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Thank you! Your last point - about tension - is an interesting one - it's the one where I found it hardest to comment. I think this was because the genre wasn't

Thank you! Your last point - about tension - is an interesting one - it's the one where I found it hardest to comment. I think this was because the genre wasn't one that I normally read, and I didn't really know whether the degree of tension was appropriate for the anticipated readership. Someone else who looked at the same book said "He doesn't suffer enough" and I found myself agreeing. I guess this is an example of the difference between me - who was in effect looking for technical plot consistency - and a professional editor who is aware of the genre conventions and reader expectations.

zombie_owlbear 6y ago
That last point was something neither I nor my dozen readers had noticed, but the editor I hired did. It was such a major point that I decided the book needed a near-complete rewrite to fix. The editor was worth the money just for that one thing! You're definitely right about genre conventions playing a big role. That said, you can still say "I think the character hasn't suffered enough, but maybe that's normal in this genre". What I said about my own editor is actually interesting because they don't normally edit my genre, which was obvious in some aspects, but they could still point out the pacing / tension issue.