You've done it. You've finally done it. All the moments spent scribbling furious notes on scraps of paper, consuming unnatural levels of caffeine and slowly destroying your spine by sitting hunched over a laptop in a decidedly un-ergonomically correct position have finally paid off. You got your first book deal. You've worked hard and now you can sit back and relax. The hard part is finally over.

Sort of.

Not really.

Actually, you're just starting. You've still got a long way to go before you get to stroll into a Barnes & Noble and see your book sitting in a satisfying little pile on a table. And how that journey from Point A to Point B goes will depend largely on your relationship with one of the newly-acquired Most Important People in Your Life—your editor.

There are things you can do—and things you can avoid doing—to make sure that relationship is a happy and productive one. We asked a few editors for advice and here's what they said:

Editing Is a Collaborative Process

The editor-author relationship is a collaborative one that inherently demands a willingness on the author's part to be receptive to feedback, open to re-thinking the material, and open to (as the title implies) editing.

"The best sort of author is someone who sees the benefit of editing and outside criticism," says Simon & Schuster Executive Editor, Geoff Kloske. "And the worst kind is the author who is going to argue with your every attempt to make them a better author."

Editing is implicitly a form of criticism and authors who don't take criticism well will likely find the process difficult and perhaps even antagonistic. But an author who views criticism as an arbitrary attack on the material is wasting the potential value of a good editorial suggestion.

"The worst sort of person who, when they give you a manuscript, is so exhausted and spent by it, they're upset by any sort of changes you want to make," says one editor. "They accuse you of not liking their book despite the fact that you paid money for it. They view the editor-author relationship as sort of a customer service relationship."

Ideally, the relationship should be a partnership. Both parties have a stake in the book's success and criticism is a necessary part of the refining process.

And editing is not a unidirectional dispensing of advice. In the best of situations it's an ongoing dialogue between the editor and author. "It's always fun to edit somebody who, instead of just agreeing or disagreeing with an edit, grasps the logic behind your suggestion and comes up with a whole new solution of his or her own," says Farrar, Straus & Giroux Editor Lorin Stein. "I think that's largely a matter of trust. It happens when deep down each of you suspects, even in the middle of a passionate disagreement, that the other person's probably in the right."

"I've found that most disagreements and potential problems in the publication process can be resolved if all parties talk to each other and remember that we're all on the same side," says Little, Brown Senior Editor Asya Muchnick. Your editor wants your book to do well just as much as you do.

And as with any professional relationship, good communication is absolutely necessary and should be conducted in a professional manner. And this means, of course, that the you specifically are communicating with the editor.

"I've shared some unpleasant news that something was not acceptable and first I tried to call and when they weren't available, I emailed," says one editor. "The next I heard from the author was a phone call from his wife, complaining that because of his fragile emotional and mental state I needed to be less demanding on him." If you have a problem with something that's happening, talk directly to your editor. Having someone else call to avoid confrontation or having your agent call with a set of demands is not productive for anyone.

"Most rules that apply to polite communication in life should also be applied to communication with your editor," says Kloske. "[For example,] proofread all of your emails. Never send emails in the middle of the night. You will regret it."

"It's still fairly common that first-time authors underestimate how critical it is that they behave in an unflaggingly reliable, professional, and energetic manner," adds Crown Senior Editor Chris Jackson. "And to every now and then allow for a little humility. It is harder and harder to break first-time authors out, and for a book to have a shot, the author has to be genius-level talented, Bush-level lucky, or else a hard-assed, deadline-meeting, hustling professional."

The ideal author, says Jackson, "delivers manuscripts on time; exhibits patience and understanding with their likely overworked editor; informs themselves about the process and asks questions to the point of becoming annoying; [They] think clearly, creatively, and practically about promotion and publicity; and stand up for themselves immediately when they disagree with cover design, editing, publicity or any other aspect of the process."

The Process May Not Be What You Were Expecting

When editor-author relationships are not working, it's often because the authors have failed to educate themselves about the process and what publishing will or won't do for them.

"People come to us thinking that we can transform them," says HarperBusiness Editorial Director Marion Maneker. "But that's not what publishing is. Publishers are an amplifier. They can take what ever the author has in terms of a platform and amplify it. But it's the rare case where we can make someone a star. That's not really what we're best at."

"Most publications do not change the lives of the people involved," adds another editor. "Sometimes when an author does well or about what you had expected, but Oprah did not appear and change everyone's fortunes, no beachfront property was purchased, and an author looks for someone to blame for the bad review in the New York Times. And [blaming the editor] tends not to be productive way to go."

And many authors simply don't understand what actually happens after their book is sold. "I think a lot of authors are surprised by how long the editing and production process usually takes and by how many people come on board in the publication of the book," says Muchnick. "Up until the book is acquired by a publisher, it has often only been read by a handful of people. Once the book is under contract, a whole host of people the author has never met are suddenly reading the book. For many authors, it's the first experience of letting go of their work and it can be both invigorating and terrifying."

"As far as the production process is concerned, there's usually some time that passes between when the contract is signed and when the author delivers his manuscript," Muchnick explains. "If a book was acquired as a partial manuscript or proposal, that time lapse is significant. Then, the editor edits it and sends it back for revision; this can go on for several rounds until the manuscript is deemed 'final' by the editor. From that point, the production cycle takes about nine months until the finished book is ready. Many authors are already on to their next project by the time the book in question is published; they have psychologically already left it behind, but now they have to gear up to do the publicity and promotion—to answer questions about the book, their characters, what inspired them to write it in a way that is fresh and interesting."

And once the book is out, the initial thrill of being published may seem comparatively short. " I think it's hard to prepare for how quickly it's all over," says Stein. "The publishing part, I mean. Unless you're very lucky, you get your two weeks on the front table at Barnes and Noble, a handful of reviews, maybe a cocktail party—then your baby's out there on its own."

The Relationship Is Not Over Once the Book Is Published

And when your baby's out there on its own it's up to you and your publisher to make sure people are reading it.

"I expect [my authors] to do some serious thinking about who their target audience is and how to reach them," says Jackson. "But not just pie-in-the-sky ideas like television advertising or hiring a street team, which I get a lot. I'm talking about gritty, unglamorous research: This can mean compiling lists of not just magazines and newspapers to send review copies to, but doing byline research to find the writers at those magazines and newspapers who might be interested. Sometimes it means coming up with creative ideas and also creative ways to execute them."

"For instance, Adam Mansbach, author of Angry Black White Boy, wanted to have a big media event to launch his book, which was a paperback original novel (which meant that we didn't have a huge promotional budget). So we collaborated on putting together a party, he found a liquor sponsor (Hypnotiq, the blue, high-alcohol drink that looks like cleaning fluid but tastes like a little syrupy slice of blue heaven), and we had a great event--at least what I remember of it was great. But authors can do all kinds of things, from finding leads for our special sales department to hooking up with lecture agents to lengthen their tours to signing stock at every bookstore they pass to blogging to coming up with great in-store event ideas beyond simple readings."

Doing book promotion well also means marshalling every available resource at one's disposal to help publicize the book. Failing to let every friend and acquaintance you've ever met know about the publication of your book is a disservice to both your book and your publisher.

"I had an author who worked at a big magazine and had a column," says one editor. "The author had a reading at Barnes & Noble and no one came. 'No editorial assistants?' I asked. 'Your editors didn't come?' 'Well,' said the author, 'I thought they'd read the listing in Time Out and they'd come if they wanted to come.' I didn't know what to say to him."

And if the Book Doesn't Do Well…

Don't blame your editor.

"I have heard stories about authors who get verbally abusive with their editors when they don't hear what they want," says Muchnick."What some authors don't realize is that the editor is often just the conduit for decisions being made about the book, not the source of those decisions. There is a vast publishing machine working on the book at any given time and some things are out of the editor's hands. So it gets you nowhere to shoot the messenger, who is often the book's chief advocate in the house."

Elizabeth Spiers is the editor-in-chief of mediabistro.com