Be Your Own Editor

As the number of fabricated or semi-fabricated memoir scandals has continued to build post–James Frey, I have seen more and more articles, blog posts, comments, etc., work themselves into a frenzy making claims about the complete lack of fact-checking in the book business. Let the ignorance end here.

First, it might help to make some sort of distinction between fact-checking and story-checking. The reason, I think, that aforementioned ignorant essays have proliferated is, in part, is that the people writing them are used to the culture of magazines and newspapers, in which (especially in newspapers) no such distinction is made. In a news article, if you’ve got your facts straight, you’ve pretty much got your story straight.

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Christine writes:

Hello, I am currently attempting to sell my first completed novel. Is it a bad
idea to send out queries to numerous agents, or is that an acceptable procedure? If I do, should I really mention it in my query letter? Thanks!

Excellent question, Christine, and one too few writers think to ask.

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I thought about writing an “Ode to the Editorial Assistant” in free verse, but I’m too busy because I have to go pester a few editorial assistants about a few projects I’m working on. So let’s just consider this to be very free verse.

If you’re good enough and lucky enough to land a publishing contract, you’ll interact with a number of people at your publishing house during the process of transformation from manuscript to book. None will be more important to you than your editor’s assistant. They might on any given day play the role of go-between, personal assistant, editor, nag, or therapist. No matter the nature of your relationship, it’s in your best interest to understand what they do.

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Contributed by C. M. Clifton

When I first began submitting my short stories for publication, I had no idea that query letters existed until I chose to submit my story to a publisher whose submission guidelines required that a query letter accompany every manuscript. Once aware of query letters, I found myself confused. So I conducted a bit of research in an attempt to discover what type of information should be included in such a letter. If you are just embarking on the writer’s journey and seeking to submit your first short-story manuscript, I hope this article will assist you as some guides on cover letters have helped me in the past.

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Melody in Cleveland is frustrated:

I have sent countless queries to literary agents who specialize in the genre my book is in but I keep on getting rejections after rejections. I do have one literary agent interested in me but I haven’t heard from her yet. I’m hopeful but since I’ve been rejected so much it’s hard to really hope. I have changed my query letter and followed the 10 steps in writing a query letter but still I get rejections. I’ve had friends and family read it and even co-workers who don’t know me very well and they like it. It gets to the point of my story and it’s interesting. When I send it to agents that take romance, in the rejection it will state it isn’t right for their agency. Every time I get rejected I send out another query to a different agent and again get rejected. Do you have any suggestions?

You’re in good company, Melody. Don’t lose hope!

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Here’s a sign that publishers are beginning to rethink their business model in the face of new methods of book promotion and distribution: the Author’s Guild isn’t happy with a change in the standard book contract at Simon & Schuster, effectively granting the publisher rights to a book well beyond the point when a book would, under most current contracts, be considered out of print. (Rights to out-of-print books normally revert to the author.) S&S now wants to retain rights if the book remains available in any form, including digitally or via print-on-demand.

Chances are they’ll come to some sort of compromise in this case, but it signals the beginning of a inevitable restructuring of the legal and financial relationship between publisher and author in the age of the internet and print-on-demand. Something to keep an eye on.

Check out GalleyCat for a good summary of the situation and industry reaction.