editors and interviews, houses and publishing.. what happens to your book after you send your book ?

JKabol
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. .

i dont guess we'll ever just get a writing theory section, so we'll just have to fatten the lessons and self side forums:

with Richard The Wickerman and the homie Caleb Ross and and of course Jase--and those i've inevitably forgotten--trying to get their manus into the door at different publishing houses or pushed through self discipline, i think it's time we look at editors:

i dont know how many of us intend to self publish our first work, but if i do, i will first proposition an editor, offer a boatload of money for a clear "eye" on the work for rifts and flaws in the work

the reason i dont often, personally, touch or order many self pubd books is because i know or have a feeling that the work never made it through an editor's catcher's mitt

there have of course been a few exceptions: two of my favorite books were self published:
The Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico: 9 Tales of Life and Death by Stephen Blackburn
[color=blue]House[/color] of Leaves by MZD--it was originally self published and was only later picked up Pantheon

back to the editors:

so, what i wanna do is spend time with editors:

everyone search out an interview with an editor, big houses and small

also, artlicles on editing, or anything on any website that promotes knowledge of the publishing world

and paste a link here. make certain that the link isnt here first, though. and let's see what we can collect collectively

first stop, an interview with one of the dozen editors for knopf:
http://www.missourireview.com/content-index.php?genre=Interviews&title=A...

very interesting read. let's try and get a whole bunch. maybe through bombardment, we'll pull away a few gems of understanding about the publishing world
-kabol

..

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Posted February 27th, 2008 by JKabol

stonecoyote
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Re: editors and interviews,

I really enjoyed that and found it informative. I'm pretty new to the world of computers but I will try to post anything of interest. Thanks JKabol.

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Wed, 02/27/2008 - 08:17

thirstygerbil
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Re: editors and interviews,

Great, great idea. Here's an interview with Pat Walsh, editor (former editor?) of MacAdam/Cage that I've had saved to my harddrive for while. Good stuff.

 

http://www.slushpile.net/index.php/2005/07/01/interview-pat-walsh-editor...

 

I'll read the Missouri Review interview above, JKabol, this evening.

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Thu, 02/28/2008 - 00:37

dirtypunk
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Re: editors and interviews, houses and publishing.. what happen

Well, you're dead right about editors. Get to know them. If you want to make a film you get to know directors, producers, etc. - publishing is the same way. You can find us editors at industry conferences, fan conventions, and writing workshops all over the country - I've been a guest at a bunch of these. I've gotten to know tons of other editors this way - they're all pretty easy to talk to, and are all to willing to give helpful tips and advice. Attending the World Fantasy Convention or World Horror Convention is usually good for this, especially since you get to network with so many indie authors as well as the editors.

Self published material: in an effort to get published by my company authors constantly bombard me with their self published/vanity published stuff (self publishing involves setting up an actual business...vanity publishing means paying somebody like Author House to publish you). And no, the stuff obviously never went anywhere near an editor. It's bad, man.

If you have a mss and want to go the vanity route, or even the traditional publishing route, get an author friend/editor friend to look it over before you do anything with it. Or, get a freelance editor to work it over - if there's a newspaper in your town there's a freelance editor (editors are always doing work on the side).

Frequently, even just the submission process will help. Even if rejection is painful the editors usually point out structural issues, line edits, etc.

Hope this is helpful.


Sun, 04/13/2008 - 14:30

JKabol
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 Joined: 2003-12-03
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Re: editors and interviews, houses and publishing.. what happen

dirtypunk wrote:

Hope this is helpful.

 

.

 

 

 

incredibly so, thank you.

kabol

 

 

 

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__________________________

They caught me because of the blood on my fingers and between my teeth. I looked up from my meal on the tile of the kitchen floor and dropped her cold limb with a thud and minor splash and told them it wasn't me.


Sun, 04/13/2008 - 16:26