, or a young boy who finds out he has secret powers and defeats the evil bad guy.

Martin took those conventions, upended them, shocked his readers, and then he did it again. And again. And again. It was quite thrilling. But you have to know these conventions in order to break them.

How to find your genre

Don’t know your genre? Well, that’s probably due to one of these reasons:

• You aren’t reading enough. Just want to write a book without worrying about what else is out there? No one’s stopping you! But when it comes time to pursue publication, you need to be reading the competition.
• You haven’t done your research. It really only takes an hour or two of dedicated research to identify your genre and some helpful comp titles published in the last 5 years. Here’s how to do it.
• You’re unwilling to be categorized. Some authors I’ve worked with are simply allergic to being pigeonholed and don’t even want to try to narrow themselves down. But unless you have invented a genre whole cloth (which, to be fair, really does happen once in a while, most recently with LitRPG), your book can be categorized.

Just remember: Your book is going onto a particular bookshelf and will be marketed to specific readers, whether you like it or not. Might as well just go ahead and figure out which ones.

Even if you mix genres, be firmly planted in one

It’s totally fine to blur genres, and many successful novels do this, but even if you do some mixing, it’s extremely helpful to have a base.

You can have a Fantasy novel with Science Fiction elements or a Literary novel that utilizes a Horror plot, but whatever approach you choose should fit squarely in one genre even if it branches into another. This way, it will not only rest comfortably on the right shelf in the bookstore, but it will also be easier to market the book to the hardcore readers of a particular genre. These readers will be the evangelists who will help spread the word to a broader audience.

So yes, it’s not romantic to be forced to think about genres and genre conventions before you’ve really gotten going, but a bit of thought and preparation will help save you from the heartache and the time-consuming revisions that stem from writing a book without a natural home.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Art: The Virgin with the Unicorn by Domenichino

This week! Books!

First up, one of the results of the survey from a few weeks back was that people wanted me to post on social media more consistently. Consider it done! I’ve established a regular posting cadence sharing new advice and greatest hits on Threads, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, and would you believe it even LinkedIn and Twitter. Follow me wherever your heart desires.

Also, if you’re at Comic-Con in San Diego this weekend, I’m moderating a panel tomorrow called From Idea to Page to Screen with some terrific publishing and film industry experts. Come say hi!

Now then, on to the links.

Anthropic Settlement Update: Final Settlement Approved – Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware – The $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic over book piracy has been approved by a judge. The agreement should result in a payout per book of a little over $3,000. Since books under contract will likely be split with the publisher, this is a windfall for publishers most of all.

The Book Banning Bill That Won’t Die – Ron Charles – An abhorrent book banning bill that would be a national scandal in another era stands a reasonable chance of passing and, eventually, being upheld by the ultraconservative Supreme Court. It purports to prevent “sexually oriented material” in schools, a definition that, naturally, includes “lascivious dancing” and relies on a list of approved literature from Compass Classroom, a publisher for evangelical Christian homeschoolers that of course just happens to be devoid of any Black, Latino, Asian, or Indigenous authors. The house is on fire, everyone…

Dua Lipa’s Freedom-to-Read Crusade (gift link) – Sophia Nguyen, The Atlantic – Meanwhile, fighting the good fight is pop star Dua Lipa with her new Porto library featuring banned books, and drawing attention to the cause.

Is This What a Post-Literate Era Looks Like? – David Wallace-Wells, New York Times / Stop Saying Kids Can’t Read – Megan Greenwell, Wired – The only thing more predictable than an every-few-years moral panic about how no one (especially the kids) is reading anymore is the backlash-to-the-backlash that looks at the numbers and says actually the data doesn’t really justify the panic. Americans spend only a few minutes less reading compared to twenty years ago, older Americans are driving the decline, and reading comprehension is rising in places like Mississippi.

Is ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ phony or still cool? 6 writers reflect on its legacy at 75 – Adam Messinger, Los Angeles Times – Catcher in the Rye turned 75, and writers weigh in on its legacy. Me? Not the biggest fan…

Katie Porter Is Pivoting From Politics to Bookstagram – Olivia Craighead, The Cut – Politician Katie Porter, last seen struggling to gain traction in a campaign for governor of California, is pivoting to becoming a book influencer. Is it just me or do more people want to be book influencers than authors these days?

Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Makes Homer and the Classics Hot Again (gift link) – Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg – An upstart epic poem called The Odyssey is popular these days.

7 Habits of Successful Writers – Robert Lee Brewer, Writers Digest – Some great reminders by Robert Lee Brewer about what successful writers have in common.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. Ransom by Daniel Silva
2. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
3. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
4. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
5. Project Hail Mary by Andrew Weir

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
2. The Day After by Brian Tyler Cohen
3. Strangers by Belle Burden
4. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
5. A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

Young adult hardcover:

1. Ruinous Ends by I.V. Marie
2. Us Deadly Few by Alexis Patton
3. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
4. If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin
5. The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Refugee by Alan Gratz
3. Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate
4. Growing Home by Beth Ferry
5. Sleepless by Gordon Korman

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• A.I. litmus tests are counterproductive

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Threads, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter

And finally:

Some commentators deride artificial intelligence as little more than glorified autocorrect. Meanwhile, one of OpenAI’s frontier models figured out how to escape a computer with no internet access and hack an outside A.I. platform to solve a test problem. This would have felt like science fiction a few years ago:

Have a great weekend!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Photo: The Huntington, San Marino, CA. Follow me on Instagram!

Over the weekend on Threads, the social media site where writers go to experience collective freak-outs, the main character of the day was a literary agent who, in short order, both complained about A.I. slop in query letters and said A.I. can be useful for researching comp titles.

I don’t want to link directly to the ensuing uproar lest I unfairly single anyone out, but my synthesis of the tidal wave of responses:

How DARE an agent ADMIT TO USING A.I. which is an EXISTENTIAL RISK TO EVERYTHING HOLY.

I would NEVER want an agent who USES A.I.

THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE A.I. USE IS NO A.I. USE

On Threads, not exactly the place for nuance, it apparently can’t be true simultaneously that 1) A.I. slop writing is bad, and 2) A.I. can be useful sometimes, particularly for things like comp titles.

I’m sure we can all agree that slop is bad. I’m not defending slop. But good luck policing A.I. use among authors (and agents, for that matter).

I may be sticking my finger in the light socket today, but I must admit that I believe the stridency and red lines some authors are drawing around A.I. to be extremely counterproductive.

Yes, a lot about A.I. is bad

Look, I’m not personally a fan of our increasingly authoritarian and creepy tech oligarchy. I’m deeply unnerved by where things are headed. There are tons of great arguments that nearly everything about A.I. is quite bad indeed:

• Generative A.I. is the product of colossal theft. Because of the quirks of copyright law, book authors are actually uniquely positioned to profit at least somewhat from the grand theft the tech companies perpetrated to produce these chatbots. But nearly everything ever written on the internet got hoovered up, meaning A.I. chatbots exist due to the unpaid labor of nearly everyone. We should all own a stake in these companies.
• Environmental concerns are real. When massive data centers aren’t raising power costs for local communities, they’re often being powered by their own gas-burning sources. As the effects of climate change are everywhere, there’s a risk that this hyper-scaling is being done in a way that will be even more destructive to the environment than our inadequate current path.
• A.I. is destroying the open web. Sites like this one exist because Google historically drove traffic to sites like mine so people could find the information they needed. Now people stay in the closed loop of Gemini, meaning they might get my advice regurgitated to them without knowing I even exist. Which is quite bad for my business and the future of this site.
• A.I. is bad for human creativity. There are quite a few things A.I. is good at. At least right now, creativity is not one of those things. While it can be coaxed into producing some useful utilitarian stuff, it’s not good at generating creativity, and it’s not good at editing. We risk a great dumbing down and cheapening of art by leaning on A.I. crutches to produce stories.

I’m not a tech overlord fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. I am sympathetic to everyone who wants to resist all of this.

I just don’t think the best way to resist, or to adapt to the world that’s coming, is to thrust one’s head in the sand and draw unrealistic red lines.

The A.I. era is here whether we like it or not

A big reason red lines against A.I. are untenable: the line between simply using the internet, using your phone, and using A.I. is increasingly blurry, and it’s only going to get blurrier.

“I don’t want an agent who uses A.I…” The premise of the statement is going to feel increasingly bewildering.

Where, exactly, is someone meant to draw a red line against A.I. use?

Sure, right now you can turn off Apple Intelligence and you can use non-A.I. alternatives to Google and you can eschew ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, but A.I. is going to increasingly be interwoven with our basic interactions with the internet and our phones. The new version of iOS coming in the fall is going to put A.I. front and center. Everywhere you turn, A.I. integrations are going to greet you (and pander to you).

Yes, this is being crammed down our throats without widespread support. Yes, the resulting gagging feeling is unpleasant.

But trying to escape A.I. at this point is like trying to live off of the electrical grid. Theoretically possible, but necessitating an entire reorientation of your lifestyle.

Maybe more importantly, I would want my agent to be deeply familiar with A.I.

The best guard against slop is being familiar with what A.I. writing sounds like

A.I. detection tools aren’t an exact science, and some studies have shown that Black, neurodiverse, and non-English writers are more likely to be unjustly flagged.

There’s unlikely to be a knight in shining armor that any agent, publisher, or competition judge can employ to draw the line against A.I.-assisted stories.

So don’t try. Just judge books on their merits.

But how are agents supposed to detect A.I. slop writing if they’re not “allowed” by authors to use A.I.?

The “tells” when it comes to A.I. writing abound, not least the pervasive “it’s not X, it’s Y” frame, which has been surprisingly difficult for the A.I. overlords to eradicate. A.I. is also fond of nonsensical metaphors, aimless stage direction, and awkwardly placed em dashes.

I want my agent to be familiarizing herself with what A.I. can and can’t do.

And if she wants to refine our list of comp titles by running my plot description through Claude? I just don’t think that search is going to be the difference between paradise and the apocalypse…

So how do you fight back?

I understand people are angry at the direction the country is headed, they feel ripped off that a handful of tech companies are raking in billions on the backs of our collective labor, and it doesn’t feel like any of us have had a say in the direction all this is going. Our current leaders are too busy insider trading and running crypto scams to do anything to help broader society. I’m certainly anxious about the shift away from the open web and what it means for this site and community.

And look, if you’re angry about all of this and feel compelled to call out practices you don’t like, who am I to stop you? I’m not trying to silence anyone’s voice.

Still, I personally think writers should consider spending less time playing the enforcement game, and more time playing the “support the world you want to see” game. (And I’m reminding myself of that today as much as I’m reminding anyone else.)

Litmus tests get lost in the slippery slope. Red lines get drowned. Internet freak-outs, even justified ones, nearly always overshoot the “crime.”

There’s more we can affirmatively do to build a better world in the face of all of this.

Don’t like how Amazon is positively drowning in A.I. slop books? Buy your books at your local bookstore, or at Bookshop.org if you don’t have one of those.

Boost your favorite human authors. Instead of plugging your novel or query into Claude, find a human editor. Support politicians fighting for equality and slowing down climate change.

Shouting at a literary agent online because she tested out Gemini for comp titles is just not the way. There are so many things we can do every day to build a better world rather than shaking our fists at tsunamis.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Art: Detail of Louis Pasteur by Albert Edelfelt

This week! Books!

Publishers, Authors File Class Action Lawsuit Against Google – Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly / Book publishers sue Google for copyright infringement over Gemini AI training – Emma Loffhagen, The Guardian – Hachette, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier, along with author Scott Turow, have launched a class action lawsuit arguing that Google illegally repurposed books from Google Books and Google Scholar to train A.I. Pay me, Google!

The Most Famous AI Writing Tic Is Also the Most Mysterious – Will Oremus, The Atlantic – A deep dive in the “why does A.I. write like that” genre, tackling the most notorious A.I. speech tic of all: “It’s not X, it’s Y.” As with much of A.I., no one quite seems to know why it happens, and it’s surprisingly difficult to get chatbots to stop doing it.

I Got Slopped – Kashmir Hill, New York Times – Someone used A.I. to sell a fake biography of Kashmir Hill on Amazon. The “author” refused to talk to her, so she found a different A.I. slop artist, who’s quite a character.

Tomi Adeyemi Doesn’t Want Anything to Do With The Children of Blood and Bone Movie – Alejandra Gularte, Vulture – In the wake of controversies surrounding the adaptation of The Children of Blood and Bone, author Tomi Adeyemi has disavowed the film.

Labor of Love: On Editing and the Rewards of Collaborative Effort – Samantha Paige Rosen, Lit Hub – Writing is usually solitary, but some of its most rewarding moments come when collaboration kicks in.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
2. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
3. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
4. Project Hail Mary by Andrew Weir
5. Whistler by Ann Patchett

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
2. Revolution by Eric Metaxas
3. Strangers by Belle Burden
4. Cancel Me If You Can by Dave Portnoy
5. Communion by JD Vance

Young adult hardcover:

1. The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss
2. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
3. If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin
4. Release Me by Tahereh Mafi
5. The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Refugee by Alan Gratz
3. Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate
4. Sleepless by Gordon Korman
5. Unsettling Salad! by Aaron Reynolds

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• How to find the best freelance book editor for you, and what it’s like working with one

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Bluesky and Threads

And finally:

The Disappearing Las Vegas Buffets Hold a Mirror to the American Soul – Tejal Rao, New York Times – Have we reached the twilight of a once-grand tradition?

Have a great weekend!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Photo: The Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA. Follow me on Instagram!

Whether you’re pursuing traditional publishing or self-publishing, it’s crucial to enter the process with the best novel or proposal you can possibly write.

Here’s how to find the best book editor for you, and what to do once you’ve found one. In this post I’m going to cover:

• What is a book editor?
• The difference between editing and ghostwriting
• Do you need a book editor?
• When is the best time to work with a book editor?
• How to find a book editor
• How to respond to an editorial letter

What is a book editor?

The book editing landscape can be a bit confusing for beginning writers because there are several different types of editors out there.

Here’s how to tell them apart:

• Book editor at a traditional publishing house – Once you have a book deal, you’ll work with a book editor at a publishing house. The editor will manage your book throughout the publishing process, including editing your work. But before you find a literary agent or submit to publishers directly, this isn’t the editor you need to be looking for.

• Freelance book editor – This is someone you pay to work with you on your manuscript before you pursue traditional or self-publishing to improve the structure and content of your novel or book proposal. Freelance book editors’ credentials vary widely, but many of them are past publishing professionals who have gone freelance.

• Copyeditor – This is a magical grammar nerd who will help you spot typos and inconsistencies. You should definitely engage a copyeditor or proofreader before you self-publish, but if you are pursuing traditional publishing you do not need one. It’s totally fine to submit to literary agents and publishers with some typos in your manuscript (within reason).

There are many different ways of working with a freelance book editor, everything from general coaching and brainstorming to comprehensive book editing.

Book edits largely fall into two broad categories (terminology varies throughout the business).

• Manuscript critique – An editor will read the manuscript and write you a 3-7 page (or more) editorial letter with their thoughts on areas for improvement. This is a more high level edit and is useful if you want to gut check your book.

• Comprehensive edit – In addition to an editorial letter, a comprehensive edit will also include line edits and margin notes, so you’ll get feedback on both a macro and micro level. This is useful if you want a very thorough edit and/or to improve your craft.

Because they take significantly more time to complete, a comprehensive edit will cost more than a critique.

Once a freelance editor completes your edit, they will often hop on a call to discuss the feedback and answer your questions.

The difference between editing, ghostwriting, and book doctoring

Book editors will take what you’ve written and help you make it better, but they won’t write for you. So if, say, you’re looking for someone to take your ideas and completely rewrite scenes or flesh out a novel based on an outline, you’re not looking for an editor, you’re looking for a ghostwriter.

Ghostwriters write the book for you, in whole or part.

Terminology varies, but “book doctors” are a bit in between editors and ghostwriters. Depending on the state of the manuscript, a book doctor may get into the nitty gritty of rewriting some scenes, but the focus is typically still on helping writers make their book better rather than completely writing it for them.

Make sure you’re very clear on what you’re looking for and that you’re searching for someone with the right skillset and services.

For instance, I perform book edits, but I don’t ghostwrite or do book doctoring, as I’d rather help authors figure out how to get better on their own rather than fully fixing their books for them.

Do you need a book editor?

If you are pursuing either traditional publishing or self-publishing, it is absolutely crucial to get feedback on your work.

While some literary agents will work with authors on revisions prior to submission, your book must be as good as possible to even reach that stage. You can’t rely on an agent seeing the diamond in the rough. You need good feedback to revise your book to make it as good as possible before you submit.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a paid editor.

Good feedback can come from many sources, whether that’s a friend, a fellow writer, or a critique group. Not only that, your beta readers can be a support system as you move through the process.

That said, there are some definite advantages to working with a paid editor.

These include:

• A paid editor is more likely to give your book a thorough read – When someone is reading your book for free, they may have a tendency to skim or not give you a full-fledged edit. Assuming you’ve chosen an editor well, you’ll get what you pay for.

• It’s helpful to have a pro’s view – Particularly if your editor has past publishing industry experience, they will be able to see things that can only come with that kind of experience. It’s extremely helpful to have a sense of how a literary agent or book editor will view your work.

• The feedback is more likely to be objective – No matter how well-intentioned your friends and family may be, their view will inevitably be shaded by the fact that they know you and may want to spare your feelings. A professional editor will have some helpful distance for more objective feedback.

Still on the fence? Here’s a complete post on what to consider when you’re contemplating paying for editing. But for me? I’ve paid for editing (or bartered for it) for every single one of my books.

When is the best time to work with an editor?

Although it’s tempting to seek feedback when you’re in the messy middle of writing a book or when you’ve just finished a hot mess of a first draft, those aren’t the optimal times to seek feedback.

The ideal time to work with an editor is when you have a fully polished draft or book proposal and have gotten as far as you can on your own.

Why? If you know there are issues with your book, an editor is going to spend half their energy telling you what you already know. If, however, you think you have a perfect draft, the editor will focus entirely on the things you can’t see, or else you would have fixed them already.

That’s far more helpful and where real growth comes from.

How to find a book editor

There are tons and tons of editors out there and many of them, frankly, don’t know what they’re doing. Here’s how to find a good book editor.

The most important thing to do as you’re searching should be obvious: do your research.

Check an editor’s credentials and vet them thoroughly. There are many wonderful freelance editors out there who have worked for major publishing houses/literary agencies and have a wealth of experience.

Here are some places I do and don’t recommend searching for editors:

• Reach out to me! – I’m a former literary agent and a published author, I’ve edited bestselling authors, and I really love helping writers improve their work. I’m happy to help edit your work or point you in the right direction. Don’t take my word for it: “Nathan Bransford is amazing to work with and provides incredibly detailed insights. I highly recommend reaching out to him if you’re serious about your work.” – Raadhika Madala

• New York Book Editors – This is a service run by a friend of mine that connects authors with editors who have a minimum level of previous publishing experience at major publishers and/or literary agencies. You will definitely find someone reputable, and they care about quality control.

• Reedsy – DO NOT RECOMMEND. This is a database of freelance professionals. I no longer recommend this site as I don’t believe their policies are in the best interests of authors as well as the freelance professionals on their platform.
  
• Independent Book Editors List – A Google Doc full of wonderful editors with previous traditional publishing experience.

• SCBWI – If you’re a children’s book author, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is a great organization to subscribe to, and they have a list of reputable freelance editors in their Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.

An important consideration as you’re searching is cost. As with everything in life, you will largely get what you pay for. Depending on the length of your manuscript, expect an edit for a full novel to cost at least $1,500. For very experienced and in-demand editors, fees can easily reach five figures on a comprehensive edit for a long novel, so be prepared.

Some editors offer free sample edits, but many (including me) do not. You’re welcome to ask, but just because someone doesn’t offer a sample edit doesn’t mean they’re disreputable.

Don’t spend any money you can’t afford to lose, because working with a paid editor is no guarantee by any means of finding publication, but also don’t just look for a bargain basement edit. Try to strike a balance between an editor’s cost and experience level that you are comfortable with.

How to work with an editor

Before you start working with a freelance book editor, here’s a checklist to make sure you’re ready:

• Get in touch with your goals – Do you plan to publish traditionally or self-publish? Are you hoping to gut check your novel or are you looking to improve your craft? Get in touch with what you want and need from an edit and make sure to communicate these to your editor.

• Make sure your manuscript is formatted properly – An editor is going to want to receive your manuscript in the industry standard format. Format your work properly (and while you’re at it, get in the habit of writing that way so you don’t have to spend hours re-formatting when you’re done).

• Self-edit as much as you can before the edit – You’ll get the most out of your edit if you have already self-edited to make your book as good as you can possibly make it before you engage with an editor. They will see things you never saw coming and will help you make your book even better.

• Be prepared to do the work – No matter how much you want your editor to shout, “Your book is PERFECT don’t change a THING!” this is a) not going to happen and b) not remotely helpful. You are going to have work to do after you work with an editor, and it may be extensive. That’s why you’re paying them. Mentally prepare.

Depending on the length of your project, expect an edit to take anywhere from a week to several months, and make sure the editor is clear on the timeline before you move forward.

Most reputable freelance editors also have contracts and payment structures, so be prepared to read through an agreement. These agreements typically give editors sufficient rights to engage with your work to perform the edit, but make sure you’re retaining all other rights.

How to utilize line edits, margin notes, and an editorial letter

Depending on the type of edit you sign up for, you may receive your manuscript back with margin notes and/or line edits, as well as an editorial letter that synthesizes the feedback. This means that you need to be conversant enough with Microsoft Word to engage with documents with tracked changes.

Line edits can be overwhelming to engage with because a full edit may result in thousands upon thousands of changes. How I recommend authors engage with line edits is to first create a “clean” version of the manuscript with all of the changes accepted, and just read it through a few times to see how it flows.

From there, you can go back and accept or reject individual changes, but keep the clean version of the manuscript handy for reference.

If you have a good freelance editor, the feedback you receive may not be the most pleasant to hear, but it will be useful.

Receiving feedback can be a bit overwhelming and it’s hard to know where to even start when you’re confronted with that multi-page editorial letter and those thousands of line edits.

Here’s an approach that can help:

• How to respond to a manuscript critique

Once you’ve incorporated all of the feedback from your edit, I’d highly recommend seeking another round of feedback and then incorporating those changes. That can either be another round with a paid editor if you can swing it financially, or a critique partner.

But before you move forward to query agents or toward self-publication, it’s crucial to gut check your work to make sure you’re really finished. It pays to be as polished as possible prior to seeking publication. Don’t count on an agent to polish your diamond in the rough.

So that’s how to find a book editor. Do you have any tips or tricks? Anything I missed? Take to the comments!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Art: The Parable of the Rich Fool by Rembrandt