The Afterbirth

Editing Kim steps up to the plate

Dear Reader,

‘Tis the season. The marking season. This week’s newsletter is coming to you late because I’ve been snowed under by student papers. I am surfacing from the marking to say a big hello to all you new subscribers – it’s great to have you here! And to introduce you to another me. In my recent newsletter, ‘The End’, I talked about all the many Kims needed to write a novel. Past Kim, who comes up with fiendish puzzles for Future Kim to solve. Subconscious Kim, who solves them on the sly. And Future Kim, alarmed to find herself Present Kim and faced with looming deadlines. Which I met, delivering the second book in the Double O trilogy to HarperCollins UK and US, and the Fleming Estate, on Halloween. 

Now, it’s Editing Kim’s turn to step up to the plate. (As I said in my last missive for paying subscribers, idioms aren’t my forte – Americans, am I using that one right??) I’ve now met with my editor at HC UK and the fine folk at the Fleming Estate to hear everybody’s thoughts. It’s always nerve-wracking receiving feedback, especially if you’ve only recently finished a manuscript and it still feels raw. But I’m happy to say that all concerned are very excited by what’s next for the Double Os!

Perhaps there’s yet another Kim, before Editing Kim takes over. I believe a novel, once published, is a collaborative experience between writer and reader, who together become joint creators of meaning. Before that, a surprising number of people are involved in producing a book, after the author. I’ve heard figures around one hundred mentioned. Moving the novel from my internal, private world into a more collaborative space with my editors and the Flemings is the first step on the book’s journey away from me and into the public through the hands of hundreds of people in publishing and bookselling. We all start to share custody. Perhaps this is Co-Parenting Kim, an ally to Editing Kim because there comes a point when outside eyes are necessary on a project. You’ve got to trust those eyes, and I’m lucky and grateful to have such a fantastic team around me.

Visiting my publishers at The Shard, London.

Now I have my co-parenting team around me, Editing Kim will go to work. As I write this, I’m sitting in the cafe of the Sculpture College, watching an artist hammer stone, and another brush plaster smooth. That’s about it, really, when it comes to editing – hammer, chisel, break, transplant, grind, smooth, polish. And then the book will be ready for its next step into the world.

Next week, I am teaching at Arvon, the residential creative writing course, this time in Yorkshire. There’s no wifi, so you’ll hear from me when I emerge from the wilderness.

In other news, I visited my amazing grandmother this week. As a ritual, we comb through secondhand bookshops together. This time I found THREE Pan Paperback Modesty Blaises in the very shop where I first bought myself Modesty Blaise, aged about fourteen. Look at these treasures! If you’re ever in Kent, I strongly recommend visiting Past Sentence secondhand bookshop in Faversham. (A shout out also to our family friend who first gave me Modesty to read, triggering my lifelong love. As she handed the book to me, she said, ‘Write genre, it’s where the money is.’ She wasn’t wrong. Thanks, Petra!)

And a reminder, I’ll be hosting the first Zoom Book Social for girl with the golden pen on Thursday 15th December at 8pm for paying subscribers. I hope this will be a chance to get to know each other as a book-loving community! And that the time will work for most zones. I’ll send out a Zoom link, so all you’ll need is a free Zoom account to join. Please RSVP in the comments below. And, if you’re a paying subscriber and a writer who would like feedback on the first three chapters of your novel plus a synopsis, in a thirty minute one-to-one Zoom meeting, please comment below and I’ll pick a name from a hat!

From Kim, With Love x