blog posts written by editor Carly Cantor
by Carly Cantor Agents are inundated with submissions. Technology has made it easy for people to write and then submit what they’ve written to agents (or directly to publishing houses), hopeful their work will be recognized as a gem. But there’s an enormous mismatch between the number of people who think they have a publishable …
by Carly Cantor One of the problems I see in many novels I edit is that they feel more like scripts than novels. This is most often the case for plot-driven stories. The sense I get is that the writer is actually envisioning a movie while writing the novel. (Perhaps even picturing particular actors for …
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 …
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 …
Unless you have a “name” or have been previously published and sold lots of books, or have won impressive literary awards for your writing, or have written an amazingly original book that taps into current trends, you will have a hard time getting an agent to even glance at your novel. Most likely, it will …
Lynda Lotman, freelance network coordinator Book-Editing.com, Editing-Writing.com, ChildrensBookEditors.com, and Medical-Writing-Editing.com Content Editors: Carly Cantor, Kelly Lynne, Michael Carr Proofreader: Nancy Rosenbaum You need an editor—of that much you are certain. But how can you avoid falling prey to incompetent, untrained, or inexperienced pretenders who may insert more errors than they correct? (Yes, it happens alarmingly …
By Carly Cantor So, you’ve finished your novel and have had it critiqued by a professional, tweaked and road-tested, inspected and corrected, line-edited and copy-edited and proofread. You’re satisfied that it’s as good as it’s going to get, and you think it’s…well…pretty great. (Yay, you!) I would imagine your thoughts are running something like this: …
by Carly Cantor Novelists work hard to create edgy or witty or snappy or simply realistic-sounding dialogue. But even when that goal is achieved, awkward mechanics can make these passages sound stilted and amateurish. Many writers seem to feel that continually writing said after a character has spoken is boring and monotonous. To remedy this …
By Carly Cantor Book Editing Associates Editing-Writing.com I find that many of the nonfiction writers I work with are maybe just a little too smart for their own good. I say this with affection and appreciation for how hard it is to communicate paragraph after paragraph of complex information and insight in a coherent way. …
By Carly Cantor Fiction Editor Book Editing Associates Editing-Writing.com Fiction is an art, and editors must be respectful of that. Typically, the best fiction engages readers in such a way that they fully embrace the alternate universe created by the writer and immediately “get” this other world. There should be no distractions from this engagement, …