Hey Issy, just out of curiosity, what was the total number of entries you all received this year? Sorry if I'm making you repeat yourself! Thank you!

I'm a developmental editor, and I've worked for years with my own editor. Before finding a great editorial match with her, I worked with two other editors. They were very knowledgable, and I appreciated their feedback, but my long-term editor gets my style and humor; she jokes that we must've been separated at birth in terms of our tastes in books/music/film. So, find someone who is a tonal match. Who understands where you want to take your right-now project, but someone who can also support your longterm goals. Many editors do provide sample edits, but I myself have stopped offering these for free; I simply can't afford to do several hours of work with the risk of not getting paid. BUT, if someone does decide to work with me, I deduct the cost of a sample edit from the cost of reviewing the larger work. This is actually pretty common practice. You should also check that your potential editor has a detailed for for hire agreement and a detailed editorial contract (specifying the scope, duration, and timeline for the service for which they're being hired, but also so that you can ensure your rights as a creator are being protected). For any additional questions about what is/isn't common practice, check out the EFA or a similar professional organization for editors.

I've found that a huge part of writing is learning to manage stress and anxiety. From my friends who are traditionally published, the waiting never really goes away; you're waiting to hear back from an agent; then you're waiting when your book goes out on sub; then you're waiting to hear back on edits for your manuscript; you get the idea. I've found that the more that I can get off screens and outside, the more it helps with calming my mind and redirecting my thoughts. We can't control whether or not we get a yes, but we can control our daily thought patterns/habits. Exercise is my crutch, there. And reading things (in hand, not on the screen) that make me smile or help me learn something new. Pursuing other creative hobbies also helps. To that end, I love to bake cakes. I've even found a charity that allows me to donate birthday cakes to at-risk youth. Because while rejection is never easy, most people love cake. And while my cakes certainly aren't IG perfect, no one is going to be like man, fuck that cake. That cake sucked.

@Fiona Mizani Exactly! My mother donated cakes to children when I was growing up, so I was thrilled to find a non-profit through which I might do the same. I'm a gardener, too! Though I'm in what's essentially a high desert in Colorado, and I live in the country with bird-sized grasshoppers, so it's a tossup any year on how much produce we actually get. Also, very cool that you spin wool and knit; my efforts to that end are fun but laughable. Do you share your creations on SM? If so, are you comfortable sharing your account?

@James Blair Thank you!

Thank you! It's an honor to be included among the commended entries. As a volunteer judge for other novel contests, it takes a LOT of time to read through entries, to craft thoughtful editorial feedback, and to complete scorecards ranking entries, plus all of the additional administrative duties that come with running a contest. Thank you to all at M&C for all the time and care you've put into the running of this contest!

OMG please, please do not submit your MS to an AI review! In doing so, you'd essentially be feeding your MS into a LLM (Large language model) and not getting any compensation in return (when in reality, AI licensing is now another one of your rights as an author, which you may choose to opt into or not). AI also cannot think or write; it simply regurgitates patterns, which it has learned from scraping texts written by other authors, often without giving them any sort of compensation. Even if this doesn't bother you, the quality of editorial feedback you will get from a real person far surpasses whatever feedback you might get from AI; save your $$ and invest in feedback from a real person who has an established background/track record in editorial work.