Friends With Benefits Final Edit: Due April 11

I'm sitting here looking at the 69,876 word in an 82,753 manuscript, and I have six days to make sure that each word in this manuscript is perfect. I have to double check that names are consistent within the story, that there are transitions where there should be transitions, and that the story makes logical sense. I'm doing all of this while trying to stay within the parameters set forth by my editor, who has meticulously gone through my manuscript, line by line, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, and completely blasted anything she felt was wrong or awful. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm in the midst of final edit.

Writing fiction is a bit different for me than writing non-fiction. For one, my two non-fiction books were 150,000 words and 125,000 words respectively. That's a LOT of time writing, but I like doing it because it means a lot of consolidating research and interviews into coherent pages. That's fun for me. Fiction is different in that for the most part, it is a shorter form. For the type of fiction I'm writing, 90,000 words is plenty. Oh, by the way, I think in terms of words when I talk about size of manuscripts. You could tell me that your manuscript is 300 pages on MS Word, and I wouldn't have an idea about how large your manuscript truly was. But tell me it is 78,876 words, and I'll know you probably have a 250 page book on your hands. It comes from working in both magazines and newspapers (where some writers think in column inches, but that's another story) where you tend to get paid by the word, or editors assign stories by the word.

"Go to the opening of the Culver City Home Depot and write me a 500 word on its impact on traffic in the area."

See? Okay, that's done. Now let me explain a little bit about the process of publishing. When your agent turns in your manuscript to an editor, you wait. When an editor decides to buy your manuscript, you wait. When the editor finishes reading your manuscript, you wait. When you finish with the final draft, you wait. You wait a lot in this industry, and you have to get used to it, or you won't be able to survive.

On that note, my wonderful editor Karen Thomas of Kensington Books, told me that I would receive my editorial notes for Friends With Benefits in September 2004. I got them March 2005. Now this is not because Karen was slacking, the sister was simply swamped with manuscripts that are all on a publishing schedule. My manuscript was simply low on the totem pole since it's not scheduled for publication until September 2005. So I waited.

Now, what are editorial notes? Editorial notes are notes your editor sends you, telling you how crappy this line, this paragraph, and this storyline is, all the while as she tries to keep your ego intact by saying you really are a good writer. Here are some of the comments from my editors notes for Friends With Benefits: corny, don't get the joke, check your tenses!, unrealistic, man him up, too much crying, stop with the first person!, etc. After reading all of this, it is my job to fix the problems in the manuscript (in thirty-seven days!), so that the manuscript can make it to bound galleys in time. It is a LOT of pressure.

The first week I received my editors notes, I just stared at my manuscript. I actually hadn't read it in about six months, so I had to re-read my own story to familiarize myself with what I'd wrote. When you do that, you see errors that are glaring. But strangely, instead of depressing you, the errors and the editors notes provide motivation to get the manuscript right. So for the past thirty days, I've been working diligently on fixing things that were wrong, and adding things that are right. It's a necessary, but anal process, but what results is a more polished book on your local shelves, and a more satisfied reader in the end.