An editor in your midst

smallpresseditor

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Wow, thanks for all the kind welcomes, everyone. You folks are quick.

I'll be poking my head into the forums at least once or twice a week, and I look forward to conversing with more of you in that time.
 

CACTUSWENDY

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Welcome to AW. Hope you enjoy your stay with us.
How do you like your popcorn?

If you go to the bottom of the page to the ‘forum jump’ you can scroll down and find all the areas of this place. Most of the SYW areas require the password of ….vista. A word to the wise, (50 posts), it would be a good idea to participate first in helping others before you think about posting your own work. After you have been around here for awhile, then post something of your own for help. Good luck.
 

swachski

checking the 'reset' box
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Welcome to the cooler, S.P.E.! You're a brave soul indeed to roam in the midst of so many hungry writers. But I for one will appreciate any knowledge or insight you are willing to share.

Good luck with your writing. :)
 

Dgaltfan

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Hello, all. Please don't skewer me, but I'm senior editor at a small publisher, and want to contribute to this community because I'm also a writer. It's a strange world to live in, believe me.

My press publishes both fiction and nonfiction (generally narrative nf), and while we don't focus on genre titles, we do have pretty broad tastes.

I am open to any and all questions you may have, though I cannot promise to have all the right answers. I also run the smallpresseditor IAmA over on Reddit, which you can reach here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/eznx6/iama_senior_editor_at_a_small_publisher_ama/

I look forward to being part of this community. I'm sorry for shielding my press's actual name, but I'm a bit concerned about a barrage of submissions, and also still hold onto the idea that the other people in my office think I'm actually working most of the time.


hello. I am rachel, and it's really nice to meet you! welcome to the forums!

I think that's pretty interesting really. I could do with a lot of help with my stuff, and of course I'd be happy to return the favor! It sounds exciting to be part of such a company. It's nice to make your acquaintance.
 

mt_si_dad

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Sorry you get the reactions you do. While I think I would love it if you loved my work and bought it, garnishing it with a string of "A+" marks, I have to realize that other people, including you, might not find my writing compelling, interesting, or even in a commonly accepted English dialect.

Writing is about passion, but publishing is about reaching readers who are fickle and parsimonious and likely to read something that is exactly like the last 10 books they read. So I can imagine that as an editor for a small press you have to find books that people will buy so you can earn a living. It must be hard to have to read manuscripts written with great passion but little skill, and to have to be professional and direct in saying, "I'm sorry, but we really can't use this," all the while restraining yourself from adding "and before you think of submitting your work again, could you consider taking some writing classes or actually reading books in the genre you think you're writing in? This was written with the idea that others might want to read it, right?"

It's our babies we're sending you, and we think you'll love them as much as we do. We've carried them around, fed them, cleaned them, helped them grow and expand and develop, and then we send them off to you like it's the first day of school -- and you send them back with a note pinned to their shirt: "This kid is not fit to be in public." It can hurt us and we can react, but the better angels in us usually restrain us from saying stupid things.

But of course I'm sure you know this. Too bad sometimes we forget that it's a business.

Now I promise that if you give me your cell phone and private e-mail I will only pester you no more than five times a day about whether you have read my manuscript yet...
 

cryaegm

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An editor?

Here?

onoz_omg2-1.gif


Kidding aside, :tongue welcome to AW. :D
 

smallpresseditor

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It's our babies we're sending you, and we think you'll love them as much as we do. We've carried them around, fed them, cleaned them, helped them grow and expand and develop, and then we send them off to you like it's the first day of school -- and you send them back with a note pinned to their shirt: "This kid is not fit to be in public." .

I love this last image, depressing as it is. It sucks to be the one pinning the notes on...

And I do agree that there's a difference between writing and publishing. I encourage just about everyone to write, but not everyone should be published, or necessarily try to publish. It depends on what you're trying to do with your work, why it exists. People are taught in our formative years that writing is about self-expression. But publishing is not about self-expression. It's not about you, it's about the reader. If you're not offering your reader something (comic relief, instructions on how to cook eggplant, a new way of looking at the world through speculative fiction, etc.), then there's really no reason to try to get published and distributed. Write self-indulgence all you like, then self-publish and give it to your friends, but unless there's some reason others would really want to hear it, chances are you're not going to have any luck in publishing.

We are all slaves to the readers. :)
 

Splendad

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Believe me, there have been times when that's tempting. But never because of the work itself, only because of the author's attitude. Yes, many submissions are really awful, but that doesn't make me want to emotionally hurt people.

But the authors with extreme arrogance, coupled with little to no writing skill, coupled again with a ridiculous rebuttal to a rejection notice, yeah, those upset me. I have gone so far as to block email addresses and simply throw away any mailed correspondence from people who act like that. And the intern at the reception desk has saved me from several chewings-out from people on the phone. I make sure to buy him nice stuff every so often.

Ask me in another fifteen or twenty years, and I might have a more entertaining answer for you!

Hee haw! I must admit, I'm pretty confident in my writing and I find it extremely difficult to find that line where self-assuredness (the good kind that you would want to see in a query, for example) meets arrogance. And it is a fine line, to be sure. I try to imagine being the agent/editor/publisher looking at the letter... try to put myself in their shoes and ask myself, "What would I want to see on this page if what I want is to sell something that makes me/my company/my author rich beyond measure?" What a very hard question to the sympathetic mind...

Welcome... I'm a noob, too. It changes. I don't think any of the long-timers have flung themselves from a moving bus yet so it must not be all bad!

Kev
 

regdog

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They are all that keep me going during those long, dark nights where monsters lurk in every corner trying to lure me into the underworld. :D

I thought it was cookies that did that
 

maggiewrites

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Welcome!

I think there's a big difference between confidence in your writing and arrogance, and an even bigger one between that and rudeness. Those people who cross the line into being rude to you just for doing your job deserve to have their address blocked, at the very least! In my opinion. :)
 

smallpresseditor

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Welcome - I read your AMA when it was first posted on reddit!

Thanks! It's died down since the first day or so, which I'm a little sad about. Apparently there are only about ten people on reddit with any questions about writing.

Does that mean the rest have it figured out? Here's hoping.