New author finds editing partner

Dee: I owe the quality of my first book, A Call to Needles, to the editing of Pam Eidson. The book weaves my back story as an educator, mom, and avid needleworker with the stories of people using needles and fibers to resist, protest, and bring attention to progressive issues in the current era.

Pam: When we were still discussing whether to work together, Dee summarized the editing help she needed by saying, “I tend to think I'm in need of all types of editing.”

Dee: As a first-time author, obliged to self-publish, my biggest fear was putting a flawed product out into world. I love to write but admit to weaknesses in grammar and style. And things have changed since I used Strunk’s Elements of Style in college. It took a couple of years for me to accept and use the Oxford comma and stop double-spacing after every sentence.

Pam: Like most authors, Dee was nervous about what an editor might do. The editing process, though, was collaborative.

Dee: Pam helped me see what I could let go of without affecting the integrity of the story I was attempting to tell. She pointed out areas where my words might have been perceived as insensitive or offensive, despite best intentions. And her style sheet was a thorough, critical tool in the process.

Pam: The back-and-forth worked for both of us in this editing relationship. I looked up every name spelling of artists Dee featured. Dee learned to toggle track changes off to read how the edited sentence would look with changes accepted. I made recommendations on wording that needed to be stronger to bring home the point. Sometimes the recommendations were funny. In one section I asked if she was sure she wanted to use the adjective seminal (which has two distinct meanings) in a sentence about the women’s suffrage movement. Dee wrote back, “LOL.”

Dee: She did it all because I needed ALL the editing—editorial, developmental, copy, and fact checking. We had a proofreader take one last, fresh look, but by then I’m sure Pam had sections memorized.

Pam: Our work together lasted quite a few months, primarily because there were other steps Dee needed to take care of in the background, such as having pictures made for the yoga section and working with a permissions editor to track down photo use rights.

Dee: Writing and self-publishing a book was a whole new world for me. There were lots of decisions to make. With Pam, I knew quickly that the editing part was in good hands.