Need a Free Edit?

[PaintingThe Town]

Greetings everyone! Long story short... am doing Internship with publishing house in NYC (so excited) and I need to find a manuscript to edit/critique. This will be a free service to you since I am not permitted to accept monies while doing the internship. Furthermore, if I select your ms then there is a strong possibility it will be seen by my boss who could find himself interested in your work. You would be required to critique my work as well. So... if anyone is willing, let's get started! I need a author bio, 500 word synopsis and the first 3 chapters. If I am interested in the remaning ms I will let you know within 2 weeks (either way). I would like to have a nice selection to pick from, but will only end up with one :-( I am most interested in the hot new fad Chic Lit (ok, so my house likes Chic Lit) but romance would be ok, too.

Look frowarding to hearing from...someone? Anyone? Email: TUptonEmmerson@Juno.com

[aka eraser]

Why am I thinking "Liar-liar pants on fire?"

Oh, I know! Because he/she is one!

Works for a publishing house but needs to solicit mss? I don't think so.

I'll leave it here for a while though so some of you folks can play.

[zizban]

:crazy:

[wurdwise]

Frank, I don't know squat about the industry, but I got a creepy feeling when I read this, first post, no info in bio, please send me your manuscript! It screams WRONG.

[ChunkyC]

Working as an intern at a NYC publisher and needs to find a manuscript to edit? Dear publisher: any intern who can't find a manuscript when you probably have a slush pile the size of an armoire blocking the main hallway in your offices ... isn't really an intern working at a NYC publisher. Just a guess.

[katiemac]

Sounds about right, Chunk. Le sigh. :faint:

Makes you wonder about the ulterior motive, though. Any suggestions?

[JAlpha]

Very belated April Fool's joke right? :roll:

[DeadlyAccurate]

You would be required to critique my work as well.

I think this is the key here. They're just trying to get someone to read their work. Seems an intern at a publishing house would be able to find someone to read their work.

[mdin]

I have a manuscript to send. It's called Boise Midafternoons. Want me to send it?

[azbikergirl]

Why not start with the slush pile? I'm sure writers who've already submitted would appreciate a critique.

Edit: I see ChunkyC already asked that question!

[maestrowork]

I have one for you. It's called Atlanta Night.

[THenry]

Was Eussie writing Chick Lit?

[BlueTexas]

I am most interested in the hot new fad Chic Lit (ok, so my house likes Chic Lit) but romance would be ok, too.

Look frowarding to hearing from...someone? Anyone? Email: TUptonEmmerson@Juno.com


Chick lit is a new thing?

We all make typos, but wouldn't you think an intern would be sure to spell check?

[Richard White]

Chic lit? Isn't that those little white things you get at the movies?

Or maybe he meant chocolate, but just types with an accent?

[sgtsdaughter]

Oh please, please take mine. It's called "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo, I'm Stupider Than You!"

But, wait I have another. . . "Just Call Me Stupid (And Born Yesterday)."

so mean, i know.

[reph]

Paint, if you're looking for a free critique, there are straightforward ways to solicit one. You can join Critters (I don't know where it is, but ask around) or post something on the Share Your Work forum at this very board.

[Galoot]

If you post your publisher's name and address, I'll send it off CO/ you.

[oswann]

Chic lit? Isn't that those little white things you get at the movies?

Or maybe he meant chocolate, but just types with an accent?




I think it's French eg. Dis-donc c'est un chic lit.
Translation: Wow that's a cool bed.



Os.

[dragonjax]

I think it's French eg. Dis-donc c'est un chic lit.
Translation: Wow that's a cool bed.



Os.

Wouldn't that be "chic leet"?

[oswann]

Wouldn't that be "chic leet"?

Phonetically in fact: shic lee


Os.

[dragonjax]

Phonetically in fact: shic lee


Os.

So...in other words, this post from "PaintingThe Town" is a piece of...shic?

:tongue

[pepperlandgirl]

I don't get why people have to stoop to trickery and lying to get a beta. I don't know about anybody else, but when I need something critiqued/edited, I just ask people, and as if by magic, my MS is critiqued/edited!

[Fresie]

Wait a sec guys, maybe they have some sort of policy in that publishing house that prohibits using the slushpile for other purposes than, er, being a slushpile?

Wouldn't surprise me.

[dragonjax]

Wait a sec guys, maybe they have some sort of policy in that publishing house that prohibits using the slushpile for other purposes than, er, being a slushpile?

Wouldn't surprise me.

Fresie, I had only one cup of coffee, so I couldn't tell if you were serious or not. If you were joking, apologies! However, if you were serious, how do you explain Paint's additional requirement that anyone submitting such a partial would then be required to critique Paint's work as well? Is Paint supposed to be training to be an editor, or a writer? Much, much too suspicious.

[Christine N.]

See, now, when I read it, I though it meant that I would have to crit his work as an editor.. you know, did I like the changes he suggested, was he easy to work with, etc. Like an evaluation of his work for me, not of his writing.

[reph]

See, now, when I read it, I though it meant that I would have to crit his work as an editor.. you know, did I like the changes he suggested, was he easy to work with, etc. Like an evaluation of his work for me, not of his writing.
A person working in a publishing house would get that kind of feedback from a supervising editor, if at all, not from someone solicited on the Web. It'd be part of his or her training.

[Medievalist]

What Reph said.

And an intern in a publishing house is kept way, way, way too busy to have the time to do any outside editing.

[aka eraser]

Gee, PaintingThe Town hasn't come back to um, "clarify" his/her post yet.

Wonder how many other writing boards were hit?

[Birol]

Out of curiosity I checked. On the surface, which is all I looked at, PaintingThe Town does not appear to link back to Eussie. (Someone mentioned this possibility.) Although they are both Comcast users. (Not like Comcast doesn't have a ton of users.)

Onto more snide comments, I keep remembering all the stacks of manuscripts I've seen in pictures of publishing houses. Why would an intern, any intern, have to go looking for manuscripts to edit and why would a writer have to trick other writers to swap critiques/edits? If I need a manuscript edited or critiqued, I approach my writing group and they do the same. Something stinks about this post and it ain't me. (I just had a shower.)

[Jamesaritchie]

The last time I worked a slush pile, all the submissions were from agents. Most of it was still counted as slush, and there were nearly 3,000 manuscripts there that no one seemed to have time to read.

Interns, the couple there were, read alongside an assistant editor. They couldn't reject or accept, but they did get to read a LOT of manuscripts in order to learn how to do that part of an editor's job.

They also had anything they had written looked at by one of the assistant ediors as a bonus.

I'm not quite sure what an intern would do besides deal with manuscripts on a daily basis. Sometimes in the mail room, sometimes with those an assistant had set aside for a second reading, and sometimes looking over the shoulder of a top editor.

I know it works differently from one publisher to teh next, but I've never known an intern who wasn't getting more hands on work with manuscripts than she could handle.