2/25/24
The Editor and the Alpha Reader
This is number fifty-one in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“JUST GET IT DOWN on paper, and then we’ll see what to do with it.”
If you are a rapid writer like I am, that statement might be your byword. But this was Maxwell Perkins’ advice to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1919; it applies even if you are using a pencil and paper to capture your first draft. You see, Maxwell Perkins was an editor—possibly one of the most famous editors of all time. He started his career at Scribner’s in 1919 when he signed F. Scott Fitzgerald. No one else at Scribner’s wanted Fitzgerald’s book, The Romantic Egotist, but Perkins worked with Fitzgerald on rewriting the book until Scribner’s agreed to publish it as This Side of Paradise in 1920.
Perkins was of a breed of editor that is difficult to find and build a relationship with today. Most of the time these days, we are lucky to find a competent proofreader, let alone someone who actually understands how to get the most out of an author’s manuscript. After all, what are we willing to pay them?
And that doesn’t surprise me. Over 4 million new books were published in 2023. Of those, 2.3 million were self-published. The sheer volume of new titles spreads the number of editors pretty thinly across the landscape. There are around 74,500 editors “employed” in the United States.
“Would you like fries with that?”
The derogatory statement often applied to English majors implies there is no job market for them. The average wage of an employed editor is a little over $51,000. Those with a master’s degree earn substantially more, boosting the mean wage to over $71,000.
What do they do to earn their money?
I had the great good fortune to work with The Book Doctor, Jason Black, on several of my books over the years, including the series of Devon Layne’s “Erotic Paranormal Romance Western Adventures.” He even worked with me on the titles of the books.
I’d managed to title the first one Redtail, because the initial concept had been that the bird’s call would trigger the transfer of Cole from his present to the 1800s. But I hadn’t really planned out a series of books, so I had no idea what to call the second and third books when I started working on them. I considered one being titled Wapiti and having an elk’s bugle be the trigger. Another idea was Greywolf, with the howl of a wolf being the trigger.
“You know, Redtail isn’t just the name of a type of hawk,” Jason said. “It’s also descriptive of a characteristic of that bird. Instead of trying to think of another name of an animal, try thinking of a description that you can encapsulate into just as concise a word.”
I want to point out that he did not suggest the name. He pointed me in a direction that enabled me to arrive at the names, Blackfeather (a raven) and Yelloweye (an owl). That is certainly not the only way he helped me on the series, but it is exemplary of the kind of help a developmental editor can give.
It was that kind of story and character arc work that enabled me to create the Clitorides Award-winning Best Erotic Western Story of 2015 (Blackfeather) and 2017 (Yelloweye) available on Bookapy.
That type of editor is rare these days, especially when we ask them to work for free. I indicated there were 74,500 “employed” editors in the US. But we are looking for editors who will work for the same wage we do: nothing.
Instead, we attempt to substitute the Alpha Reader. This is a person (or people) who will read the first draft of a story (sometimes as it’s written) and respond to it with comments. I have several alpha readers, but only a couple give me useful feedback. The typical Alpha Reader is often reading your story because he already likes what you write and doesn’t really want to challenge you too much. If you have one or more alpha readers who will thoroughly and thoughtfully comment on the story line and the character development, you will have a treasure.
But since alpha readers are what we depend on for those all-important developmental edits, perhaps it would be a good idea to list out what is expected in alpha reader feedback.
First, we all love to have our egos stroked by the reader/friend who likes what we’ve written. “Nice work!” “Good chapter.” “Keep up the good work.” Those are all nice to have, but don’t advance our development of the story.
Second, alpha readers need to not be afraid to constructively criticize. Yes, constructively. None of us need to hear “This sucks.” We need statements like, “It’s hard to believe this character would do this. I don’t see the motivation.” “We seem to have jumped an awful long way without a transition here. I was lost for several paragraphs.” “Everything seems too easy for the hero. There’s no excuse for him/her to fail. Steal his shoes!”
Of course, as authors, we need to be willing to accept criticism as well as we do praise. Responding to the criticism with the statement, “You obviously don’t understand the point of the story,” only puts down the attempt to help and will result in the reader backing off in his criticism. If you truly believe the reader doesn’t understand the point, then perhaps you should work on making the point more understandable!
Third, the alpha reader should be aware of and point out obstacles and barriers. “I couldn’t keep track of who was speaking in this section of dialog. I got the characters switched.” “I can’t tell if this section is supposed to be a flashback or a dream or if it’s really happening now.” “The names are all so similar (Carl, Karla, Karlene, and Carol) that I forget who is who. They all sound the same.”
Finally, it’s important for the alpha reader to understand he or she is not the author. “You should have Carl get in trouble with Karla and Karlene will find out and break up with Carl right before he meets Carol.” Sure, that might be one storyline that could be pursued, but it may not be the story the author is writing. The author is the author. The reader is not.
I would be remiss if I did not remind you that when you read a story that has been published, for example on SOL, you are not an alpha reader. It’s not that describing your response to the work is inappropriate. We usually love to hear the comments of readers and even engage with them. But the work isn’t going to change at that point. It’s been published, perhaps as an eBook or even paperback in addition to the serial you are reading. Think in terms of providing feedback that will help the author in his or her next book.
You probably thought this was going to be about proofreading and sentence structure. That is another level of editing and I’ll talk about line editors and proofreaders next week in, “That’s Not What I Meant!”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
