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 Friday, July 03, 2009
There Are 2 Types of Writers: Which Are You? (The Other Side of the Slush Pile)
Posted by Jane
  Today's guest post is from the insightful Jim Adams (Migdalin.com). I met Jim at the June WD Editors' Intensive. He also contributed this piece about the benefit of hiring a professional editor.
The Fire in Fiction, by Donald Maass, informs us that there are two types of writers:
- One type writes in order to write.
- The other writes in order to be published, obtain fame, and receive impressively large royalty checks.
As with any dichotomy, this one has its problems, but recently I gained a better understanding of why Mr. Maass would come up with such a dichotomy in the first place.
Recently, I got a chance to sit on the Other Side of the Slush Pile.
Most writers' workshops qualify, in some sense, as slush piles, but the online community Authonomy, run by HarperCollins, takes things one step further. Authonomy lets authors post their books, or significant portions thereof, and then lets them vote for each other's work. Books get rated based on how many votes they have, and books at the top of the ratings get looked at by one or more purchasing editors at HarperCollins.
While you can only vote for five books at a time, you can comment on as many books as you like. Having posted a goodish portion of my own book, I set about providing comments to several individuals who had befriended me or who had suggested a bout of mutual mastication, so long as I went first …
So, I began to read, and I began to critique.
My efforts were unappreciated. I had failed, you see, to follow the prevailing custom, which was to write a critique thusly:
This book was so good, I was tempted to cut off my fingers, because compared to you, I don't deserve to write even a grocery list. Excuse me while I go change my underthings: that's how much your words moved me! I especially liked how you capitalized the first word in every sentence. Masterful!!
Let me reiterate that Authonomy is a slush pile. While I haven't been part of the community for long, the few books I've read and commented on so far are (in my inexpert opinion) not ready for publication, and I don't mean they're in need of a thorough proofreading. The problems I've seen have been fairly major. But, using Mr. Maass's dichotomy, most people on Authonomy appear to be Type 2 writers. They're looking for validation, not criticism. They're looking for publication and a paycheck, not insight into how they might improve their work.
Naturally, it's difficult to accept criticism on a book that took you a year or more to write. And who wants to hear that a book they believe is finished still has significant room for improvement? Move a few commas around? Be happy to! Revise a few sentences for clarity? Well, if you insist. Rewrite the book so it begins on page one, ends at a meaningful destination, and accomplishes something at regular intervals along the way? How dare you!
Of course, tact plays an important part in writing any critique, but having learned my critiquing skills at critters.org, I write tactful critiques as second nature. After all, my book is out there too, and if it's to be savaged, I prefer to have it savaged without unnecessary invective or rancor. But tactful or not, I get the impression that most of the writers on Authonomy aren't interested in meaningful feedback.
To be fair, another part of the equation here is: Who to believe?
Do you believe the fifty people who agree with you that, "Oh my God, this is going to be bigger than Harry Potter," or do you believe the one lone voice of dissent? In all likelihood, the voice of dissent is just a psycho-killer wannabe who fills his time between stalkings by pulling the wings off budding novelists. Your best bet is to quote the immortal Buzz Lightyear ("You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity."), and go on about your business.
Still, whatever the psychology, the end result is the same. Individuals stroke each other and promote books that are half-baked.
It's possible that over-eager writers are outnumbered by those who suffer from the opposite problem: the curse of endless revision. We can't know for sure, but it's worth mentioning. Balance in all things. Sooner or later you have to pull the cake out of the oven, put the icing on it, and let people cut themselves a slice. If someone then tells you the cake could have stayed in the oven just a bit longer, well ... who knows. Maybe they have a point, or maybe next time they don't get invited to tea.
Craft & Technique | Getting Published | Guest Post
Friday, July 03, 2009 10:44:53 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  Trackback
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Thursday, July 02, 2009
Who Exactly Are the Middlemen in Publishing? Can They All Disappear?
Posted by Jane
There have been a number of thought-provoking articles lately on:
If
you take these opinions to their logical extreme, then eventually we'll end up with
just the authors and their readers—without any publishers, agents, or
booksellers around to interfere or steal away profit.
Do these middlemen interfere? (And/or steal?)
Or do these middlemen provide a service, contribute value, and/or offer quality curation for particular audiences?
Certainly there are many types of middlemen. The question for me is: Which will survive and why? The ones who contribute the most value?
Also consider:
- Do booksellers really want to take on the responsibilities of
publishers—which involves fielding the needs, wants, and desires of
thousands of authors? (And are authors ready to give up relationships
with established and talented editors?)
- Do authors really want to take on the
responsibility of agents, which involves scrutinizing contracts and
financial statements from publishers, and knowing the business so well
you can smell when something's wrong—and fight like a bulldog for the best outcome?
As far as the role of
booksellers, that seems a little more in question. Publishers already
have the means and ability to sell direct to readers. So do authors.
What qualities do booksellers need to cultivate to remain relevant in
their middleman position?
Consider this from the current issue
(July-August 2009) of Poets & Writers, where Jofie Ferrari-Adler speaks with Jonathan Galassi,
president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
Actually, at our sales conference … some of the salesmen were
saying that neighborhood bookstores are doing better in the economic
crisis because people are more interested in buying locally and
supporting small businesses. … It's not just more, more, more. But I think all of the
traditional bookstore chains are in trouble. Amazon is very, very
effective. But I think Amazon is a potential … frenemy. It's
not just interested in being a bookstore. So I think we have to sell
our own books to people. … bookstores are the weakest link in the chain. … There are always going to be bookstores, but I don't think that's
where the future of bookselling is.
As a final note, read this especially fine and
thought-provoking post by my colleague Guy Gonzalez, who discusses ways
in which gatekeepers (or curators of great content) will survive
alongside the crowds.
What do you think? Post in the comments.
Photo credit: Dreamer 7112
Industry News & Trends
Thursday, July 02, 2009 1:42:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
The Hardest Part About Developing Platform (Who Are You Anyway?)
Posted by Jane
The hardest part about developing a platform is deciding what you're all about. In business terms, it would be considered your unique selling proposition (USP).
Identifying this USP—or your reason for being!—involves deep self-knowledge, an understanding of what you want out of life, and how that interrelates with what other people need and enjoy.
It boils down to 3 questions:
- What are you passionate about?
- Who's your audience?
- What are your strengths?
Think of it as a Venn diagram.
What are you passionate about?
What's the unique content,
authentic experience, or remarkable work you would undertake even if
you weren't paid for it? What motivates you to get up in the morning?
Who's your audience?
What are the needs of your audience? How do they want to be approached? What
kinds of appeals are they most receptive to? Where can they be found?
What are your strengths?
When
are you strongest in interacting and reaching and serving? What formats
or mediums are a good fit for you—and match your passion? When is your
content/service/product at its best? (Example of bad fit: Your passion for the cave dwelling Luddite movement combined with your Twitter marketing strength.)
What you're looking for is
that moment of peak experience, when who you are and what you're
passionate about and how it is expressed or manifested all comes
together to create a compelling experience that your audience needs and loves.
Think
about times when you've experienced peak performance, the times when
you felt you were in your absolute element, better than anyone else in
the world at what you were doing in that moment. You felt happy,
fulfilled, relaxed, joyful. Some people call it "flow."
That's the seed of your platform.
Building Readership | General | Marketing & Self-Promotion
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 6:05:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Are You Needlessly Worrying About Your Work Getting TOO MUCH Exposure?
Posted by Jane
As writers become more and more comfortable with online media, I receive more and more questions like this:
- If I post my work on my own site, will anyone be willing to consider it for print publication?
- How much of my novel can I post online before a publisher won't take it any more?
- Do I lose rights to my work if it's posted on XYZ site?
Here are key points to remember.
1. First things first: You own the copyright and all rights to your work when you post it online, unless you specifically agree otherwise. It may be easier to steal when it's online, but you still own it.
2. Always check the terms of service when regularly posting content to any site. If you're posting your work on major sites like Authonomy, WeBook, etc., you really have nothing to worry about. In such cases,
you're not relinquishing any exclusive or vital rights to your work by
posting it. (If someone knows of exceptions, please note in the
comments.)
However, there
may be an implicit agreement—by very fact of you using a website—that
the site owner has nonexclusive right to use the content in a limited
(or expansive) way. Such use is usually justified or reasonable, and sometimes it might profit the site owner. You need to decide what
you're comfortable with and if the trade-offs are worth it. I have
yet to see an agreement that is unethical or not upfront.
For example, here is Amazon's language governing book review content, which you agree to when using their site:
If you do post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Amazon a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Amazon and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they choose. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content that you post; that the content is accurate; that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity; and that you will indemnify Amazon for all claims resulting from content you supply. Amazon has the right but not the obligation to monitor and edit or remove any activity or content. Amazon takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted by you or any third party.
This basically means that while you retain rights to your work, Amazon has the right do whatever it pleases as well. The key is the word "nonexclusive." If Amazon decided to publish a collection of the most kinky book reviews ever written, and used your material, they would not owe you any money or need to ask your permission, though of course it would be considered good practice and common courtesy to notify you.
3. If your work doesn't have a lot of commercial value, who cares? Here is where I have to be completely insensitive and say bluntly: Writers are overly worried about work that is not commercially valuable. Many things that people post online, whether on their own sites or elsewhere, are online precisely because there isn't a commercial value attached. So, when you post your work without compensation, there is an essential value statement made that, right now, you're valuing exposure (or service or community) more than payment. Or that you're marketing and promoting yourself, your brand, or a work that does have commercial value.
4. That said, the value of your work CAN change or be discovered later—which only opens up the commercial value and potential of your work. Remember that online exposure and online media are not the same as print exposure and print media. They are usually written and edited differently, presented differently, marketed differently, and read differently. The online audience is not 100% the same as the print audience (and sometimes not even 10% the same!).
Think of it this way: If you participated in a poetry slam and became wildly successful as a poet-entertainer, with thousands of followers, would that detract from your ability to publish books of your poetry? No, in fact, it would help make the case for print publication. Would a presentation of your poems online, in a way that gathered 10,000 unique visitors every day, detract from the sales of a beautiful physical chapbook? Of course not. It would help.
For the most part, online and print are complimentary—they are not competitive. Any book publisher who refuses to consider a work that has been successfully published digitally or online or in a multimedia format has not caught up with the times. Magazine and newspapers are a little different, but if they become a fan of your online work, most likely they will ask you to produce an original work for print publication.
5. You're always producing more work, right? Don't hold on so tightly to each piece of work that you're not focusing on new production.
Yes, even I hang onto my creative writing from senior year in high school, and have a catalog of all the places my work has appeared over the years (online and in print, often without pay), but even if a third party is profiting off my work online, that work has no commercial value to me anymore. I'm producing better stuff now. Plus the old work serves to offer additional exposure, little guideposts leading people to the more recent work.
Key takeaway: Just because your work is "published" when it appears online doesn't mean you've destroyed its market value. That's a very old-school way of viewing the value of content—a viewpoint that's based on decades of print publication tradition, when whoever had the "first" rights to print publication had the "best" rights, and paid the most.
If you haven't noticed, things have changed.
P.S. ... and a final word on theft: Stop worrying. When writing becomes a lucrative profession and when demand for writing far outstrips supply, then maybe we can discuss. In the meantime, feel flattered that someone thought your work was good enough they wanted to bother taking the time and effort to market, promote, pitch, and/or publish it themselves.
UPDATE: I recently read this post from Stefanie Peters, which makes 2 more important points about posting your work online, especially in forums like Authonomy.
Photo credit: Wetsun
Building Readership | Digitization & New Technology | Getting Published | Marketing & Self-Promotion
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 6:03:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Risking Failure (from the Glimmer Train Bulletin)
Posted by Jane
Every month, Glimmer Train sends out a monthly bulletin with information about their contests, as well as helpful advice from established writers. In the most recent bulletin (Bulletin 30), you'll find:
Incidentally, the next issue of Writer's Digest magazine (September 2009) will feature an essay from Henkin as well, in the MFA Confidential column.
Here's a little of what Henkin has to say in his Glimmer Train piece:
I
believe this is one of the most important lessons a writer can learn:
You must always be willing to risk failure. Another lesson: Don't take
rejection personally. So much is luck—finding the right editor at the
right moment when he or she will be receptive to the story you've
submitted. I know this first-hand.
Click here for Bulletin 30 (and to find archives of other bulletins).
Craft & Technique | Getting Published
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 5:07:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Saturday, June 27, 2009
Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 6/26/09)
Posted by Jane
 I
watch
Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Friday or Saturday for the week's best Tweets. (If I missed a great Tweet, leave
it in the Comments, or if you want more of a particular category of Tweet, also comment.) Best of BestWhy New Novelists Are Kinda Old, or, Hey, Publishing is Slow
by @scalzi
@dbschlosser
Book publicist reveals one key thing publishers look for before considering your book
@BookWritingTips
The Seven Deadly Writing Sins
@nicoledenae
Where will we be in five years?
@chipmacgregor
Giving ebooks away for free increases print book sales
@bradvertrees
If you only read one marketing post ever, read this one - 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
@tferriss
Writing Roads: Authentic Trumps Agreeable
@KFZuzulo
36 Free EBooks for Writers by @PacificBlue
@BookBuzzr
Stand AloneWriting tip 21: Agonize over your 1st story only after you’ve written your 10th, your 10th after your 20th.
@barryintokyo
I have a number of valuable business contacts that I 'found' on Twitter. It is a serious tool in day-to-day business life.
@MichaelHyatt
A poet once said that handwriting connects the pulse of the heart, down the arm, to the fingers, to the pen, to the page. #writechat
@debramarrs
Q. What exactly is a pitch? A. Think of it as back-cover text of your book. Whatzitbout? Whozitfor? Whoyou? Whycare?
@DavidRozansky
No need to note your "copyright" on manuscript. Legally unnecessary (is © as soon as you write it down) and looks amateurish.
@papertyger
No need to "design" your manuscript w/clip art & unusual fonts. The point is the text, not a fancy title page.
@papertyger
Overheard: Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook are merging together: "YouTwitFace.com"
@human3rror
"If you want to build an online community it can't be about you." Says @calilewis
@ThomasUmstattd
Best of Twitter
Saturday, June 27, 2009 6:29:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Friday, June 26, 2009
Better Than Brad Pitt? (Why You Should Go to Book Events)
Posted by Jane
Today's guest post is from becoming-a-regular-and-fabulous-contributor Darrelyn Saloom. Above she is shown with Tim Gautreaux, the recipient of the 2009
Louisiana Writer Award and author of three novels and two story collections.
The picture was taken at Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans. Follow Darrelyn on Twitter.
A book event! Authors read from their latest masterpiece, sign copies, and, if you’re lucky, share stories of their writing journey. Maybe an author will reveal how he/she found the plot (in a newspaper), the characters (popped into their head), or even the theme (a song on the radio).
It’s easy to project grandiosity on an admired author. Born to brilliance, for them it comes easy. Such a perfect sentence, and look at that verb. Oh the ease!—the ease from which he/she writes—larger than life, and so much smarter than me.
That’s what I tend to think of writers I admire. And that’s what I thought of Tim Gautreaux. My friends knew this about me. I drove around with his books in my car. Recommended his short story collections and novels to strangers in airports and on the streets (yeah, that was me). So I was thrilled when Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans sent me an e-mail to announce his scheduled book signing.
The day of the event, I checked into Hotel Monteleone and found my way to Prytania Street. The bookstore had a small coffee shop to the side of the building, and I spotted Gautreaux and his lovely wife, Winborne, sipping coffee in a window seat. And, yes, I was nervous. This was better than a French Quarter Brad Pitt sighting for me.
The Louisiana native did not disappoint. With Cajun accent he read from his latest novel The Missing. And then he talked about his writing process. The audience sipped wine, nibbled cheese, and asked questions. And his answers were generous.
Generous because his stories were often rejected by editors—yes—rejected! And he told us that red marks mapped the pages of his returned manuscripts! But here was the key (and what I believe separates a talented writer from becoming a published author—or not).
When Tim Gautreaux’s stories and manuscripts landed back in his mailbox, he read suggestions and criticisms with an open mind. He explained how he’d carefully tear apart a rejected story, rewrite and revise it, put it back together, and send it out again. And again. And again, if necessary. Until he got it right.
If you’ve read Gautreaux’s novels and stories, you know he’s a man obsessed with machines. His characters are camera repairmen, piano tuners, welders, train engineers, and a priest. Okay, so maybe a priest has nothing to do with machinery, but there’s an old Toronado in the story with a “huge eight-cylinder engine and no muffler.”
Tinkering is Tim Gautreaux’s lifelong hobby. He told us about the barn in his backyard in Hammond, Louisiana; and about his collection of antique steamboat whistles, lanterns, and gauges, an amusement that seeped into his novel, The Missing.
“Find what you love,” he said, “and write about it.” What Tim Gautreaux loves has served him well. Tinkering with machinery seems to have taught him the patience to be a writer. To construct something, to take it apart (piece by piece), and then to build it again is not easy. It’s hard work. And it’s akin to writing a poem, a story, a novel. It took him nearly five years to write The Missing.
There are other reasons to attend a book signing: to support a fellow writer, a favored bookstore, (did I mention they often serve wine and cheese?). But to connect to an admired author, and to share his/her struggles are valuable lessons for an aspiring author. And there really is no excuse not to go. Because—they are free.
(The day I completed this blog post, the June issue of The New Yorker arrived in my mailbox—bearing a stapled gift—a new story by Tim Gautreaux! “Idols” is about Julian Smith. And he is a typewriter repairman. So add typewriter repairman to my earlier list. Follow this link to read Julian’s comical and stubborn journey to defeat.)
Craft & Technique | Getting Published | Guest Post
Friday, June 26, 2009 8:28:41 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Writing Advice Hasn't Changed Much Since 1921
Posted by Jane
On my desk I keep a copy of one of the first Writer's Digest
titles, How to Write Short Stories by L. Josephine Bridgart, published
in 1921. It is a subtle reminder of how little things have changed
when it comes to writing and publishing. Below is an excerpt from the
very first chapter, "Common Sense in Viewing One's Work."
—
Writing
for publication is a business. If the new writer will accept this fact
he will have laid a foundation upon which, if he have the necessary
natural ability, he can build success.
If a young woman tells
you that she intends to take up nursing, and later reveals that her
chief reason for doing so is that the uniforms in a certain hospital
have attracted her, or that she enjoys reading to the sick, or dislikes
the business life her father has suggested for her, or has heard that
nurses make a great deal of money, you immediately feel that her
nursing will not be a great success. You reason that nursing involves
some very hard and disagreeable duties and that a girl who think only
of the incidental pleasures or the monetary rewards is pretty sure to
fail. It is not common business sense to enter a profession without
taking into consideration the requirements of that profession.
I
have read this lack of common business sense between the lines of many
a first story. Some of these stories tell how a young girl with no
experience won a prize in a short story or novel contest; often the
prize-winning story was written in an afternoon, or an evening, or in
the dead of night as the result of an idea which came to the author
after she had retired. Some of these stories are about attractive young
women who sold an editor a manuscript because she was attractive, or
because she was poor, or because she was sick or saucy. Such stories
show plainly that the authors are depending on personal charm or "an
inspiration" or luck rather than upon hard work to win acceptances.
They do not stop to reason that before they can hope to sell a
manuscript they must learn how to produce a manuscript that some editor
will want to buy. …
Unless you respect the principles governing
the construction of a story or an article or a poem you cannot produce
a manuscript that the careful editor will consider worthy of a place in
his magazine. In any other trade or profession, the beginner expects to
encounter a great deal of hard work. He expects to master certain
rules, learn to apply them, and then make himself skillful by practice.
Writing for publication means careful preparation and a great deal of
hard work, just as millinery and surgery and sculpture do.
In
her autobiography Ellen Terry tells of actresses who had explained to
her that they did not care to be hampered by the rules. The successful
actress had replied that it was wise to learn the rules before one
decided to abandon them. "Before you can be eccentric," she commented
pithily, "you must know where the circle is." …
The editor does
not care at all about rules as rules. He wants a manuscript that will
hold his readers' interest. If you can break the rules and still
produce a manuscript that will grip the attention from the first
sentence to the last you need not fear that your irregularities will
cause you a rejection.
Craft & Technique | Fun | General | Getting Published
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:36:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monthly News From Glimmer Train
Posted by Jane
 Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their April Family Matters
competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all
writers for stories about family, with a word count range 500-12,000. Monthly submission calendar may be viewed here. First place
Randolph Thomas of Baton Rouge, LA (shown right), wins $1200 for
“According to Foxfire”. His story will be published in the Fall 2010
issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in August 2010.
Second place
Amy S. Gottfried of Thurmont, MD, wins $500 for “Chim
Chiminy”. Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer
Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.
Third place
Abe Gaustad of Germantown, TN, wins $300 for “A Month of
Rain”. A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Deadlines approaching!
Fiction
Open: June 30 This
quarterly competition is open to all writers for stories on any theme, with a
word count range of 2000-20,000. Click here
for complete guidelines.
Best Start: June 30 This
new category is different from their others in that the piece should be an
engaging and coherent narrative, but it does not need to be a complete story;
it needs to be an important part of a story in progress. Only open to
writers whose fiction has not appeared in a nationally distributed print
publication with a circulation over 3000. Maximum word count:
1000. Click here for
complete guidelines.
--
If
you didn't know, Writer's Digest partnered with Glimmer Train to
publish two compilation volumes of the best stuff from their Writers Ask newsletter. Be sure to check them out.  
General | Getting Published
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 5:28:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Monday, June 22, 2009
How to Save Time and Money with Professional Editors
Posted by Jane
This post has been adapted from material by Jim Adams, at his site Migdalin.com. I met the talented Jim this past weekend at the WD Editors' Intensive, and we discussed his passion for editor George H. Scithers.
—
After 30 years of rejection, I finally got tired of not knowing why my writing wasn't working. Before trying to find a publisher or an agent, I sent the novel I'd just finished (or so I thought) off to a professional editor.
The year that followed was expensive (professional editors don't come cheap), but it also taught me things about plot, protagonist, pacing, and novel structure that I hadn't picked up from 15 credit hours of undergraduate creative writing courses, an M.A. in creative writing, and reading untold books on writing (some of them with titles like PLOT).
Professional editors are more efficient than how-to books. They give you feedback specific to your project. It's one thing to read a "rule" in a book, it's another thing to have an editor point to a spot in your opus and say, "Here's where you broke the rule, and here's how your writing was weakened as a result."
Professional editors can be more effective than a degree in creative writing, since half your time in getting that sort of degree will be in ancillary class work. Worse, unless you're careful and choosy, you could easily wind up (as I did) at a university where the creative writing teachers sneer at pedestrian concerns like plot. If you dream of getting an M.A. or M.F.A. in creative writing, you might consider finding a professional editor instead. Not only could you learn more in less time, the editorial route might even be less expensive (depending on the university you're applying to), especially if going back to school means giving up a decent-paying job.
As sold as I am on getting help from professional editors, though, when I started working on a new novel, I faced a real dilemma: an insufficiency of funds. Although I hope this new book will need less editorial hand-holding than the previous one, getting the full manuscript critiqued still represents a major expense.
Also, I never feel I've mastered something until I do it right three times in a row. As such, I still have doubts about my ability to spot major plot holes and plot sidetracks on my own.
My brilliant solution to this conundrum?
I sent my editor a detailed synopsis rather than a complete novel.
Getting a synopsis critiqued is not only less expensive, it can save you a lot of time. In my case, although I already had a complete draft of the novel written, revising generally takes me twice as long (at least) as writing the rough draft. Thus, by spotting major non sequiturs in the synopsis, my editor can save me from tweaking pages, chapters, or even (please God, not that again!) an entire book that needs to be tossed out and rewritten from scratch.
If you like to outline and plan books ahead of time, you could even save yourself time during the drafting stage by getting an editor to look at your story premise and outline straightaway.
While they might tell you things you don't want to hear (such as that your underlying story idea won't hold water), wouldn't you rather find that out before you've spent months or years of your life working on the thing?
Even getting a synopsis edited can cost $200 or more, but it's money well-spent, since this particular $200 could save me weeks, even months, of fruitless revision and polishing. Even better, it could save me several thousand dollars, compared to sending a full manuscript to my editor, only to find that my novel has major structural problems—problems that could have been fixed via a review of my story outline.
Wondering how to find a solid professional editor? Preditors and Editors is a good resource for checking out an editing service before you give them your money or your manuscript. I've been using The Editorial Department, and the editor they assigned me to (Peter Gelfan) is the greatest: cruel, insensitive, tactful, patient, and very insightful.
My first book is still making the rounds of agents and publishers, and may still wind up turning into a trunk novel. While I'm convinced it's technically solid, that isn't enough to make a book sell given the difficult publishing environment these days. But whether my first book makes it or not, I feel much better about what I'm doing. I no longer feel like I'm spinning my wheels fruitlessly, repeating the same mistakes over and over again without realizing it.
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Have you used a professional editing service that you've had a good experience with? Recommend it in the comments!
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Monday, June 22, 2009 1:32:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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