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Name the title of this book. Bet you will be surprised.

The manuscript was submitted to Alfred Knopf, one of America’s esteemed publishers. He dismissed it as “Very dull. A typical record of family bickering, petty annoyances and adolescent emotions.” Several months later the work ended up in a pile of unsolicited manuscripts in the Paris office of a Doubleday editor. As the editor left for lunch he waved to his assistant and told her to reject them all. A smart young lady, she wisely ignored him, began reading one of the submissions, could not put it down and when the editor returned, told him,
“You must read this one.” He did. Doubleday published it. Aside from the Bible, which has been around a little bit longer, it became the most successful book ever published.

And the answer is…..The Diary of Anne Frank..

So what can an editor do for you? (Would note, I have edited hundreds of books and with one exception never met an author who did not need one.) No editor turns a book into a bestseller. But he or she can make a difference between publication –on occasion amazing things can happen—and oblivion.

For one, almost by definition you are too close to what you have written
whether it is a work of the imagination or one based on research, interviews and reporting. A good editor has an experienced eye and can be objective about your book.An experienced editor has spent years thinking about why and what makes a book work from its structure and characters to its execution. He or she possesses valuable knowledge that can help make your book publishable.

A good editor has a sense of the market place and can help shape your book so it will find an audience.

And because a good editor gives a damn, you and the editor will have one enormously meaningful thing in common. Both will be passionately committed to your manuscript which means you and the editor can speak honestly and candidly to each other. That is a very special relationship that we do not often have.

Finally, the editorial process is the equivalent of a one-on-one tutorial similar to the tutorials given at Oxford. You would be surprised about how much you can learn.

My favorite story concerns an editor who pursued a recalcitrant Dorothy Parker while she was on her honeymoon. Ms. Parker wired back, “Too effing busy and vice versa.”

Sorry to say I was not that editor.

Hillel Black, Free lance editor

hillwen@aol.com
212 734 8407

120 East 81 Street
New York, NY 10028
212 734 6407