Q&A Friday: IRL Edition

Hey friends,

I am currently sitting at a picnic bench enjoying the cool breezes of the Carmel Valley in California at the Northern California Writers Retreat. It's "hot" here according to the locals, but consider me a lizard soaking up the sun on a rock in the desert. (Also, it really is a dry heat.) I'm here as an agent, not a writer, though I'm always both, and it's been a wonderful few days of workshopping with writers, answering questions, and talking shop with a small group of dedicated craftspeople. I highly recommend this retreat, if it's up your alley.

I took some questions from the people in my workshop group and I decided to share those with you here. As a paid subscriber, you have access to submit a question for Q&A Thursdays (sometimes Fridays) using this form. Want to see what's been answered in the past? Check out this tag!

Now, on to the questions.

M asks: What is the ideal number of rounds of edits you do with a client before a book is ready to go out to editors?

Like all things in publishing, I wish I had real data so I could give you a real number. I don't have a real number, especially one that says when I've done three rounds with a client we've definitely sold the book, but when we've only done two, I'm 83% less likely to sell the project. If only. But also, what's considered a round of edits? Does that include copyediting? Does that include that one time I said Oh hey, you forgot to change that place where you said it was Thursday and it's really Friday in the story? I know M is not asking for that kind of answer. I know writers want to know in general how many round can they expect and/or how many do they have to tolerate before an agent can send their work out already, dammit.