Edits Oh My

I recently completed the edits for my upcoming book, Beautiful Dreamer. It wasn’t my first edit, but it’s been a long time since my last one. These edits were actually very easy and painless and the editor was very kind and gracious. Whew. What a relief. Edits can be daunting and frustrating especially when the editor doesn’t seem to “get” your book. You work hard to make sure you’ve put the necessary background information, an explanation of the characters motivation, the reasons for certain behavior and actions, but now someone is telling you they don’t make sense or they’re not clear or sometimes, downright wrong.

            I had an editor tell me to change “cut the muster” which is correct, to “cut the mustard” because that’s what most readers thought it was. Eek.
            So what do you do? Go with the flow. No one ever wrote me about the “muster/mustard thing so in the end I guess it didn’t make a big difference. On the other side, my acceptance of the editor’s suggestion earned me an “easy to work with” notation in her files. A win/win situation.
            I’m not good with the grammar side of things so I normally bow to the editors skill in that area. Small changes in sentence structure, repetitive phrases and the like, I accept the suggestions offered. This time I only stood my ground on one issue but I’m not sure I’ll win out. We’ll see when the book is released if the city is spelled St. Augustine (my choice) or Saint Augustine (editors choice).
            In the long run it probably doesn’t matter. What matters is my book will be out there and God willing will touch someone’s life in a positive way no matter how St. Augustine is spelled. That’s the ultimate goal after all.