JKR - no editor?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 73582

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wanda Sherratt"
<wsherratt3338 at r...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Anne Robotti" <arobotti at l...> 
> wrote:
> >> ... as an editor myself there were times where I was just ITCHING
> > to get out the Pen of Death. What you say about her not having
> > an editor anymore makes tons of sense.
> > 
> >


> ... although I'm not involved in publishing, I am a reader.  And I 
> recognize that ... everything I read has passed through ... an editor.
> ...edited...  I just notice things in OotP that I didn't see in the 
> other 4 books, and that I don't see in other novels.  There's 
> repetition that didn't occur before, both incidents and phrasing.  
> There are scenes that just go on for  a long time, without anything 
> new happening. ...edited...
> 
> Wanda

bboy_mn:

Maybe Anne, our editor friend, can tell us what the typical length of
time is for the proofreading and editng of a nearly 900 page book will
chapter illustration with this many characters and subplots.

I think the time between when JKR handed the book over to the
publisher and the time when it hit the shelfs of the bookstore was
very short. I think editors were under tremendous pressure from the
publishers and the fans to get the book out there and collect the
money (well, fan would spend and publishers would collect money). 

So, I would agree, the editing was a little sloppy. How many time is
the work 'prickle' used in relation to Harry scar? Although, I
personally didn't find 'mate' as annoying as some people did. From
what I've heard many famous and sucessful authors are only marginally
literate and actually terrible first draft writers. They basically lay
down the plot and the flow of the story, and a team of editors turn it
into a work of art. I don't think JKR is that bad, she is obviously a
very literate, intelligent, and educated person, so her books would
need much less editing, but none the less, even the very best of
stories and authors need several second sets of eye to carefully look
over their work to help them see the things that they, the authors,
are too close to see.

So, I blame a certain amount of the lack of refinement in the book to
the rushed editing process, and that is compounded by the fact, or at
least my impression as fact, that this book had many many setups for
the future stories that had to be squeezed into the story somehow. You
be surprised how hard it can be sometimes, just to get one plot point
into a story. I onces wrote three very long chapters trying to
maneuver the story into a situation where it gave a single charater a
chance to say one line.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn