Editor’s Nightmare #4: Writers With No Imagination
After nine years in my house, I finally met my backyard neighbor (though for all those years I knew her dog’s name was Annie) because the fence that kept us invisible to each other needed to be replaced. As she went bounding up my steep yard she announced she was 92,...
What Writers Can Learn from Rejection Letters
I’ve had some 60 rejections of the one fiction piece I’ve submitted to agents, even agents with whom I have some collegial relationship. The most memorable rejection is the first, not because it was the first, but because it was a xerox of a xerox of a xerox of a...
Editor’s Nightmare #3: Deadlines. (They are not good for writers either.)
Poor planning is the most obvious cause of deadline pressure. External events sometimes contribute, of course. And then there are the writer’s self-imposed deadlines: I want this done before I leave for Spain/honeymoon/surgery/grandchild’s birth. I’ve scheduled my...
Editor’s Dream #1: Writers Who Use Flexible Formatting, or Preparing a Manuscript for Submission
Last week I wrote about the editor’s nightmare of receiving a manuscript that needs to be reformatted before it can be edited. Today we’ll look at the dream: Guidelines for preparing your manuscript so your editor doesn’t have to hack her/his way through your...
Editor’s Nightmare #2: Writer-Induced Formatting
When writers don’t understand the word processing program they are using (most use MS Word which looks simple but is, in fact, amazingly complex – too complex for the needs of most of us), they unintentionally insert their desired formatting directly into their...
The Editor’s Nightmare #1: Parallel Construction Deficiency Syndrome
Allie Chee initiated contact with me for help improving her manuscript, a funny, savvy, and smart guide for independent women dealing with (the variety of) difficult guys in modern life’s turbulent settings. It was her way of finding out if I’m the right editor for...
Writer, Do You Want Something from Your Audience?
I hate to say it, but I observe in my teaching venues, in my self-publishing network, and among potential clients that writers give very little thought to their audience. Fiction and memoir writers especially, but also some non-fiction folks who are passionate about...
To Be – or to Want to be – a Writer
My buddy – a broadcast journalist of many years who published his first book two years ago and recently uploaded five ebooks to Amazon’s Kindle store – announced that he is a writer, no longer someone wanting to be a writer or someone trying to write. That observation...
A Client’s Process from Manuscript to Major Publication
This piece is built on my experience working with Judy Juanita, whose Virgin Soul was officially published (Viking) last week – to great advance reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. Judy had contacted me after receiving strong interest (proving that it...
Back Cover Text As Your Basic Guide
True story: In the initial conversation with potential clients I’m likely to ask what their book is about. Even with a completed first draft, there are writers who can’t tell me. True story: I recently received an email from a client assuring me that she was following...