UK And US Editors: Double The Fun – And Double The Edits?

By Anika Scott

International situations are normal for me. I’m American, I live in Germany, and my wonderful agent is based in the UK. When the book deals for my debut novel Finding Clara (UK) / The German Heiress (US) started rolling in, I hadn’t really given a thought to how the editors at the different publishing houses would approach revisions. Turns out I had deals in the UK and the US within weeks of eachother, and two editors eager to work in tandem with me on the editorial process. 

Two editors instead of one! Would this mean too many cooks spoiling the book? I wasn’t sure going in. But I was so excited by the enthusiasm of the teams that I was more than willing to jump in. Here’s how it worked on a practical level. 

The editorial letter

I won’t lie. It was intimidating because it was long! About 10 single-spaced pages of the most indepth analysis of my book that I’d ever experienced.

The editors coordinated the letter together, going back and forth behind the scenes until they had a common editorial direction to show me. I’ve always been very open to revisions, and believe at some point, a book does become a collaborative project. So the letter didn’t really sting, it was just slightly overwhelming at first. So much to process! 

The editorial call

Before jumping into the revisions we had a 3-way call between Germany, New York and London. The call showed just how good the three of us could work together. We talked through the knotty spots in the editorial letter and brainstormed solutions. I came away with several great ideas that I was excited to implement.

I also appreciated that the UK and US editors didn’t always agree with eachother, and were open to discussing our differences and finding consensus that would work for me and the book. I always got the feeling that I had the final say as the author. 

The margin notes

Probably my favorite part of the editorial process was going through my manuscript’s margin notes in track changes to see what the editors had to say. Again, I’m not going to lie: when I saw the over 450 margin notes, I had to take some deep breaths! But it turns out a good number of those notes resembled conversations between the UK and US editors.

In a note, one editor might ask something like: Anika, did you mean X? I didn’t get it. And right below was a note from the other editor saying: Yes, she definitely meant X. I think it works well.  Since my book focuses on some difficult topics that need lots of nuancing, there were quite a few of these discussion bits where the editors expressed their opinions, not always agreeing.

It was fun for me, a bit like watching over their shoulders as they read and discussed my book. In the end, it was up to me to decide what changes were made, and how.

The line edits

This was where things got a little tricky. At one point, the editors line edited on their own copies of the book, and there was a brief moment when I was worried we weren’t all using the same document anymore! That’s why it was important to make sure the latest master copy was clearly labeled. We also ran into a few linguistic differences or misunderstandings between US and UK English.

Sometimes it was a phrase sounding “too American” or “too British,” sometimes it was a preposition used in one country but not in the other. These little things could be annoying, but I also found it fun to learn the small differences between our versions of English. Since I’m American, but with a book in a European setting, I had to navigate just how “American” the text sounded to international ears. Especially since in most of the book, the characters are speaking German!

The titles

I hate coming up with titles. We had submitted my debut novel as “The Remaking of Clara Falkenberg,” but the UK and US editors both signaled they wanted to change it. In London and New York, ideas for titles kept being shot down by the individual teams. This went on for months. The publishers simply couldn’t agree on one title that would be equally strong in the US and UK.

So they finally went their own ways. The UK decided on Finding Clara, packaging the book as an upscale historical. The US went with one of my suggestions, ironically enough: The German Heiress, packaged as a more commercial product. Having two different titles takes some getting used to. But after talking about the book in both the US and the UK, I’ve found that each title appeals strongly in their markets. So I think this was the right way to go. 

Double the fun?

I really enjoyed working so closely with the editorial teams in London and New York. It felt like a big, collaborative process, a team effort that buoyed me up instead of weighing me down. Some authors feel they don’t get enough attention from their publishers even in the editorial stages. I was lucky enough to have an international team that turned around all edits – from the editorial letter to copy edits – in about 5 months total. Best of all: they really helped make it a much better book. 

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Anika Scott grew up outside Detroit, Michigan and worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune before moving to Germany in 2001. Since then she has freelanced for US and European media. She now lives in Essen with her husband and two daughters. Finding Clara / The German Heiress is her first novel. 

 Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnikaScott1

Find out more about her on her website https://anikascott.com/

FINDING CLARA

FINDING CLARA is the kind of novel we need now more than ever, [and] achieves what the best historical fiction can . . . pushing us to see ourselves in that past, demanding: Who would you have been then? What would you have done? Unflinching and absorbing, [it] does not let you look away.’
Sarah Blake, New York Times bestselling author of THE POSTMISTRESS

1946. Essen, Germany.

Clara. Once a wartime icon and heiress to the Falkenberg iron works; now on the run from the Allied authorities, accused of complicity in her father’s war crimes.

Jakob. A charming black marketeer, badly wounded in the war but determined to help what’s left of his family survive the peace.

Willy. A teenage boy diligently guarding a mine full of Wehrmacht supplies, his only friend a canary named Gertrud. Convinced the war isn’t over, he refuses to surrender his post.

When Clara returns to her hometown expecting to find her best friend, she finds everything she once knew in ruins. But in war-ravaged Germany, it’s not just the buildings that are scarred: everyone is changed, everyone lives in the wreckage of their own past.

To survive, Clara must hide who she is. But to live, she must face up to the truth of what she’s done.

 

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