The Other Me: Tiger Editor

In the publishing industry, the dev edit—long before line-editing or copyediting come into play—aims to shape the book; to challenge and thus cement its structure; and ultimately to deliver a more competitive product. Everyone in publishing views it as a mandatory step. Yet today’s in-house editors lament that they have less and less time to invest in developmental editing. Even when a submission shows promise, practicalities often force them to favor work that has arrived pre-edited.

Many times I have cringed to hear a writer say that their novel has been edited—that for $100 someone caught all the typos. That’s not what the industry means, and more importantly, not what every writer needs. It is unavoidable that you will have blind spots. So, the aim of the dev edit is to identify whether your story works, whether its bones are set straight, and its muscles are taut and lean.

There are many experienced dev editors out there, myself and some friends included. If you think this is me drumming up business—always. But the proof of the pudding lies in the fact that I pay for dev editing myself. I might be selling the Kool-Aid, but I’m also drinking it.

There are several ways to find dev editors. The route I like best is through personal contacts. When you attend a writers’ conference, be aware that many of the presenters probably edit on the side. If you meet someone especially impressive, ask them if they ever take on editing. And if they say no, ask them if there’s someone else they’d recommend. I take on editing throughout the year, and refer writers on if my editing slots are full, so ask me! But beware: this is an expensive option. You’re basically taking over an author’s brain for six weeks, so I think maybe rightly so.

I’m often asked at this point in any ode to dev editing if there’s proof that it makes a difference. Well, here are a few recent success stories from your own merry band that I’m very proud to share:

Daryl Kho, workshop participant and pub-coaching client, signed a book deal with Penguin (SE Asia) and launched his debut MG novel, MIST-BOUND: HOW TO GLUE BACK GRANDPA, in July 2021. Mist-Bound has gone on to become a best-seller in Malaysia and Singapore, and the winner of the 2022 Hedwig Annual Children’s MG Book Award given by the Singapore Book Council.

Daryl says, “Several years back, I attended the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore. I had only just started working on a manuscript for the first time, and was a complete noob to the world of writing and publishing. Fatefully for me, Shirin gave a talk at the conference about the nuts and bolts of the industry, and I was completely blown away. To this day after years of many more conference sessions and masterclasses, none have educated, impacted and inspired me as much as hers.

I approached Shirin for developmental editing, but alas, she was completely booked out. In spite of that, Shirin took the trouble to look through my manuscript and recommend me to an alternative editor who turned out to be perfect for me. Shirin, thank you so much for your support and generosity with knowledge-sharing. (Btw tons of good stuff can be found in her blogs too.)”

Carole Stivers, workshop participant and dev editing client, has signed a simultaneous book-and-movie deal with Random House and Amblin Entertainment (Steven Spielberg’s production company) for her debut novel THE MOTHER CODE. The book launched in August 2020.

Carole says, ”First, thanks for shepherding me through the first two revisions of this tome (I think the title change to The Mother Code happened after your edits?)! I look back at those earlier versions now and I think, ouch! Maybe I could write, but I was all over the place! Looking at the notes and markups you made, I was actually surprised by how kind you were. Although criticism always hits hard when you receive it, in retrospect I find that it's usually justified…

…I think some real-world understanding of how even the most “stinging” of edits are all part of the process would be helpful for people to hear. So many of my friends have given up after just one or two rounds, believing that they were just "bad writers" who could never get better. But taking and making use of criticism, and learning to know where to draw the line and follow your own heart as well, are skills essential for every writer. In my case, I had a story to tell, and an itch to tell it that could not be quashed! Of course, knowing how much you have to go through to get it out there, that drive is essential.”

Cameron Lund, workshop and writers’ group participant, has signed a two-book deal with Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin/Random House. Her debut novel, THE BEST LAID PLANS, launched in April 2020. Her second novel, HEARTBREAKERS AND FAKERS, launched in June, 2021.

Cameron says, ”I initially signed up for one session of classes with Shirin, and now five years later, I'm still in her class! Shirin has been invaluable to the way I think about my writing—always asking me the hard questions and making me think deeper about character motivations, plot inconsistencies, credibility gaps, etc., in ways I never used to. Before Shirin, writing was something I did just for fun, but she helped to shape my writing into a career. Her notes have not only aided my past work, but have given me the toolkit necessary to critique my future work as well. I can't recommend her enough!”

Chris Swiedler, workshop participant and dev editing client, has closed a two-book deal with Harper Collins. His debut novel, IN THE RED, launched in March 2020. His second novel, THE ORPHEUS PLOT, appeared in June 2021.

Chris says, “If you want to be a writer, there are six words that you need to memorize above all else. You need to tape them to your wall, tattoo them on your arm, and teach them to your parrot until it repeats them back to you a hundred times per day. You need to pay skywriters to draw them in the sky above your house and hack your cybernetic ocular display so that they hover in front of you wherever you go.

Are you ready? Here are the six words.

First drafts suck, and that’s okay.”

[And then, about me…]

“Shirin was a huge help in developing my first novel, IN THE RED, and getting it ready for submission. Her experience as a writer and publisher shows up in her detail-oriented editorial work. She has a great eye for both high-level character arcs and low-level sentence structure."

Cathleen Young, a dev editing client, sold her debut MG novel to Wendy Lamb Books, a Random House imprint. PUMPKIN WAR was handpicked by Amazon kids’ books editor, Seira Wilson, for Prime Book Box – a children’s subscription that inspires a love of reading.

Cathleen says, “How did I get so lucky? This momentous luck came in the form of Shirin Bridges, the incredible editor of THE PUMPKIN WAR. She’s a writer, editor, publisher. She’s funny, serious, wicked smart. She delivers bad news with grace and a matter-of-fact simplicity. Like when a character arc isn’t working. Or when the structure is sloppy. Or when dialogue seems fake. But oh. Oh, indeed. The happy peace this writer feels when you get a smiley-face emoji and a check mark. High praise. As I said, how did I get so lucky? I will never, ever write a book without Shirin as my editor again.”

Brian Weisfeld, workshop participant and dev editing client, has signed a three-book deal with MacMillan for his middle-grade series, THE STARTUP SQUAD. The series has been such a success that Brian's given a TED Talk about his cause. 

Brian says, ”I wanted to thank you again for your help on my manuscript…I signed a three-book deal with Macmillan for my girls entrepreneurship series and last week I officially launched The Startup Squad! We just announced the book series and a search for a girl entrepreneur to feature in the back of our first book…”

So, congratulations to Daryl, Carole, Cameron, Chris, Cathleen, and Brian! Thanks for the plugs—both for me and for dev editing in general. My belief in dev editing is sincere, however you find the dev-editing input you need. If you want a referral to a good dev editor, I’m proud to stand at the hub of many dev editing friends. Drop me a line and I’ll suggest a good match. And to all of you, happy writing!