In my case, I do not need editors in order to do what I do with stories.
It's not my work to please the readers, or to seek a market. My work is to get my stories told, as best as I can tell them. I have to be loyal to the story that is with me, without changing anything in it no matter what, and that's all. Some people like my work, others do not and I don't care. That's what I mean when I talk about the artistic side of writing.
If somebody enjoys a story of mine, great! If not, well they have to read something else.
In the other hand, if I wanted to get into the industry then yes, I would need agents and editor. That happens because the market is a very different environment, and they are the ones that know what the tendencies are, which publishers would be the best for a story in particular and how to market said work towards a specific audience.
If a traditional publisher wanted one of my stories, the price would be very high.
I have sometimes wondered what the experience and the final result would be like. I believe that my most commercial story would be my Joan of England trilogy, and I am almost sure that the target audience would be teenage girls and young adult women.
The publishers would surely change or remove the most personal aspects of that story, like the Aylar scenes and many jokes that perhaps the readers would not find funny. I have a feeling that the Medieval parts of the first Joan novel would be shortened so the narrative moves to the modern world faster, the constant underage drinking would be removed too and perhaps some of the bloodiest scenes would be scrapped as well.
Most likely they would come up with a more attractive name for the trilogy, and other people would work on designing a book cover as beautiful and attractive as possible.
I think that the biggest problem would be my pretty extreme political ideas, which are central to the plot of the entire trilogy from start to finish. Entire chapters (I mean real chapters, not the mini chapter format that I worked with in the Showcase) would have to be removed and replaced with something else, and that would personally hurt me a lot.
Would I be happy with the finished market product? Perhaps yes, and perhaps I would hate it.
I think that I would choose the Independent path and publish electronic books in Amazon, if I wanted at least some income from my works. There are authors there that manage to do reasonably well and they never hired editors. However, I am not interested in selling and that's why I am in Wattpad instead.
I would like to say that when Stephenie Meyer started to seek publishers, she was sending them unedited samples of her Twilight story. Many people rejected the material, but one day this very fortunate person liked the samples and she asked to read the first three chapters. Soon after that, she wanted to read the entire thing.
After that, they indeed worked together to edit Twilight but the search started with unedited material.
Working with the right editor helps a lot to get you started in the world of traditional publishing, but at least some very successful authors have managed to get started without it.
I wanted to say something positive about the world of traditional publishing, since I fear that maybe I am giving the impression that I hate it. I love the fact that they produce books, real books of paper and ink. Real books have a special magic that electronic equivalents are never going to match, there is nothing like holding the book in your hands.
It is thanks to those publishers that many books that I love (stories and also other kind of books) have reached my hands, so I thank them for that and I hope that they will keep making real books for as long as this world lasts.
It's not my work to please the readers, or to seek a market. My work is to get my stories told, as best as I can tell them. I have to be loyal to the story that is with me, without changing anything in it no matter what, and that's all. Some people like my work, others do not and I don't care. That's what I mean when I talk about the artistic side of writing.
If somebody enjoys a story of mine, great! If not, well they have to read something else.
In the other hand, if I wanted to get into the industry then yes, I would need agents and editor. That happens because the market is a very different environment, and they are the ones that know what the tendencies are, which publishers would be the best for a story in particular and how to market said work towards a specific audience.
If a traditional publisher wanted one of my stories, the price would be very high.
I have sometimes wondered what the experience and the final result would be like. I believe that my most commercial story would be my Joan of England trilogy, and I am almost sure that the target audience would be teenage girls and young adult women.
The publishers would surely change or remove the most personal aspects of that story, like the Aylar scenes and many jokes that perhaps the readers would not find funny. I have a feeling that the Medieval parts of the first Joan novel would be shortened so the narrative moves to the modern world faster, the constant underage drinking would be removed too and perhaps some of the bloodiest scenes would be scrapped as well.
Most likely they would come up with a more attractive name for the trilogy, and other people would work on designing a book cover as beautiful and attractive as possible.
I think that the biggest problem would be my pretty extreme political ideas, which are central to the plot of the entire trilogy from start to finish. Entire chapters (I mean real chapters, not the mini chapter format that I worked with in the Showcase) would have to be removed and replaced with something else, and that would personally hurt me a lot.
Would I be happy with the finished market product? Perhaps yes, and perhaps I would hate it.
I think that I would choose the Independent path and publish electronic books in Amazon, if I wanted at least some income from my works. There are authors there that manage to do reasonably well and they never hired editors. However, I am not interested in selling and that's why I am in Wattpad instead.
I would like to say that when Stephenie Meyer started to seek publishers, she was sending them unedited samples of her Twilight story. Many people rejected the material, but one day this very fortunate person liked the samples and she asked to read the first three chapters. Soon after that, she wanted to read the entire thing.
After that, they indeed worked together to edit Twilight but the search started with unedited material.
Working with the right editor helps a lot to get you started in the world of traditional publishing, but at least some very successful authors have managed to get started without it.
I wanted to say something positive about the world of traditional publishing, since I fear that maybe I am giving the impression that I hate it. I love the fact that they produce books, real books of paper and ink. Real books have a special magic that electronic equivalents are never going to match, there is nothing like holding the book in your hands.
It is thanks to those publishers that many books that I love (stories and also other kind of books) have reached my hands, so I thank them for that and I hope that they will keep making real books for as long as this world lasts.