What Angela James Wishes Writers Knew About the Editing process

On Saturday, May 21, 2016, the New Hampshire chapter of Romance Writers of America is welcoming Angela James to present her workshop Before You Hit Send. In previous blog posts we’ve talked about the workshop, and we’ve talked about Angela’s career as an editor. Today we’ll get to know the personal side of Angela James, and Angela will share with us what she wishes authors (and editors) knew about the editing process.

The Personal Side of Angela James

Favorite Childhood Book (she couldn’t pick one):

• Nancy Drew mysteries – Carolyn Keene
• Trixie Belden mysteries – Julie Campbell
• Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
• The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles – Julie Andrews

Relaxation and Recreation

• If you follow Angela on Twitter, you know her bad travel karma is epic! Despite that, she still enjoys traveling. Tops on her bucket list for travel is a European train trip. She hopes to visit Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland for a few weeks with her family when her daughter graduates from high school.
• Angela is a huge sports fan. Football and hockey are her favorites, but in the summer she follows NASCAR and Major League Soccer as well as European football. She doesn’t watch much dramatic TV, but she’ll binge watch when she travels or use it as a distraction when she’s stressed.
• Although she loves sports, her preferred workout is boot camp.
• Her perfect day off involves never leaving her couch. She can read all day and someone else can do the cooking, etc.

Gastronomical Pleasures

• Her favorite beverage is water, but she’s been known to enjoy a glass of wine or beer here and there, too.
• She loves to make multi-step recipes like homemade spaghetti sauce from scratch.
• Her favorite food to have prepared for her is Indian curry. No one else in her family likes it, so she only gets to order it when she’s eating out.

 What Angela James Wishes Every Author (and Editor) Knew About the Editing Process

• A good editor is not just going to fix your grammar. A good editor will help you enhance your story, your plot and your characters.
•  A good editor can make all the difference between a reader liking your book and a reader loving your book.
• The editor and the author work together in partnership. It’s not that either has final say; it’s that they are collaborating on the book.
• Ego can be the one thing that really interferes with the editing process. If you go into edits full of ego, i.e. thinking “this is MY book” or “I’m the editor and *I* know best,” the editorial process is doomed to failure. Everyone involved has to go into the process with an open mind.

I hope you have enjoyed this opportunity to get to know Angela James, Executive Editor of Carina Press, and I hope you will join us Saturday May 21 at the Crowne Plaza Nashua for Before You Hit Send. Register before May 1 for a discounted rate.

I encourage you to visit one of Angela’s many spaces on the web.

• https://twitter.com/angelajames
• http://www.carinapress.com/
• Carina’s submission guidelines can be found here http://carinapress.com/blog/submission-guidelines/
• Angela’s most recent submission wish list can be found here https://twitter.com/angelajames/status/700006688410087424

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Lee Laughlin is a writer, marketer, social media consumer and producer, wife, and mom, frequently all of those things at once. She blogs at Livefearlesslee.com. She writes for the Concord Monitor and her words have also appeared in a broad range of publications from community newspapers to the Boston Globe. She is currently working on her first novel, a work of contemporary, romantic fiction.