The Editorial Assessment

With the first draft completed, I turned to the business of getting the book published. I'd done a lot research about the best route to go, but with the rise in the number of writers generally, finding a publisher was not going to be an easy task.

There are many websites which offer to get manuscripts into a reasonable state to be considered by publishers - but no promises. After much (soul searching and looking for recommendations, I settled on The Writer's Workshop. Uploading my manuscript told me that it was going to be circa £500 to get it professionally edited and I decided to take the plunge.

I was assigned a very experienced author, Janet Laurence, who did an excellent job of editorial review in just under a month. The feedback was similar in nature to that of my good friend Charles:

"You have written a competently plotted crime novel and I think it has potential..."

But, there's the but again:

• The plot needed more tension;
• Some of the characters needed more depth and backstory;
• The interaction between characters needed more tension;
• I needed to focus more on 'showing' not 'telling' in my general style;
• I needed to consider that more often than not, less is more;
• Overall, my writing needs to be tightened.

There was a lot to think about and it is time to press on with an editorial re-write and production of the next draft...

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