The past month has been more about working with authors than working with publishers, which always has me on the lookout for across-the-board issues that I can provide some general tips on for other authors. I was also recently asked to do a Q&A for the amazing writer Debra L. Schubert’s blog, which had me thinking about how to answer general questions about editing in a way that benefits a group of authors, as well.
What’s Your Genre?
One thing that became apparent as we were compiling statistics after the writer’s survey was that “genre” and “demographic” often meant different things to different writers. For example, we printed out the Genre column to do some preliminary numbers on young adult vs. adult, what sort of adult fiction we got, etc., and found many fine answers, but a couple caught my eye that followed a common pattern in query letters and book proposals. The following is a good example:
These responses are actually contradictory for one book, so I thought a quick and dirty explanation of these three vital categories might help some of you first-time authors out there.
Genre: noun—a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.
Gretchen and I are officially back this week from vacationing in Colorado. What a fabulously relaxing way to spend two weeks! Holidays are perfect for writers, too. One has time to ponder and reflect upon his or her work, away from the computer and familiar societal structures. Under new circumstances, the brain tends to widen with perspective. Novel experiences can pull and tug at old, crusty synapses. Heres and theres have the potential to become moments of epiphany. The whole process of leaving and coming back can be just the elixir a potentially stale book project needs.
Because we had such a great time reading your answers to our zombie question in the survey, we felt it only fair that you get to read some of our favorites, as well as see who you want on your zombie-fighting team…gang…squad…troop? We also give you a chance to vote on your favorites, as well as chime in if you have any ideas.
Yesterday was a special day for Cogitate; it marked the five-year anniversary of our editorial partnership. We celebrated with some take-out and the Cogitate Studios Writers’ Contest questionnaires. What a way to spend the day! Thank you to all who participated.
While we had a lot of fun reading your answers, the judging was…well, it was excruciating. We had such a hard time because there were many amazing responses. So many, in fact, that we decided that instead of just picking two grand prize winners, we decided to add two honorable mentions. So, without further ado. Here are our winners:
Thank you so much to all who participated. Beginning this week, we will be posting responses, statistics, and our own responses to the questions we posed to participants.
As the rules state, on Monday, June 21, we will be posting the winners, and sending out some books. We also hope you all stay tuned, as we will be starting another contest at the end of July.
The longer title for this post is: Why You Must Love the People You Work With. Editing is, in many ways, more creative than people realize. Proofreading, of course, is a relatively straightforward job, requiring the editor have a knowledge of grammar rules, current trends (yes, even grammar has them), and house style guides. That being said, even certain grammar rules require a subjective look, e.g., “Does this sentence need a comma, or does it make sense without it?” (I’m not lying; CMOS 6.20 is “In a series whose elements are all joined by conjunctions, no commas are needed unless the elements are long and pauses helpful.”)
But more than that, as an editor, you need to know if your editing style is going to work with the author’s style. I run into this a lot in the work I do with historical and UK fiction, and Henry and I both encounter it on ghost writing projects. Personally, I tend to consistently follow rules, such as ellipsis to indicate stuttering speech or trailing off and em dashes to show interruption (within quotation marks) or an interruption in the dialogue to explain movement (em dashes in the middle of dialogue but outside the quotation marks).
The longer title for this post is: Why You Must Love the People You Work With. Editing is, in many ways, more creative than people realize. Proofreading, of course, is a relatively straightforward job, requiring the editor have a knowledge of grammar rules, current trends (yes, even grammar has them), and house style guides. That [...]
Today, March 4, 2010 is Grammar Day! This year, National Grammar Day is hosted by Mignon Fogarty, also known to many of us as Grammar Girl. (Today is also, coincidentally, my father’s birthday; happy birthday, Dad!) So, what does one do to celebrate Grammar Day? Well, to begin with, I’m not going to give you [...]
In homage to Shelf Awareness’s awesome Book Brahmin feature, and so Gretchen’s reading tastes aren’t all you get to hear about,” I’ve crawled out from underneath my paper mountain to complete an auto-anthropological survey of recent bibliographic habits. Hang on to your bookmarks ’cause here we go! On your nightstand now I’m on page 50 [...]
On the Baker’s Mark site in July, I posted a blog in homage to Shelf Awareness’s wonderful Book Brahmin feature. In honor of the fact that I actually have different answers to these questions at this point, and to the fact that I’m crunched for time with deadlines, I have updated it here. I’m going [...]
Growing up, I had a thing for Peter Parker. Not Spiderman, believe it or not; I thought the sweet, bumbling, ultra-smart high schooler was just my type, not the latex-wearing crime fighter. Anyone mocked for being a nerd and a bookworm was…well, someone who reminded me of me to be honest. And basically, my crush [...]
While contemplating Gabriel H. Boehmer’s book, City of Readers, on my walk to Bread and Ink past Jane Brewster’s mural near Murder by the Book, Hawthorne Blvd Books, and Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, I realize Portland, Oregon, is a book lover’s town.
Editing goes through phases. The amount of editing a manuscript needs depends not only on how it has been prepared but also on the audience for which the work is intended and the publication schedule. Click here to see a larger version of the image above. Estimating how long the editing will take requires looking [...]
A lot has happened in the past month, causing me to neglect the dear blog. In the past four weeks, I had a nasty cold that held on for at least two of those weeks, both parents came to visit, I worked on no less than five editing projects, and a number of books that [...]
This week, I’m finishing up a proofreading job for Sourcebooks Landmark by the talented Wendy Holden, and it occurred to me that this amazing author’s first book to come out from Sourcebooks Landmark (though previously published in the UK) is coming out in April. So, yes, I did actually proofread Beautiful People for Sourcebooks, but [...]
I proofread and fact-checked David Hofstede’s Obsessed With TV for Becker & Meyer. The book contains over 2,500 trivia questions on television shows, icons, awards, and general knowledge. It also includes a cool computerized module embedded in a corner of the cover that allows gamers to compete against themselves or friends. Published by Chronicle Books. [...]
In Elemental Love Styles, Dr. Craig Martin defines the romantic character–leanings of the four elements and explores how each type interacts with themselves and their partner. I was the copyeditor on it for Dr. Martin’s publishing house, Beyond Words/Atria Books. The great thing about this editing job was that the author and editors before me [...]
Actually, we got an A on the project, not a D. Dr. Denis Bedat is a brilliant, competent experimenter and an innovate and thorough scientist. For his dissertation, he configured specialized hardware/software to power a cybernetic nuero-feedback device to test the degree to which conscious control during sessions of multi-sensory therapy enhanced dominant cortical brainwave [...]
In this fresh and funny contemporary romance by bestselling author Jill Mansell, Poppy Dunbar’s whole life gets turned upside down after a chance encounter. This was the fourth Jill Mansell book Sourcebooks hired me for; the assignment was to get this romp ready for its stateside edition, which included Americanizing (to a certain degree) pop-culture [...]
The Grove Review, vol. II, no. II In this issue of the Grove, we managed the art and editorial departments, which included overseeing submissions, editing, permissions, the interior and cover design, and proofing. The cover is our design, as well. The issue produced a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but it was well worth [...]
Of all the books I worked on as the managing editor at Beyond Words, The Secret stands out as the most thrilling—not due to its bestseller status, but the time it took to produce the book. Most hardcovers on Beyond Words’ list took a year of gestation before their pub date. The Secret took four [...]