by Angelle Pington It’s no secret that Young Adult literature — particularly series fiction that appeals to both adult and teen readers — is successful right now. Agents’ and editors’ inboxes are flooded with the next best thing in YA. In a sea of teen angst and drama, how do you avoid the reject pile …
Ana Howard Many smaller presses may be found by conducting online searches. Look into niche publishing houses. If a small publisher specializes in a certain genre or subject matter into which your manuscript fits, you should have higher chances of success. Also look for small publishers that feature works set in the geographic area in …
By Floyd Largent “Now my own suspicion is, the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” – J.B.S. Haldane, British biologist. One of the greatest advantages of science fiction is that it’s the literature of ideas—that it’s not limited in ways that other types of fiction can be, especially …
Keep Yourself Accountable by Establishing a Personal Metric By Editor John David Kudrick You may already be a published author, or perhaps you’re an aspiring novelist at the moment. Either way, you likely wear any of a number of other hats in your life: husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, father, mother, employee, employer, president of (fill …
By Amy Bennet So many times I have seen a promising science fiction, fantasy, or horror, story fall flat, because there’s no tension in the beginning. The author starts out describing the character, their history, and the history of their civilization in loving detail. But that in itself is not compelling. What is? Humans like …
By Marlo Garner One of the most important tenets of good writing you’ll ever employ is the “Show, don’t tell” rule. Basically put, writing has more power, creates more interest, and better engages readers when you let them draw their own conclusions. Showing allows the reader to experience the story through what they observe including …
Kelly Lynne Book Editor | Paranormal Romance At a recent panel discussion with the Central Oregon Writer’s Guild, I fielded a question I hadn’t heard before: What is the difference between ghostwriting and a heavy developmental edit? The knee-jerk answer is that one is writing for someone else, the other is fixing someone else’s writing, …
by Ana Howard | Book Editing Services Many experienced authors will tell you that the first drafts of their novels are only the starting point of the writing process. In fact, many will say that their first attempts to tell a story fall short of their expectations. It is during the editing and revision stages …
Amy Bennet Developmental Editor | Book Editing Associates Science Fiction Editor and Author Developmental Content Editor Marketing Materials Including Elevator Pitches Agent Query Packages A good editor will have relevant work experience and testimonials from published authors who have worked with her. She will ask what your goals are and customize her work to fit …
Amy Bennet Developmental Editor | Book Editing Associates Science Fiction Editor and Author Developmental Content Editor Marketing Materials Including Elevator Pitches Agent Query Packages This is a marathon, not a sprint. Be prepared for rejection. Be prepared for your work to be ignored, insulted, and misunderstood. Be aware that the people closest to you may …
by Amy Bennet Developmental Book Editor Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror Often I see a science fiction or fantasy story that starts like this: a handful of paragraphs of description that slowly start to explain how the world works, and who the characters are. The problem is that there is no problem. See instead the following …
Avoid Passive Sentences for More Engaging Stories By Editor John David Kudrick If you’re a serious novelist, then you’ve likely heard the maxim, “Write active sentences and avoid the passive.” It’s a popular recommendation from editors for one simple reason: It’s true. Let’s take a look at a few examples of passive sentences: The dolphins …
by Ali Williams “He left the theatre, contemplating his own intensity.” – line in a recent manuscript Last week I edited a sample chapter from a dystopian chick-lit manuscript. The author thought my advice was spot on and my open time slot fit her deadline. I quoted her 2.5 cents per word for a developmental …
By Ana Howard To begin with, personalized service. We take into account the particular client’s needs and deliver an edit that is individualized with opportunity for ongoing communication until the work is done to the client’s satisfaction. Professionalism. For an editor to work on our site, he or she must pass rigid tests and …
by Beth Bruno Sheree Bykofsky is the founder and President of Sheree Bykofsky Associates, Inc. As a literary agent since 1991, Sheree describes herself as a generalist with eclectic and sometimes eccentric tastes. She represents all areas of non-fiction and commercial and literary fiction. Recently, as a writer and book editor herself, Beth Bruno asked …
Author and editor Stacey Donovan‘s fearlessness and introspection in her YA novel Dive beautifully demonstrates the power of telling the untold story inside of you. In this Q&A with Stacey, she shares invaluable advice she’s gained throughout her decades-long career—how not to agonize over the small stuff, how to write objectively, and what she’s looking for …
Ana Howard Every writer experiences, or will experience, rejection. Even if you’ve written a fine novel or piece of non-fiction and crafted a good query letter, some of the query letters you send to agents/publishers will be rejected or ignored. Often the nagging question is: why? Many things outside your control could be at play, …
By Beth Bruno, freelance book editor Rita Rosenkranz, literary agent in New York City, represents almost exclusively adult non-fiction titles, including health, history, parenting, music, how-to, popular science, business, biography, memoir, popular reference, cooking, spirituality, sports and general interest titles. Rita works with major publishing houses, as well as regional publishers that handle niche markets. …
by Ali Williams What nobody tells you as an artist is that every project starts at the beginning. Not just the blank page, the empty stage, but that you have to re-establish your credentials and your quality every time. You can coast on reputation a little, but it doesn’t last long if you don’t deliver. …
by DJ Braxton Agents love character-driven novels. That’s because readers love them. Nothing anchors a book more than a well-developed character who we feel attached to, who we can identify or sympathize with, and who can be our guide in the world of the book that the author is created. Without this, readers tend to …
by Ali Williams While editing another author’s work this morning, I found myself wrestling with how to say, “You have 170,000 words, but you don’t have a story.” They are well-written words, they are good words, they are interesting words…but as Gertrude Stein wrote about Oakland, California, “there’s no there there.” Nothing is at stake. …
by DJ Braxton As you’re creating your characters (see also, my blog post Fiction 101: Characters Song and Dance), one of the most integral questions you can ask of them is what they want. Find out what’s standing in their way of getting it, and just what they’re willing to risk to get there. When …
by Amy Bennet I believe in beta readers. Anyone can be a beta reader (also called a first reader), from your mom to your best friend to your coworker to your favorite librarian. A beta reader is anyone who reads your work and tells you what they think. Their feedback can be incredibly useful, and …
by Marie Valentine, Developmental Editor So you have written a book. Congratulations! The era of the digital reader has leveled the playing field. No longer do publishing houses hold all the cards when it comes to putting a book on the virtual shelves. Today, you can craft, print, and promote your own book or ebook …
by Kelly Lynne, Editor What do stories have in common with a pair of pants? Structure! To be recognizable as a story, a narrative must obey a few conventions, but like pants, infinite variety can be layered upon that. The concept of story structure is anathema to some writers, a restriction to be balked at, but …
by Amy Bennet In my experience, many writers don’t know the difference between developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading. To further muddy things, a developmental edit may also be called a content edit, or a substantive edit, or even a full edit or a deep edit. So where to start? Before we get into what …
by Carly Cantor, Editor If your goal is to be published by a major house and you don’t have a personal connection to one, then you need an agent. A well-connected agent knows and regularly lunches with most of the New York City editors and can quickly get your book a hearing from the ones …
by Carly Cantor, Editor Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this article. “Work the details in organically.” These are five words I often write in my critiques to authors. What many amateur writers tend to do is describe surroundings and physical traits of characters in a rather heavy-handed way, as though they are providing …
by Carly Cantor Read Part 1 of this article. The other really important task that narrative details accomplish is to help with characterization. Well-chosen descriptive details give clues to the personality of the characters and help you follow the golden rule of writing: Show, don’t tell. Thus, it might be fitting to describe the plunging …
Amy Bennet Developmental Content Editor Book Editing Associates Too often I see promising writers who don’t know how to plot a novel. Writing a novel is a skill that is honed over time, and even the pros don’t always get it on the first try. The writer Nalo Hopkinson told me that you never really …
Floyd Largent Book-Editing.com | Editing-Writing.com | BookEditingAssociates.com Floyd edits science fiction and fantasy, mainstream fiction, short stories, mysteries, anthropology, history, memoirs. His manuscript submission services include writing and editing book proposals and query letters. ************************** As you’ve no doubt learned by now, writing believable, consistent characters is surprisingly difficult. Like you, I’ve probably read enough …
by Carly Cantor Book-Editing.com | Editing-Writing.com | BookEditingAssociates.com Details, details, the bane of so many would-be authors. How much is enough? How much is too much? In my work with fiction writers, I’ve encountered those who underdescribe and those who overdescribe. More typically, though, it’s quality not quantity that’s the biggest problem. There are two …
Ana Howard | Fiction Novel Editor | Book Editing Associates pro·tag·o·nist noun \prō-ˈta-gə-nist\ : the main character in a novel, play, movie, etc. : an important person who is involved in a competition, conflict, or cause (Source: Merriam-Webster) One of the most common mistakes I see in aspiring authors’ novels is an underdeveloped protagonist. The …
by Amy Bennet Book Editing Associates Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror Writers’ block is a common experience where you feel like you can’t write. I see it as a symptom rather than a problem. Here’s some advice for getting past it. Remember that the world is not set up to support your writing. You have professional …
Ana Howard If you’re lucky, the perfect title for your novel sprang into your head without effort. But most of the time, it’s a painstaking process to come up with a good title, especially one that is catchy, humorous or intriguing and has not been used by many other authors before. As I’m going through this process …