October 31 is Love Your Editor Day at The Wild Rose Press. My editor, Samantha Keating, is the reason why I even had a chance. I owe her so much. She has officially been my editor since August 2022, but I have been in contact with her since November 2021. 

When I was ready to query Bondwitch, The Wild Rose Press was my first choice publisher. When you query TWRP, you send your query to a general query email, so I didn’t know who exactly would be reading my query. Thirteen days after I sent my query I received an email from Samantha requesting the first three chapters! 

A little over two weeks after that, Samantha responded with a very detailed and helpful critique on what skills and style TWRP expects, which I did not quite meet. She explained that to improve my story to WRP standards would require a rewrite, so she couldn’t accept my full manuscript. She encouraged me to keep writing and not give up.

As more rejections came in from other publishers, and I had conversations with my fellow writers, I learned that Samantha’s helpful critique was a rare gem. I also learned that the suggestions she made to improve my writing weren’t unique to TWRP. Almost all publishers today want the same thing: show, don’t tell. I still really wanted to get a second chance with TWRP, so I got to work rewriting Bondwitch with the suggested improvements.

It took me four months to fix my manuscript. When it was ready, I emailed Samantha directly, and asked if TWRP allowed resubmissions. She responded that they normally don’t, but she was interested in finding the answer to a cliffhanger scene in chapter 2. She invited me to resubmit the first three chapters, and she would take a look at my improvements. Two weeks after that, Samantha requested the full manuscript!

I didn’t hear anything for three months – which, I understand, is pretty standard for a full manuscript request. Then, on my wedding anniversary, I was sitting at a table in Cafe Orleans, Disneyland when my phone alerted me to an email from Samantha. My heart rate accelerated tenfold. I looked across the table at my husband. “I’m scared to read it.”

“Just open it!” he said.

I clicked on the notification, read the first few lines of the email, and screamed in the middle of a Disney restaurant. Samantha had finished my story, and was pushing it forward to the managing editor, who has the final say. 

A week after that, Samantha emailed me that Bondwitch was being accepted by TWRP, and the official contract would be sent to me within twenty-four hours. She also told me that she would be my editor. Once again, I was in a public place when this email came through. This time, I was in a hotel lobby for a work retreat, so I couldn’t scream out loud, but I definitely teared up.

Samantha and I are currently knee deep in editing, and I love working with her. Her style of editing is to approach it from a teaching angle. For the content editing, she made comments for the first one hundred pages with the goal that at that point I would have learned from her comments enough that I can find and fix the rest on my own. At first I was nervous about that. I didn’t think I could do it. I thought I would need her to hold my hand the whole time. But she knew exactly what she was doing – and that’s why she’s the editor! I’m three chapters beyond where Samantha stopped making comments, and I can “hear” her in my head pointing stuff out as I read over my words.

I owe this wonderful journey to Samantha. She went above and beyond by giving me detailed feedback long before she was my official editor. She believed in me and gave me a second chance. And she is an amazing teacher. 

Happy Love Your Editor Day, Sam. I’m so grateful you are my editor. I look forward to our continued partnership.