Guest Blog - Editing Process Q&A - Dale S Rogers

Our next Guest author is Dale S Rogers, author of Christian Romantic Suspense and Children's book. She's had an interesting journey on with her editing experience with publishers. 

A  South Carolina native, Dale currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and three cats. With several family members involved in writing, Dale soon found herself drifting in that direction, eventually joining her high school newspaper staff. Continuing her interest in writing after graduating from Anderson College and the University of South Carolina, she penned articles and stories, as well as poetry, eventually starting a novel. Since then, she has written two novels for teens and adults. She also loves music and dance, and has participated in several musicals and even one movie.

Do you send a proposal before a book is accepted? Do you send in an outline first and get that okayed or do you go straight to the full draft?  

The guidelines for publishers who don’t require agents vary. Some want the entire manuscript, while others might want the first three chapters or just a query. The important thing is to follow their instructions properly. (This applies to agents as well.)

Do you do several drafts before you send it to the publisher for editing, or do you just send the first draft?

It takes several drafts before a manuscript is ready to send to a publisher. It’s a good idea to have someone else read it first, so you can get an idea of how others view your work. Even then, the editor will find things to change.

How many times do you go back and forth (on average). Does it vary with the publisher or with the story?

When my novel, Lighthouse on Tortola, was edited by someone at the publishing house, I added my comments and suggestions, then they took it from there. But when my publisher worked on Orange Snow, my picture book, they wanted it to be from a certain perspective, so we went back and forth two or three times.  

What kind of changes/suggestions do they make? are they just minor ones or are they major? (any examples?)

There was nothing major with my novel, but they didn’t understand a couple of situations, so I made them more clear. My editor also made some suggestions concerning punctuation, which I didn’t always agree with. My picture book editor wanted the book to have “a treasure,” which I had to work toward, then she added some children’s activities relating to the story.

Does it go through various stages, like developmental, copy editing and then proofing? Or is it straight into copy and proofing? Or again, does that vary on book and publisher?

In both cases, after I sent my final draft, the publisher sent me the galleys, which are pretty close to the final version. Even then, I found some errors, and that was the last time I had any real input before the books came out.

What would you say best practice is in regard to accepting/rejecting edits. Is there always a discussion, or do you feel you have to accept all/some of them? 

It’s important to respect the editing the publisher does, but I sometimes find changes I disagree with. I try to be polite and explain my reason for not liking their suggestion.

Do you find it hard to embrace the suggestions/changes given? 

Sometimes I do. I didn’t feel all of the suggestions made for my picture book were necessary, but I knew the publishers had a particular vision for the line of books they were putting mine in.

Thanks so much for joining.

Dale recently released Lighthouse on Tortola, a romantic adventure which concerns  a photojournalist on assignment in the Caribbean, and Orange Snow, a picture book about a young girl’s imagination and a blustery fall day. They’re both available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

A debut novel filled with suspense as Photojournalist Andra seeks to clear an innocent person’s name and find evidence against a wealthy adversary. But she isn't isn’t expecting the biggest twist of all... falling in love.

When Andra goes to the British Virgin Island of Tortola on a magazine assignment, she never expects to become involved with a tour guide bent on revenge. Pulled into his world of intrigue, she must learn who she can and cannot trust while striving to prove the truth concerning the Ahoskie Diamond Necklace.

Lucy likes to imagine things. That's what she was doing one windy autumn day, waiting for Mom to pick her up from school. She was thinking how wonderful it would be if snow were... orange! And how fun it would be to play in. Just for pretend. But do you ever wish pretend could be real?