From the OTHER SIDE OF THE DESK
First draft, first pass
Piers Blofeld looks at what goes through an editor’s mind when they get the first draft of your book
Douglas Adams, of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame, was famously easily distracted, not to say a little work shy. He is supposed to have said, ‘I love deadlines, I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by’. Certainly his publisher struggled to get books out of him.
It’s a thought that has been on my mind because I’ve just handed in the first draft of my book to my editor, all ninety two thousand words of it. It’s a strange moment. There’s relief obviously: I’m glad to get rid of it for a while, but then of course there’s the fear – what if they don’t like it?