Book Doctor ~ Editor
Anita D. McClellan
From concept into print since 1988

Q: What do you wish authors would do before sending a manuscript?
A: "Have it professionally edited. If a manuscript is poorly written or the cover letter is awful, it goes right on the rejection pile." -- Publisher Cathy Teets, Headline Books

"You generally start out with some overall idea that you can see fairly clearly, as if you were standing on a dock and looking at a ship in the ocean. At first you see the entire ship, but then as you begin work you're in the boiler room and you can't see the ship anymore.... What you really want in an editor is someone who's still on the dock, who can say, 'Hi, I'm looking at your ship and it's missing a bow, the front mast is crooked, and it looks to me as if your propellers are going to have to be fixed.'" -- Michael Crichton

"...the industry wants to pump out more books in less time with fewer, less-experienced editors. And so the burden of editing sometimes falls upon the agents, who need to shape up manuscripts before they can be successfully submitted to publishers....Who do the agents call? There's a good chance that their Rolodexes contain many of the same names that a few years ago were on the payrolls of the big house....the next time you're in the market for a freelance editor, this group would probably be a good place to start."
- Authors Guild Fall 1999 Bulletin

"Break up the larger story into its components, make sure you understand the exact function of each component (a story [nonfiction or fiction] is like a machine with numerous gears: it should contain no gear that doesn't turn something), and after each component has been carefully set in place, step back and have a look at the whole. Then rewrite until the story flows as naturally as a river, each element so blending with the rest that no one, not even yourself two years from now, can locate the separate parts." -- John Gardner

Copyright © 2005-2009 Anita D. McClellan Associates, 464 Common St., Suite 142, Belmont, MA 02478 USA; www.anitamcclellan.com; adm at anitamcclellan dot com (email, don't phone). All rights reserved. Literary consultancy only.