I Thought My Book Was Ready. I Was Wrong.

Hi Reader,

I hope the holidays are filling your life with more cheer than stress, and that you’ve been able to carve out small moments of writing.

I definitely have been working hard at it, especially as January creeps closer and I reflect and set goals for myself and the coming year. Have you started thinking about your writing hopes and dreams for 2026 yet?

For me, my big goal in quarter one will be to re-enter the query trenches with my adult contemporary romance. That’s right, I said re-enter. Toward the end of the summer months, as rejections kept dropping in my inbox, I started wondering whether I’d heeded enough of my own advice.

I’ve always said to y’all that when I was actively reading slush as an agent, the number one mistake I saw writers make was submitting their books before they were ready.

Had I made that mistake too? Is that why I was getting rejections? Perhaps.

At somewhere around my 25^th rejection, I decided to pull it and ask for help…to put my money where my mouth is and hire a developmental editor. Now, I’ve received help on this book before. Great, qualified readers and book coaches that helped me make it into something that I was (and still am) really proud of.

However, this decision also corresponded with a desire to also make myself a better developmental editor and book coach. What better way than going through the process myself? I chose to invest in myself as a writer and an editor.

And reader, I am so glad I did. I learned so much! So much more than I could ever learn from reading craft books and analyzing movies and fiction (though I will, of course, continue to do all of that too.)

Last week I spoke of transformation and how vital it is to our stories. It’s also a huge part of our own lives—we are always evolving, right? I came out of this experience feeling like I’d undergone a transformation, and like my story would undergo one just as important.

So, without further ado, I want to present to you the top things I learned from working with a developmental editor.

1. Getting clarity on what’s not working is a huge relief

If you’ve been in the querying trenches before then you know how disheartening it can feel to receive form rejections. These common rejections are given when an agent doesn’t have time to offer personalized feedback on your book. There’s zero indication about why your book wasn’t for them. When enough of these come in you start to wonder—is it my query letter? Is it the synopsis? Is it the first ten pages? Or is it the whole book? Is it my line-level writing? Or is something wrong with my story as a whole? What am I doing wrong?

Enter developmental editor. With my book, I was lucky enough to receive a hint of personalized rejections, so I suspected there was something that wasn’t quite working in my book, even though I had tried my very hardest to implement all of the strategies and craft concepts I teach to you lovely readers. But let me tell you that understanding a concept and putting it into practice are entirely two different things.

Harder still, is the ability to actually see whether you’re deploying craft skills appropriately. Dear reader, it is impossible to see your own work with a clear eye. This is one of the reasons I have always championed getting feedback from qualified readers (beta readers, editors, coaches, etc.).

When I received my lonnnngggg editorial letter and line-edits, it opened my eyes to the pieces I’d missed. Things I thought I was doing, but recognize that maybe I wasn’t doing them as well as I could have been. But suddenly I had clarity, and a path forward. And the creative juices, the problem-solving part of my brain clicked on, the woe-is-me, rejection-depressed part clicked off. What a relief.

2. Finding the right fit can be hard.

Not all editors are created equally. And not every editor is going to be right for your book, your budget, or your timeline. Not every editor is going to see your book and its issues the same way another might. Some might find more problems, some fewer.

As I mentioned above, I’d worked with a fabulous book coach on this project. And I would hire her again in a heartbeat because I trust her as a reader, a writer, editor, and I think she has a keen eye. The one problem? She is just one person. She doesn’t have two sets of eyes. So getting a second set, a fresh perspective was important to me. In my case, I wanted an editor who works in the publishing industry, and actively works on adult romance novels. And even narrowing it down to the right one of the people who fit my criteria was hard because of availability and price.

Editors are expensive. At least the good ones are. You could try to hire someone off of Upwork for $50-100 but chances are the results will be vastly inferior to someone who will spend the type of time and energy you’d want someone to spend on a book you’ve put your heart and soul into. If you are seriously considering investing in an editor this year, please do your research.

3. I got a huge surge of inspiration and motivation

As rejections rolled in, I started to get a niggling feeling that something wasn’t quite working with my book. BUT I was absolutely not ready to dive back into the revision process. Anyone who has worked hours and hours and hours on something might recognize the feeling of having run out of stamina on it. I was at that point with this book. I was excited to send it out, proud of the work I’d done, so when I started to wonder whether I’d have to revise, it felt like dread in my gut.

I am a writer with bright shiny object syndrome…I love new story ideas and drafting new things. So the idea of returning to a project I considered “done” was something I didn’t even want to consider. That is, until I got my feedback.

Even though receiving a lot of feedback can feel completely overwhelming, it also reignited the spark I needed, the motivation to get back to work. To make the book better than it was before. Isn’t that what we all want, after all? To make our books the best they can be? My choices were: let this die in the query trenches, or put on my big girl panties and get back to work. I chose the latter and have been back to revising. And do you know what? I’m loving it. It doesn’t feel as overwhelming or daunting as I thought it would. It feels fun, and freeing, and like I’m improving something that already meant a lot to me. So getting that boost of energy was something I really appreciated about working with a developmental editor.

4. Show don’t tell, backstory, tension are hard.

I said above that we are all blind to our own stories. We are blind to our flaws as writers until someone does us a favor and points them out to us. Mine are all things I’ve warned y’all against. Show don’t tell, backstory, tension. Why? Because these things are super hard to get right, and hard to see when you’ve struck the right balance.

And guess who struggles with them, as pointed out by the line edit completed alongside my developmental edit? Yours truly. There is always a gap between what is in our heads and what is on the page. Execution is often difficult to get right, even when we think we know what we are doing. Even when we have had extensive training.

My character’s backstory had holes that needed shoring up. Tension was low because in my second-chance romance, it was an easy, foregone conclusion that my protagonist was only ever going to end up with her past love. And while I had enough interiority to explain my character’s actions, sometimes painting the picture through gestures, actions would have been better than just using words.

All of this is to say that these are areas to always be aware of as you work on your own book; and sometimes the things you believe you’ve done a decent job with, might actually be a blind spot. But you might not know it until someone points it out to you.

5. I am a better writer and editor having gone through this process.

I mentioned above that one of the reasons I went ahead and invested in a developmental editor was to give myself new skills. Both as a writer and as an editor. Yes, I learned about my weaknesses as a writer, which is such useful information, but I also learned about how to solve those problems. I learned about tackling revisions. I learned about what process works for me, and what I must look out for as I do my next readthrough. I learned about what I must apply to my next book too—like character backstory, and showing not telling, and tension and stakes. I learned about cutting fluff, and how much I repeated myself without knowing it. (And how repetition can bore your readers to tears—which I promise I’ll do an entire article about someday soon.)

But I also learned more about how to structure my edits and tips on how to incorporate some line-edits in my feedback. I learned how to be more thorough in some areas, less in others depending on what package I offer. I also learned about what experience I’d like to offer my clients, how to fill any gaps that I felt were left after being set free, back on my own without more guidance.

I think that having gone through this experience myself, gives me a reinvigorated perspective on how to approach clients and their feedback with kindess, grace, and an even sharper eye. Our books are our babies, and we just want to know that they are in good hands, and that they will be raised right. So I’ll continue to keep that in the forefront of my mind as I continue doing clients’ developmental edits in 2026.

Phew—as you can tell this was an eye-opening experience for me, one that I am so grateful to have had as I close out 2025.

If, like me, you’re planning to head into the query trenches next year, and you want an honest, qualified assessment on your book, I hope you’ll consider me if you hunt for a developmental edit. I’ll have one to two slots opening per month, starting mid January.

Here’s what other writers have had to say about working with me on developmental edits and manuscript assessments:

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Offerings

Thanks so much for being here with me. I value you and I sincerely hope that I provide value for your writing journey. If you feel inclined, drop me a line and let me know what you’re working on!

Happy Writing and Happier Holidays,

Karyn

P.S. Loving these emails? Buy me a cup of tea to say thanks. Or you can book a free 30-min story strategy chat here if you're interested in getting specific help with your book.

Granite Bay, CA
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