Editorial Anonymous: The Trouble with Alternate Identities

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Trouble with Alternate Identities

I'm so bored. Why doesn't Editorial Anonymous post something?

Wait, that's me. I need to post something. Oh, all right. Hold on, I think I have some questions I can answer.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: I have a question you can answer.

What percentage of an Editorial Letter do you realistically expect an author to accomplish?

Or, better phrased, how often does an author fix EVERYTHING you claim is "wrong" with a YA/MG novel?

If you disagree with the author, that this certain thing needs "fixed" and the author thinks it's fine, who wins? Who ends up crying? Are any broken bones involved?; July 18, 2008 at 7:19 PM
Jill Murray said...: Ooh. That IS a juicy question.; July 18, 2008 at 7:37 PM
Stephanie J. Blake said...: In advance of the conference season.

Maybe we could have a 1-sentence pitch contest?; July 19, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Unknown said...: I do like the above question, and would like to add one of my own. (I posted it on an agent site, but haven't heard back yet and this one is really bugging me)

Have you heard of Cory Doctorow, the author of Little Brother? He allows anyone to download the full content of his book. His theory is that an author's biggest problem is not people stealing the work, but being unknown--so he lets people download his book in the hopes that people will then like his work and buy the book (or buy other books of his).

My question is this: what is your opinion on this? Do you think it is a good marketing plan, or stupid? On the one hand, it's giving away the product for free...on the other hand, it's enticing readers to buy it. In my own personal experience, it's worked: I've bought countless CDs and DVDs (and Doctorow's books) based on the premise, but I'm really anxious to hear about what an editor thinks.; July 19, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Anonymous said...: I have a question ... I'd like to know how involved you get with the subject matter of a nonfiction book. In other words, do you read up so that you can edit from a more informed perspective? (Given, of course, that it's a subject or time period that you're not already an expert on!!)

Related to that, do you arrange for an outside expert to read the work, or is that purely the author's responsibility? I've heard of a couple of publishers hiring experts to read manuscripts for accuracy but wasn't sure how common this is.

Just curious as a nonfiction writer myself and that I sometimes see that even big-name, accomplished authors muff or misinterpret the facts. (Gulp!)

Thanks!; July 20, 2008 at 5:02 PM