Freelance Editor — Substantive and Copyediting, Fiction and Nonfiction
I’m thrilled and honored to be part of Clarkesworld Magazine’s interview of speculative fiction editors. I’m in very good company!
The two-part article is running in their July and August 2009 issues. Check out part one of two: Dirty Hands and Invisible Words.
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Time tracking is essential for freelancers, and I’ve been doing a little exploring in the last couple months to find an effective time management system for myself.
There are to-do list programs like Tracks that are free, and are very good for what they are, but I needed something with more of a stopwatch feature built in, so that I could track not just my projects, but the billable hours I spend on them.
A freelancer friend of mine uses and is happy with Time59, which is a time management and billing program. It’s free for the first 30 days, and then charges an annual subscription fee. While the seamless integration of time tracking and billing looks very nice and is very useful to freelancers who bill by the hour, it seemed a little much for me. (I use the basic, free edition of Express Invoice, and it’s more than sufficient for my needs.)
For time management, I’ve started using Toggl, and I’m very happy with it so far. It’s free for individual use, it’s simple to use, and it offers a variety of reports to reinforce productivity and show me how I’ve been spending my time. I can use it on the web and access it from multiple computers, or download a local widget. I’ve been using the web-based version so that I can access my numbers from my desktop or my laptop.
It’s as simple as creating a project and assigning it a name, and then clicking on the project to create a “task”. Toggling the timer on and off helps me to keep track of just the time I spend on a given task, and enables me to get a clear sense of my pages-per-hour pace on any given manuscript or project, as well as letting me see how I’m spending my day, and how my time allocation spreads out between projects in a given day, week or month.
The premium version offers more detailed and personalized reporting, and more options for groups and teams, but as an individual I find the free edition suits me just fine. I can stop the clock when I get up from my desk, or switch projects and tasks if I take a billable call.
The obvious drawback to a web-based system is that it requires an internet connection. If I end up working online, or I forget to log my time on a project, a simple edit adds the task and the time spent, and includes it seamlessly in the tracking reports. This is good if I forget to click off a project, too. As much as I might like to impress a client with the fact that I worked all night, I’m not going to charge for those hours in which I was only dreaming about the manuscript!
A good time management tool is a must for freelancers, and is useful for writers as well. If you’ve been looking for a time management program, or you’re interested trying one out, give Toggl a try.
If you’re interested in browsing the range of time management and invoicing programs available, Mashable’s 85+ tools for freelancers and web-workers may be a good starting point.
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If publishers want me to have my manuscript completed before I start shopping it around, why do they only want to see my first few chapters? In this electronic age, do you see publishers skipping the “sample chapters” step in the future? If I’m just sending a file, it doesn’t take up that much more room to send the whole thing.
The query letter and the synopsis show a publisher what you write. The partial—a partial manuscript, usually two or three chapters—shows a publisher how you write.
As a publisher, I want you to have your manuscript written and finished because it takes discipline and dedication to finish a novel. Especially if you’re a first-time author, I want to see that you have the ability and attention span to knock out all 80-100k of those words. I want to be able to slot you into my print schedule the moment we sign, instead of being strung along waiting for you to finish writing the book. That doesn’t, however, mean that I need to see the whole book. I just need to know that it’s done.
Two or three chapters is plenty for me. You want to grab a reader with the first line. Usually, I know by the end of the first paragraph whether I’m interested in seeing more. If at the end of the first paragraph it’s still iffy, I’ll probably know by the end of the first page.
If the first page doesn’t catch my attention, I won’t keep reading. I might stick it out a little longer if I feel the query and synopsis are worth it, but I probably won’t. If the first page is full of spelling and grammatical errors, I’ve seen enough. If you’re not serious enough about your submission to take the time to make sure it’s edited and polished, you’re not serious enough to be writing professionally.
If I make it to the end of the first page and I’m still reading, now I want to see more of your writing style. I’m looking for vocabulary, a sense of your world and your characters, and engaging prose. I want to be drawn in. At the same time, I’m starting to pay attention to things that might need line editing later.
The second chapter often starts in a completely new place, and I like to see if the momentum that started in the first chapter was a fluke, or if it will carry through. Three chapters is good if there’s a prologue that counts as chapter “one”, but two is often enough. Fifty pages is also a good guideline.
The difference between receiving a partial vs a full manuscript isn’t a matter of file storage space, or even a matter of how much I plan to read. It’s a matter of degrees, and it revolves around publishers’ universal dislike of simultaneous submission. It’s okay to send queries and synopses to multiple publishers, but when it comes to sending out actual bits of your manuscript, policy may vary.
Some houses treat partials as manuscripts and won’t allow simultaneous submission of partials. Other houses treat partials as samples; they’re fine with you having a few partials out, as long as you’re open about it. It might even motivate them to work faster, because they know that there are other interested parties. It’s polite to let other publishers know if you have partials out at various places, so that they can respond to you in line with their own policies.
A full manuscript is different. It’s something special. A request for a full manuscript says “We think we might be interested.” And while it might be a nice ego-boost to get publishers into a bidding war over your manuscript, keep in mind that publishers get SWAMPED with submissions, and they don’t like chasing down a lead and getting close to making you an offer, only to learn that you’ve just sold your manuscript somewhere else. Even Dragon Moon, which is officially closed to unsolicited submissions, still gets swamped with submissions.
Simultaneous submissions are great for the author, since it beats the frustration of having to wait while someone makes up his mind before you can send your manuscript somewhere else. But they’re lousy for the publisher for the same reason. The debate on the matter is a long and angry one, and you need only type “Simultaneous submissions” into the search engine of your choice to get a good sampling of both sides of the argument and see a lot of good points raised.
I’m not going to go into it too deeply here, since whether it’s a good thing or not is tangental to the point. To answer the question, requesting a partial has very little to do with file size or storage space. It’s about level of interest and level of commitment, and not wanting to tie up a manuscript that I might not be interested in.
With that in mind, I don’t see partial submissions going away.
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If you’ve had a book published by a small press in 2009, or will be published in early 2010, consider submitting your book to the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Submissions are open until March, 2010. While the entry fee may be a little steep at $75, the awards range from $100-$1,500 and include promotion and a review by a literary agent.
While many such contests are less than on-the-level, this thread on Writer Beware begins with skepticism and ends with reassurance. This competition is legit, not-for-profit, and has the promotion of independent authors as its goal.
ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award is another competition to consider. The chance of a cash prize are lower here and the entry fee is the same, but the promotional opportunities may be worthwhile.
These entry fees can add up quickly, and there is no guarantee of the outcome. As always, read the fine print and decide for yourself whether entry is right for you.
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This Saturday marks the launch of DOWN FROM TEN, a new podcast novel by J. Daniel Sawyer.
In early January, a group of friends get together for an annual retreat; eight artists, scientists, and authors cloistered together in a mansion in the mountains above Redding, California for ten days of games, conversation, exhibition, and hedonism, while isolated from the outside world. It might all have been quite pleasant, if it weren’t for the biggest California snowstorm in over twenty years. When the storm hits, the house is buried in an avalanche, leaving our heroes with no way to hike out. Instead, they must find a way to survive and stay sane while waiting for rescue—which becomes difficult when they all start having the same dream.
A comedy in the tradition of The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, a romance in the tradition of Clue and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and a mystery in the tradition of Paint Your Wagon and Time Enough For Love, DOWN FROM TEN will thrill you a little, chill you a little, and tickle your fancy in ways you wouldn’t want your children to see.
Begins June 20. Intended for adult audiences.
Subscribe to the feed and visit http://downfromten.jdsawyer.net for more information!
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In your interview with Michell Plested, you said that fiction is subjective. What did you mean?
To talk about how editing fiction is subjective, it’s easier to start by talking about how editing non-fiction is concrete.
In non-fiction, a fact, a grammatical issue, or an ambiguous word choice is more often either right or wrong, and if it’s wrong, you can provide the citation to prove that it’s wrong when you offer your correction. For each change, an editor can cite a reason and a reference for suggesting that change. It’s not always so straight-forward, but the majority of issues that crop up in non-fiction will be relatively black and white.
Fiction still contains plenty of facts—historical references, technical details, and the mechanics of the world you’re creating need to be correct and consistent in order to hold the readers’ suspension of disbelief when it matters. Things like grammar and punctuation still need to follow rules. But in fiction, the gray area is much wider.
For example, rules of grammar need to be followed in fiction… unless a passage of dialog is being spoken by a character who wouldn’t speak grammatically. If a phrase is awkward, it’s less commonly a matter of right vs. wrong wording, and more often a matter of stronger vs. weaker or ambiguous wording. A character’s actions or the characteristics of a world are harder to question or defend than a logical flow of factual information would be. It’s more often a matter of preference than of rules; opinion more than fact.
If I identify something that doesn’t work in a story, my suggestion might be the product of experience, and it might be a valid and helpful suggestion, but it’s still my opinion. I can explain my reasoning, but there are no simple references I can cite to support my point of view and “prove” it to be correct, or to sway the author toward agreement with me.
When I say that editing fiction is subjective, this is what I mean: I have my perspective on what a line, or a scene, or a story needs, and the author has his perspective. When they align, it’s a beautiful thing. When they don’t, neither of us is right or wrong.
The solution is discussion. The author and I explain our perspective in terms of how each choice will affect the reader’s experience. Sometimes I will sway an author toward the suggestions I’ve made; sometimes the author’s argument will convince me that things are best left the way they are. Sometimes we’ll agree on a third solution that turns out to be better than either of the two.
It’s a difficult process, though, and it’s why rapport between author and editor is so important. In a perfect world, there’s no ego involved in the process—on either side! I don’t feel like I’m “winning” if I get an author to agree with a change I want to make, and the author doesn’t feel like she’s “winning” if she gets me to change my mind. In a perfect world, an author has separation from his work and doesn’t feel attacked or demotivated when an editor suggests that something in it doesn’t work. In a perfect world, stubbornness doesn’t get in the way of what’s best for the manuscript.
It’s not a perfect world, though. Creativity is subjective by nature, and creative people are often stubborn—they have to be, to make a name for themselves in such difficult fields. Stepping away from the safety of verifiable facts and references opens up the potential for complication.
It’s why most of the editors I know prefer to work with non-fiction and textbooks, where they have the safety net of facts and a certain amount of detachment from their projects.
And it’s why I prefer to work with fiction. I like the challenge of it, and the opportunity to both stretch my own creativity and think critically about it at the same time. I like having to work more closely with an author and get more invested in the final product. It allows me the personal investment that makes me passionate about my work.
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…Yes.
(But it’s still not a crapshoot!)
Click through the image of Tuesday’s comic (above) and continue forward — it seems to be the start of a story arc!
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Actually seeing it in print makes me want to jump up and down! According to Pip, a November 2010 print date has been announced for GEIST. She’s already hard at work on the sequel, which bears the catchy working title of GEIST 2 (real title forthcoming!).
And congrats also to Ms. Ballantine for winning the Sir Julius Vogel award for the podcast of CHASING THE BARD!
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I discovered The Belgariad when I was twelve. I remember immersing myself in the first four books and waiting anxiously for the fifth to be released, and then following The Malloreon, the follow-up series, avidly forward.
While I can’t say that The Belgariad was the first fantasy I’d ever read, I can certainly say without hesitation that it was the most formative.
Many people think of quest fantasy is a genre cliche, but Eddings did it right. He created a lush and varied world. He created races that were distinct from each other and carried cultural identities without being one-dimensional. He created strong characters with realistic strengths, flaws and emotions. Opening those books has always felt comforting and welcoming. It’s like going home.
I still re-read the ten books of The Belgariad and The Malloreon about once a year; I have always faithfully carried the same old well-worn and spine-broken copies around with me, every time I’ve moved. I barely recognize the books in their new and shiny condition when I see them on a bookstore shelf.
Bruce Baugh at Tor.com sums up my feelings for these books very eloquently.
If you’ll excuse me, I have some re-reading to do.
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A lot of steps are involved in taking a book from a document file to a printed and bound collection of paper.
This eleven-minute video demonstrates the bookbinding process. Edwards Brothers, Inc., located in Lillington N.C., binds the C-SPAN book ABRAHAM LINCOLN, with a guided tour to lead the viewer through the process.
Then, step back in time with this bookbinding video from 1947.
I’m especially fascinated by the contrast between how much the process has changed… and how much it hasn’t.
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