I've recently been in contact with an e-publisher on a short novella I submitted to them. The One Who Sees was accepted back in September 2009, and now I have my first batch of edits to work on it.
For those interested in the process, I will give a few details.
Most of these were minor edits, such as grammar. I'm surprised because the more I learn about grammar in my writing tutor job, the more I am sure I don't know. But I must have picked up quite a bit a long the way somewhere. ;-) Anyway, though I looked over the changes, I mostly clicked the Accept button in Word. Only when a rewording was needed did I not use the change.
Besides the minor edits, there were a few larger concerns, such as a making a villainous creature a little more real. Another was to expand the ending. A little harder to fix than clicking a button, but I'm working on that.
My concern is the big edit. You see, TOWS comes in about 17,800 words, which according to the SFWA guidelines is just barely a novella. The editor would like to see it longer if possible, ending up at 20,000 - 25,000 words. I'll look at it, but to add 2,000 - 7,000 words, you have to do more than just add a few enriching details; you have to change the story, add plot or events. I'm not so sure I can comply with this one. Cutting I could probably do. Adding? That is much harder. I'll let you know how it goes.
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