Excerpts from Writers Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know Excerpts from the Writers Tricks of the Trade book | Page 14

MORGAN ST. JAMES
tor, make sure they have experience in your genre and their style is
compatible with your style. Be leery if the agent who just loves your
work recommends a dear friend who is also a wonderful editor and
will polish the manuscript for thousands of dollars. Make sure to re-
search that editor’s credentials before signing a contract or shelling
out a deposit.
I heard one horror story at a writers’ critique group involving the
recommendation to such an editor. This author confided that alt-
hough the editor had no actual clients she could talk to, the woman
had been married to an award-winning author and therefore must
know how to edit and do a good job of it. That’s kind of like touch-
ing the hand of the maid who works for the cousin of a movie star.
Marriage is not a credential unless it means she was the editor for
her husband’s work. Yet the author relating this story was starry-
eyed and couldn’t wait to send off her manuscript and check.
Before my sister and I hired anyone, we had to agree upon the
choice. Both of us were totally in tune with our evaluator although
we never met her. The entire process was accomplished by email
because she lived on the East Coast, I lived in California and my sis-
ter lived in Alaska. The manuscript was rewritten with wonderful Jen
as our instructor. Rather than sending us chunks of rewritten mate-
rial she discussed problem areas, made suggestions, then asked us
to send her our rewrites. She even gave us reading assignments and
recommended how-to books. The lessons we learned shaped the
way we write today.
When our manuscript was completely edited, and we paid Jen the
last installment of her fee, we learned why we never had phone
conversations. Jen confided that she was deaf and could only work
online.
If you are lucky enough to get a personal message, even if the book
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