You don’t have to floss all your teeth. Just the ones you want to keep. —dentists’ motto Ever since I began this blog in 2009, everyone in the publishing industry has been weighing in on the big question: “Do you really need to hire an independent editor? Don’t agents love… Read more“Understanding freelance independent editors”
Tag: Publishing
6 Steps to Tangling with the Publishing Windmill
This is the story about what happened after that Writers Conference in 1996 at which I became friends with the brilliant novelists Lucia Orth and Sasha Troyan. Actually, a lot of things happened, one of them being that I went home and completely rewrote my current novel yet once again…. Read more“6 Steps to Tangling with the Publishing Windmill”
3 More Things to Know About Exposition & Telling
We talked last week about an alarmingly bizarre piece of writing advice one of my clients got from an agent in response to her requested full manuscript. We also talked about exposition & telling and why they’re pretty much exactly the same thing, even though I know we out here… Read more“3 More Things to Know About Exposition & Telling”
3 Things to Know About Exposition & Telling
A bizarre thing happened to a client of mine the other day. This writer that it happened to is one of my best clients. She’s been writing all her life. She has a fabulous imagination and sees her characters moving and acting and speaking with wonderful vividness. She’s written lots… Read more“3 Things to Know About Exposition & Telling”
Publishing, POD, eBooks, Self-Publishing
—Freelance Independent Editor FAQ
And now we’ve arrived at the fourth of the four questions I’m most frequently asked. I’ve answered: 1. Must you write to a preset wordcount, classify your novel in a predetermined genre, ‘dumb down’ your novel? and: 2. How do you know which freelance independent editors are good and which… Read more“Publishing, POD, eBooks, Self-Publishing<br>—Freelance Independent Editor FAQ”
The 2 Non-Artistic Professions Running
the Artistic World of Contemporary Fiction
MY ANNUAL RANT I promised last week that I’d explain this week why almost all of what’s widely publicized as contemporary fiction these days falls into the lowest-quality categories that exist: Telling really badly, Telling mediocrely-to-competently, and Showing really badly. I’ll tell you straight off it’s a goddamn artistic crime,… Read more“The 2 Non-Artistic Professions Running<br>the Artistic World of Contemporary Fiction”
Why You’re Not Going to Make It as a Writer,
in 8 Parts
Short answer: you don’t know what you mean by “make it.” Do you mean get an agent? You can get an agent. This country is CHOCK FULL TO BURSTING right this moment with brand new, chomping-at-the-bit, frothing-at-the-mouth, starving agents. People who should not have been allowed to learn to type… Read more“Why You’re Not Going to Make It as a Writer,<br>in 8 Parts”
Selling rights in a cloud
Have you guys been following what’s going on with the London Book Fair? A volcano that erupted in Iceland has whited-out British airspace, making it almost impossible for folks to get to the Book Fair from elsewhere in the world. Not only that. But it’s also making it impossible for… Read more“Selling rights in a cloud”
Swinging between Amazon and Apple with the ebook publishers
You’ve got to give Jeff Bezos credit for cojones, if not business savvy. The guy still hasn’t learned to stay off the trapeze without a net. Motoko Rich of the NY Times and Christina Warren of Mashable both report this week that Amazon is back to swinging wildly from the… Read more“Swinging between Amazon and Apple with the ebook publishers”
Catching up with those illuminated manuscripts—I mean, ebooks
Check out this fascinating look at the evolution of publishing by O’Reilly’s VP of digital initiatives. Are ebooks the new quad type? And this Week in Review in the NY Times on the history of the relationship between reading and socializing. Didn’t they read Dickens out loud around the fire?… Read more“Catching up with those illuminated manuscripts—I mean, ebooks”