Listen up!
I admire, respect, and adore my editor. She makes my work better - keeps me from looking like an @ss, truth be told* - and there is no one whose opinion I value more than hers when it comes to writing.
So if you want to know what an editor is looking for - if you want to know what a Senior Editor at a big house is looking for - she's giving a virtual lesson over on Eos' blog. Here is the entry detailing what hooks an editor (and reader, because that's what she is: a really good reader) and here's her talking about what hooked her about Mario Acevedo's first book, THE NYMPHOS OF ROCKY FLATS (which you should probably buy just because of the ballsy title, but I digress). She'll be continuing her series through {mumble, mumble} so catch it while you can.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Vicki
*In as much as is possible.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
For Writers...
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6 comments:
This sounds like very tasty blog entries. Editors are the spice of life and without them we just suck. I love my friend-editor. She is the greatest and critiques my pieces for publication. Amazing woman. Love her.
OMG, she loved Snow Crash. Well, ok, everyone loves Snow Crash, but to cite it as your prime example? Your editor's cool!
(edit) hoops! the message got sent before I finished my sentence! serves me well to enter the word verification before typing the actual comment!)
This is a very Noobs question to ask, but I'll ask anyway, as I'm a noob at (semi-)professional writing
what does an editor do, exactly?
Being a perfectionnist and a bit of a control freak and continuity buff, what having one is going to help me?
I'm used either to write alone, or in collective work such as The Gargoyles Saga or Gargoyles: The New Legends (both being shelved as far as I know), so I don't have experience working with an editor on an one-on-one basis, opposed on a collective review of chapter segments?
DAYDREAM - NOTHING beats a good editor. Nothing.
CHANDRA - She is cool, and smarter than any one human being should be able to lay claim to.
DENIS - Ah, dear...an editor acquires your work for the publishing house. This is the person who falls in love with your book, goes to bat for you in-house, shoves your ms under the right noses (preferably while screaming, "Look what I found!") and, most importantly, they _edit_. Like you, I'm very particular about those who see and crit my work in the beginning, but a good editor can spot the forest, the trees, and provide the compass you need to find your way out of the entire mess. I trust my editor so much I've come to think of her as my creative partner. I write the whole book, making it as pristine as I possibly can before sending it her way (I don't want to waste her time) and then she raises questions and concerns I either may never have thought to answer, or ones that were niggling at me but I somehow couldn't voice. She _doesn't_ try to rewrite. That's my work to do, my job. But by doing hers so exceedingly well, she keeps me from walking around the publishing world with egg on my face.*
(*Except when I do things like refuse to answer basic questions like 'What's your book about?' in live interviews. Even her great talent is stymied by _that_ nonsense!)
Pleased to meet you, Kim-Not-Harrison!
wow, Vicki, thanks for the insight. You've put some worries I had about the editor stuff.
While I'm writing graphic novels and short stories for the French speaking market, my novel is being written in English to be published in the States first.
Do I need an agent?
i've heard of a publisher that print one copy at the time on the order of a customer, though its name eludes me at the time.
What's your opinion on the matter?
Living across the Ocean in a foreign country will probably weight heavily in the choice.
So far, I got the outline for the book (which is presented as a 'season', each chapter being an episode' so to speak) but I've put it on rest for a while so I can get back to it with a calm and objective look. I got the bible for it nearby if I need to refresh my mind.
Funny thing, I originally planned to write the graphic novels as prequels to the novel(s), but the universe largely spinned off the original setting.
Gone is the Illuminati, another organisation, less large but WAY more ruthless than the Illuminati are in the novels.
ohh and btw, what is Snow Crash, exactly?
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