Hi everyone, and this morning on the blog, I’m delighted to announce a new series called My Editing Approach With where I will interview agents about the nitty gritty aspects of editing pre publication with their clients.
First up we have literary agent Sarah Hornsley, from PFD (Peters, Fraser and Dunlop). How is the manuscript shaped and structured from the initial draft we send to literary agents? Let’s find out…
Over to you, Sarah…
1) When you receive an author’s full manuscript for the first time, what kind of hat do you wear when you read it?
This is a tricky one as the honest answer is that the ‘agent hat’ encompasses three different parts, and my job is to try and read from those three perspectives at all times. Firstly, do I fall in love with it as a reader where work becomes pleasure? It’s important that I really believe in the work and can champion it from the rooftops.
This is the ‘reader’ part of my hat. Secondly, can I see how to edit it and as I’m reading can I build a picture in my head around who I’d try to sell it to? This is my the’ agent’ part. And lastly, do I think an editor is going to feel they can get it through an Acquisitions meeting in the current market? This is the ‘editor’ part of the hat! So, it’s all three! All the time! And requires a lot of coffee.
2) When you have finished the manuscript, what is your immediate thought process? Are you thinking ‘I know exactly what this book needs’?
If I’m truly excited by the book I normally have a head full of ideas on how we can make what’s already on the page even better. If I don’t feel my head fizzing with possibilities, I often think it’s a sign I’m not the right agent for the manuscript. At the same time, I’ve very conscious that this is not my book, it’s the author’s, and so I always say my ideas are only ever intended as a starting point – a springboard for discussion – and so I jump on a call or have a meeting with the author to see if we can figure it out together.
Often, the author listens to my ideas and then comes back with a different solution to the problem I’m trying to fix, and I’m more than happy with that! So no, I don’t think ‘I know exactly what this book needs,’ but if it’s something I’m excited by then I definitely finish it thinking ‘I know exactly what this could be’.
3) What exactly is an edit letter that you send to an author? How is this written? Do you do a number of them back and forth with them or a detailed and descriptive one?
My process is that I start with a structural editorial letter which is looking at the bigger picture edits. Big ideas around pacing, plot, characterisation and how best to tell the story. I will write this up as a letter, separate from the manuscript, and often the first stage is to let the author mull these ideas over without being too prescriptive about how exactly I think they can fix them – or at least, brainstorming these ideas together.
I normally will only write a proper editorial letter once, and from then on it becomes much more a back and forth discussion where perhaps the author may send me chunks of a rewrite and I’ll feed back on if they’re moving in the right direction. Once we have the full manuscript structurally right, I then get stuck in on the actual manuscript using track changes and comments, taking a closer look on a line level.
On average, I’d say I perhaps see five edits of something before it’s ready for submission. Of course, sometimes it’s fewer and sometimes more! But the closer we get to submission, the closer this edit becomes on the page, moving from big picture ideas to ‘would they really use this particular word here?’.
4) What is your favourite type of editing to do with a manuscript? A big picture edit? A structural edit to tackle the building blocks of the manuscript, or a copy edit or a line edit?
I think the two most satisfying parts for me are the first big structural edit – seeing how you can really mould and shape something that has potential and watching that transformation take place – and then the final line edit, where you get goosebumps realising it’s ready for submission and you see all the months of hard work paying off.
5) How do you match the author with the right editor for their manuscript? What feeling do you get when you get to tell an author that their book will be published, after all their hard work?
Normally we’ll have a meeting with the offering editors before deciding who the author wants to sign with, as it’s so important that the editorial visions are aligned and that the author is going to feel confident that they’re working towards the same goal as the editor.
It’s the most amazing feeling relaying the news that an offer has come in for a client’s book, and that never changes. There is so much work, time, passion and sacrifice that goes into writing a novel, and being able to tell a writer that it’s resulted in an offer always feels like a really emotional thing to be able to do.
6) What is the feeling like for you when your author has their publication day and you see your name in the acknowledgments of their manuscript?
I’m always so grateful for this but also much more interested in seeing the other parts of the author’s journey written about in the acknowledgements that I haven’t been a part of.
Thank you so much for your time this morning, Sarah. It has been a pleasure to interview you.
Bio:
Sarah Hornsley works as a literary agent at Peters, Fraser + Dunlop. Sarah began her career back in 2012 working at Orion Publishing House, followed by a short stint in script development before becoming a Literary Agent.
She was named a Rising Star in The Bookseller in 2019 and represents a number of bestselling and award-winning writers with a particular focus on commercial adult fiction.
