Zeynep Sen – Editor

I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a B.A. in Literature and Creative Writing. Following graduation, I started working at the Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency, where I honed my skills as an agent. A few years later, I moved to WordLink Literary Agency, as their new senior and foreign rights agent. At WordLink I represent my own authors and am in charge of handling the foreign rights deals of all the authors of the agency. I edit the books of the authors I represent, pitch their work to editors and negotiate their book deals.

I’m a very collaborative editor. When I read an author’s work – assuming said work is around 300 pages – it usually takes me less than a month to get back to them with editorial notes. Once I’ve read the work, I prepare an editorial letter for the author, addressing the more overarching changes that need to be done. These letters usually address matters like narrative flow, voice, character development and plot or include scene-specific edits. Where line edits are concerned, I usually use the “Track Changes” and “Insert Comment” features of Word Doc. Once the author has read the editorial letter and the notes I’ve given, we discuss them together. I treat the edits I give as “suggestions” that I encourage authors to take or at least consider and discuss with me, if they don’t agree with them. In the event that the author wants me to implement the editorial changes myself, I oblige but always prepare two versions of the work: one where editorial changes are clearly visible in red, thank to “Track Changes” and one where editorial changes are not visible. After the first edits are completed, I re-read the work and discuss it with the author, to see if any further edits are necessary.

As a literary agent, I know the publishing market intimately and can offer editorial feedback that will help position the book well in that market. I also know the exact format that query letters need to follow, what needs to be included in a query letter to make it stand out and how it should be polished. As such, I’m able to provide help in this regard as well.

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