EDITORS UNEDITED: Dexter Petley

The first thing to know about Dexter is that he lives in a yurt. The second is that he’s a tremendous editor who’s worked with us since 2005. If literary fiction, memoir, or nature writing is your thing, he’s an incredibly safe pair of hands.  

Q: So that we can learn a bit about you, tell us about one writing-related thing you’re proud of, and one non-writing related thing you’re proud of. 

Writing – Probably being published in the first place; having left school aged 16 with no O Levels, I was an unlikely writer, but am proud of the dogged effort, the 20 years’ worth of rejection slips gathered for a dozen novels before one was finally accepted. 

Non-writing – Still living, at my age, in the wild, reclusively and primitively with minimal impact on the world, in a yurt beneath the trees.  The compost toilet, the scavenged firewood, the one bucket a week wash.  Not for me the book lined study or the walnut writing desk. Proud to be poor. 

Q: What brought you to the world of writing? What keeps you writing?  

Self-education, where the need for great language is more vital than food or love. You have to write yourself out of the kind of working class I came from, then write yourself into some kind of sanctuary which never quite exists.  What keeps me writing is to find out what happens next.  

Q: Tell me about what you’re currently working on.  

Until recently, it was a fiction/non-fiction hybrid, historic travel memoir with stories of my rather picturesque ancestors, who were NZ bushmen, notorious thieves and fishermen one side, and Kent landed gentry the other. This is writing for fun, as there is nothing like sifting the world’s archives. In doing so, I discovered I was related to Jane Austen, so a fellow JW editor and historical novelist herself suggested I do this as a novel instead. While sitting beside the river Seine this spring, mulling over her suggestion, a large tourist cruiser, a bateau mouche, sailed past. Its name was Jane Austen. Being a great believer in signs, I am now writing a novel about my ancestors.  The problem is, the next boat along was called Dante.  

Q: You’ve just received a new manuscript to critique: what’s the first thing you do? Walk us through your editing process.  

Thank my lucky stars I have a job, then create a blank page headed Notes upon which I will record all matters arising from the text, including cut & pasting any example quotes I may wish to use.  Nothing fancy, just plain reading, word for word, usually mornings and early evenings. I’m a slow reader, which allows what an author is saying to sink in.  I try to write the report as soon as I’ve finished reading, while the manuscript is still fresh.  One thing which does delight me is that I learn so much from these manuscripts, and I often look things up whilst reading them. 

Q: How do you manage being on the other side of the editorial process – when your own writing is being edited? What should an author who is receiving critique for the first-time be aware of? 

I’ve been lucky with all my book’s editors, and can say that I learned a lot about editing from them.  Careful, scrupulous and imaginative as they were, I often find myself recalling their suggestions and passing them on, albeit in a different context.  So perhaps a new writer might take heart from the fact that whatever an editor says, it’s because it’s already been said to them. 

Q: What writing do you get most excited about working as an editor on? What really makes you intrigued by a submission?  

Anything fresh, unusual, off-beat, authoritative, stylized, in both fiction and non-fiction. Any writer with a deep understanding of what they’re writing about, who can tell me of worlds or things I know nothing about. I’m always impressed by expertise in any field, someone who can tell me how things work whilst weaving a storyline around it.  This can be anything, from nuclear submarines to life in a Brussels office. 

Q: What do you read for pleasure? Is this different to the writing you enjoy working on?  

I used to read a lot; I used to feel I needed to, but editing takes up much of what was once sacred reading time, which leaves none for writing.  So now I will read only for research and background to my own work.  Since about 2005 most books I’ve read were either in French or about French history. In the last year I’ve branched out to include 18th c travel books on Kent, to the diaries of 19c settlers in New Zealand or the many obscure historical works on the life of Jane Austen.  For pleasure, I will take pot-luck and visit something marvellous the French have; all decommissioned telephone boxes have become book depositories. If I see one, I will stop and pick out any vintage crime or regional fiction.  

Q: Finally, if you could only give one piece of advice to all aspiring authors, what would it be?  

Don’t read until you’re published, and never show your writing to friends.

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