This arrived via Fed Ex on Saturday morning:

That, dear readers, is my manuscript, with Amy Einhorn’s editorial notes all over it.  On the top is a nine page letter addressing both structural edits and line edits.

I’m a very lucky boy.

It probably goes without saying that Amy’s comments and suggestions are all extremely astute, and will (if I can implement them properly) improve the book hugely.  You don’t get to head up your own imprint at Penguin unless you know what you’re doing, after all.

Right now there are a lot of new ideas that I need to digest and process.  It was a little overwhelming at first, but things are slowly coalescing.  A clearer view of what needs to be done is emerging (languishing in hot baths helps this process, I’ve discovered.)  Once I’ve worked it all out, the next step is to speak with Amy to discuss her comments.  Then it will be time to knuckle down to some serious revisions.  I’m expecting that to take at least four months, perhaps more.  I’m looking forward to it.

I don’t know whether many authors these days are fortunate enough to get this level of focused, hands-on editorial attention any more.  And I like it that she writes comments like: “To me this section was a bit boring”.

Because you know what?  She was right.

Now, if we can just find the right title…