2 December, 2013
This blog usually arises from the challenge of my work week. But following the move, I ran off for a week’s vacation that had been planned a year earlier. I returned last night and have been so brain dead that I had not a thought about my professional life the whole six days. So I’ll write about what has been bombarding me today (besides cats, dry plants, empty fridge, and laundry).
I was in a small Mexican town that has been discovered. “The scene” is pretty much contained within the two blocks between the Plaza and the beach and about five blocks wide. Fortunately I found easy access to a beach that the local population uses with their families, and a wander the first day took me through an hour of jungle to a stunning and almost unused beach. Perfect weather for sleeping out under the stars with a gentle tropical breeze to blow away all thoughts that life is different – even my life – in other times and places.
So what awaited my first day back? (I will note that I have a professional prejudice against introducing an idea with a rhetorical question. But it popped right up on my screen and I’m standing behind it – let’s call it “for stylistic reasons,” since that can’t be argued with. Though in my editor’s role I would . . . )
I edited a book a couple months back without resolving with the author my suggestion for changing the way of presenting a specific aspect of the content. The author eventually concurred and has been patiently waiting for my month of moving to end so I can make those changes. I’ll start tomorrow. Several clients respectfully waited till today to ask questions and set appointments. One, whose project we finished just before the move, is ready to talk about the next project. Another has a question about the estimate I sent just before leaving – what does it entail, can she make the changes I’ve already suggested in the process of working up the estimate before I begin work.\? Of course, she can – my work is about supporting a writer’s process as efficiently as possible, and helping them become better writers from our interactions.
She had an interesting question for which I can’t give a definitive answer until I’ve read more than the 25 or 30 pages I looked at to work up the estimate. The story is conveyed from the perspective of two foreign born women, one of whom flees before adolescence but returns as an adult. Her English is of course excellent. The other tells her personal story in her native language, which reads as fluent English. But when she is speaking with the other woman, her English would not be grammatically correct, though the American raised woman’s would. How can that be conveyed?
That’s a great question which poses an editing challenge. And I had to say that without having a feel for the totality of the story and the characters, I don’t have a patent response. It is asking a lot of contemporary readers to slow down enough to make sense of unusual dialect. Some agents will reject a book just because of that. In a couple of months I’ll probably be devoting a blog to how the author and I chose to resolve this challenge.
A third client wanted feedback on the cover design. His content uses Frankenstein analogies for the US healthcare system in a clever and charming way. However, his cover focused on that image and employed the dripping fonts that so many fantasy/horror books use. It unfortunately conveys the wrong impression about the content. This is a very serious exploration of both the dysfunction and the intention of the politically designed dysfunction of the new health law in the US which has become a media circus in recent weeks. A reader who wants to understand the author’s perspective would not take the monster image to indicate a serious book.
What instead? A handsome, strong font with plenty of balanced white space. If any image is desired, use a stethoscope – it indicates the medical profession (doctors still seem to wear them all the time, even though their offices are equipped with everything else they need), and it offers a serene, simple image based on the graceful curves of the ear pieces and the tubes.
I’m also expecting to follow up with a client who has made major modifications based on our conversation following my read through. And I’m holding space for a four volume piece about alternative school experience by a retired teacher. (I confess to facing that one with dread, though he assures me it will be of interest.)
Until next time, delight in the process.