Editorial Interview with Jim Maher

Today, I'm mixing up my interview to focus on the editorial and revision process, and pulling in Hemingway Man author Jim Maher to do so!

 
What part of the revision process was the most challenging for you?

Whenever I have to cut a sentence that I think sounds just great, but doesn’t add anything to the story, it has to go. I can’t have a string of useless words highlighting my cleverness without adding to the whole piece. It still hurts cutting it.

If you could rework your book now, would you change anything?

I’d possibly work Will’s family in more, make them have more of an outside impact on his decisions.

Was there anything you butted heads with your editor on?

Canadian vs. American spellings, but that was it. And she’s British, so she was rooting for me anyway.

Were there any major changes you had to make, or did you have it pretty well already?

I’m a perfectionist, so I edited it about seven times before I put it up on Smashwords, and got some great feedback from readers there. I edited it one more time, and then submitted it to Espresso Books. We still worked together and edited it two more times, but the heavy lifting was pretty much done.

What one thing have you learned that will help you the most in future projects?

Honestly, never give up. Until you close it yourself, every door is always open to you.


Thank you, Jim, for sharing a little about your process!