Davi Lancett from Daphne Press on working with an editor

How I Edit a Book:

Writing is personal, and as an author you spend an enormous amount of time alone with your manuscript. It is something you have nurtured and care for deeply, and it takes an act of courage to expose that open heart to the world. So, if an editor comes along examining your work like Paul Hollywood stabbing his fingers into a steamed pudding only to judge it underbaked, it’s natural to want to recoil or reject that intrusion .

As an editor, it’s my job to help hone your book and make it the very best version it can be, but still have it recognisably be your book. It is about enhancing what is there. To avoid a sense of intrusion, I prefer a collaborative approach to editing that is a conversation with the author, making suggestions and finding solutions together. It is not a judgement, but a partnership.

First Read

I like to read a manuscript for the first time as fresh as possible. I’ll look at the author’s synopsis or intro to the story but, otherwise, I like to form my first impressions with very little outside influence. Some readers will discover the book without much or any context and it’s helpful to go in with a similar state of mind, seeing how much I connect with only what’s on the page.

This approach to my first read helps identify the elements that stand out, the areas that I want to spotlight during the edit: strong characters, excellent voice, compelling plot, beautiful descriptions, a world I am desperate to spend more time in. It also helps find the areas that could be improved on, to bring the rest up to the same quality as the components that were the strongest from the start.

Conversation

Once acquired, I like to have a meeting with the author to discuss the book, their writing process, and get to know them better as a person. This is important for establishing how best to work together, as well as gaining insight into their writing.

One of the big things I like to chat about is what their influences were when writing the story and which are their favourite parts/characters. This is useful to get a sense of what they are trying to accomplish with the book, whether that’s conveying a particular message, highlighting the experience of certain characters, or telling a story that appeals to them that they felt was missing on the shelves.

You can usually recognise the sections that the author felt most excited by, as those are the bits that sing on the page, but this conversation often brings up surprising answers. Sometimes the act of articulating what they want to achieve can help the author discover new areas they want to explore further.

Structural Edit

Next up is the structural edit, which means I read through the manuscript again to suggest changes at a broad level: developing or cutting parts of the story to improve the pacing, highlighting characters who feel underdeveloped, or adjusting how characters’ arcs play out across the book so it feels like they either grow or have a tangible impact on the story, suggesting which parts of the world it would be great to know more about, or if we are getting too caught up in the details and it’s hindering the flow of the prose.

This is a collaborative process, and the changes I flag are all suggestions. I am always keen to discuss these changes with the author and see if they agree and, if so, how best to implement them, or, if not, re-evaluate how the story works if that element remains the same but others are changed around it. It’s a puzzle with lots of moving parts and it’s incredibly satisfying to tweak and twist them until the whole thing feels balanced.

It’s important to highlight sections that are great, as well as the sections that I think could benefit from changes. To avoid edits feeling overwhelmingly negative, I love to leave comments with my reactions to sections that surprised me or made me feel emotional. If something made me laugh or a particular line is really well written, I want to let the author know as a reminder that there is already so much to love here.

Revisions

Once the author has made their revisions, it’s exciting to experience the story again to see how the edits have helped the book to read smoother. At this point, it’s particularly helpful for someone new to read the book with a fresh pair of eyes and share that perspective. Both the author and I are too close to get a fully fresh impression of it, as the memory of previous iterations and lost passages can remain. We are familiar with these characters or the world and remember sections imparting certain information, but if those have been cut somewhere along the way without being reworked in elsewhere, a new reader might feel lost, or have a very different understanding.

Line Edit

Finally, I’ll do a line edit, which involves going line by line and making sure the prose is tight and effective. Authors have different styles, and this is very much about enriching their writing style rather than imposing mine on top. This can range from leaning into their strengths or advising when it overspills into excess and some correction could help provide balance. A key here is highlighting word choice – making sure they have impact but aren’t repetitive. Writing is a long, long process and while an author over many months might not clock how many times they’ve used a particular word or phrase, reading the book over a short period throws this into sharp relief.

Another thing I like to focus on is whether the language adds to a character’s perspective, especially if you have a book with chapters from different POVs. These should have distinctive voices and syntax for each character and how they describe the world around them and the actions they take plays a huge but often subtle role in this.

Final Book

After a copy-edit, a typeset, and a proofread, the text is final and ready to be printed into a finished book (along with the efforts of many, many talented people across design, production, sales, marketing, and publicity teams!). As an editor, the moment of holding a book in your hands that you’ve worked on for months, maybe years, is glorious and worth every minute. It’s humbling to remember how much more potent that is for the author who worked on this long before it ever crossed your path, who poured so much of themselves into the object now held in their hands. It’s an honour to be a part of that process and help it be something the author is proud to present to the world.

About the Editor

Davi Lancett is the Commissioning Editor at Daphne Press, a UK publishing house specialising in fantasy. Daphne Press launched as the specialty small press arm of Illumicrate in 2021, to license, create and publish limited editions, reimagining the books in collaboration with the authors, fine artists and using high quality materials. Daphne Press has now grown into publishing original works, bringing the ethos of collaboration and beautiful packaging to the trade.