[quote=""Catherine Delors""]
Truth is, an agent doesn't have time to edit. She likes your manuscript, or not. "Editors" at big publishing houses, ditto. Their job is to purchase new stuff, and the title "editor" is just a remnant of times long gone, like the vestigial tails of tadpoles.

The people who do edit are line-editors. That comes very late in the process, or not at all. I am currently reading "The Hemingses of Monticello" which is a GREAT book, but unfortunately not line-edited. The difference really shows.[/quote]
I think the process must vary from agent to agent, and house to house.
As a debut author, I have only limited experience to go on, and it was opposite to the one you cite here. My agent is an ex-editor, and though she did not line edit, she did catch a few typos for correction. She claimed my manuscript was very clean, and she has in the past worked with her authors doing in-depth line edits in order to get a manuscript into the proper shape. She wants wants any manuscript she is representing to be the best it can be for submission.
My editor at Berkley also does not line edit per say, but she will give comments and suggestions where she thinks a scene may need to be fleshed out or tightened, and she will question word choice, dialog tags, etc. Then the copy editor then does a very, very thorough line edit in keeping with house style, with instructions to the typesetter.
We all put a microscope to the first galleys (which ended up being the ARC) and everyone makes further corrections and edits. After those were instituted, the final galleys went through one more very thorough review by me, my editor and the fresh eyes of a proof readerwho double-checks a whole slew of things beyond punctuation, like continuity of character and place name spellings, archaic word spellingsand there were some good catches being made, even at this final stage. Through it all, I always have input and approval.
It seems kind of funny, but I have not actually read the published MIDWIFE OF THE BLUE RIDGE, so I really don't know if there are any mistakes in it that were overlooked. I hope not!
I have a two-book deal, and my agent acted as a beta reader on my recently turned in manuscript #2 , which will be published in April. I have an over-the-phone editorial meeting scheduled for tomorrow with my editor, and the whole process begins again!
