Yeah, I said "breeds." Yes, I'm joking.
For the most part.
For the record, I don't have a problem with editors. I think many of them are very intelligent people who know how to get the best out of their writers.
A great editor is like a great director. They can command great performances from their actors by guiding them towards something organic instead regurgitating how the director would "act" the part. Same goes with an editor.
In my opinion, the best editor isn't someone who fancies themselves as a writer who happens to have an editing job. It's like an actor who's directing when they really want to be acting. There's a built in bias of "well, that's not how I'd do it."
As a freelance writer, you're going to work with several editors at a time (if you're lucky), and there's a good chance that each one is going to have their own version of what your "best writing" is.
I've worked with editors who either:
- are also the publisher and you have to track them down for your pay
- have a fixed political agenda they want you to follow
- don't manage their time and assign you more than you signed up for
- are missing a sense of humor
I've also worked with editors who are:
- intelligent
- well read
- know how to push you creatively to get the best from you as a writer
My best advice is to not take it personal once you're working with an editor. At that point, you're a professional writer (or damn close), and yes, you should care enough to put your best effort into your work, but you're officially in the world of commerce and you're providing goods. Those goods might come from your heart and soul, but they're still just goods.
I'll end with a quick story about the worst experience I had with an editor.
I submitted a short story to a small literary magazine on the East Coast. My story was a satiric piece imagining Eugene O'Neill working as a court reporter at the Scopes Trial. Not exactly a premise for low brow humor.
The piece was simply poking fun at O'Neill's playwriting style, his scene and character description in particular, while using actual dialogue from the Scopes Trial.
The piece was accepted, OK'd by the editor, and was set to go to print.
A few days later, I received an email asking me to go deeper into the science vs. religion debate.
I reminded him that the piece really wasn't about that (it was a humor piece, and that's how I submitted it) and that I wasn't going to add in fake dialogue with the actual court transcript.
He responded that on second review he was going to pass.
I suggested that most likely he didn't read it in the first place.
I never heard back.
Ah well... it was later published online as it was intended to be HERE.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
First Books on the Shelf Officially
I passed a milestone of sorts today...
My book, "The Exciting Life and Death of The Amazing Henry," is offically on the shelf at an honest-to-goodness bookstore.
Bookman in Huntington Beach, CA is the first store to carry my short story collection. They're a cool independent bookstore that mainly carries rare, used, and out of print books.
My book, "The Exciting Life and Death of The Amazing Henry," is offically on the shelf at an honest-to-goodness bookstore.
Bookman in Huntington Beach, CA is the first store to carry my short story collection. They're a cool independent bookstore that mainly carries rare, used, and out of print books.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Writer as an Independent Artist
Fiction and non-fiction writers find themselves in a awkward position in terms of being perceived as an independent artist.
There's a stigma attached to the independent writer that doesn't exist for other artists.
An independent musician or band who puts out their own CD is looked upon as someone who is non-compromising and believes in their work. The music that inspired me as a youth, and still does to this day, is largely independently produced.
Epitaph. SST. Dischord. Alternative Tentacles. All symbols of non-compromising art on the artist's own terms.
A filmmaker who puts up his or her own money to produce a film has been put on a pedestal in the artistic community in the past twenty-five years. Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, Tarantino, etc. are rightly considered mavericks artists.
A theater group that puts up independent productions is often held in a similar regard as the independent filmmaker.
A self-published writer?
Hack.
Fraud.
No-Talent.
There's an interesting double standard that exists when it comes to writers as independent artists. Many will say that if your writing is good enough to be read, it'll be put out by a major publisher.
Take a second and think about how many great musicians and films you'd have missed out on if people held that same standard in other mediums.
It's interesting that, generally speaking, the same people who hold up independent music and film in such high esteem will just a quickly turn their nose up at an independent writer.
Why? Unfortunately, the answer is simple. There's a crap that's self-published. It's not all crap, mind you, but a good portion is. Same can be said with music and film in my opinion. The only difference is that it doesn't take week to listen to a few songs or watch a film.
I'm a huge fan of independent publishing and I think the times are changing and people are becoming more accepting of self-publishing. Blogging has resulted in an explosion of independent publishing.
As always, the Internet is on top of things faster than the man on the street.
More and more bloggers, who are essentially self-publishers, are looked upon as legitimate news, literary, and entertainment sources.
Independent writers also control their fate 100%. With people buying less books, it's imperative for major publishers to put out books by already established authors or "celebrities-turned-authors." In turn, this makes it that much harder for a new writer to break in... so why not just do it yourself?
Who wants to politely stand on someone's doorstep knocking on a door that's never going open, when you can piss on their stoop, build your own house (which will be way cooler), and party with all your friends!
When you put out your own work, you get all the profit. You'll have to work harder to get it, but it's all yours. It's entrepreneurial. It's as American as apple pie, as they say....
Plus, independent publishing is really easy to do!
There's a litany of sources available online to create a product as good as anything you'll find in a brick and mortar store. I've used lulu.com for short stories, audio works, photo books, and my short story collection. It's very easy to hook up with a talented graphic artist to create compelling art work for your book.
More than once I've heard, "Wow! This is just like a real book!"
It is. It is a real book.
It's an independent book.
There's a stigma attached to the independent writer that doesn't exist for other artists.
An independent musician or band who puts out their own CD is looked upon as someone who is non-compromising and believes in their work. The music that inspired me as a youth, and still does to this day, is largely independently produced.
Epitaph. SST. Dischord. Alternative Tentacles. All symbols of non-compromising art on the artist's own terms.
A filmmaker who puts up his or her own money to produce a film has been put on a pedestal in the artistic community in the past twenty-five years. Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, Tarantino, etc. are rightly considered mavericks artists.
A theater group that puts up independent productions is often held in a similar regard as the independent filmmaker.
A self-published writer?
Hack.
Fraud.
No-Talent.
There's an interesting double standard that exists when it comes to writers as independent artists. Many will say that if your writing is good enough to be read, it'll be put out by a major publisher.
Take a second and think about how many great musicians and films you'd have missed out on if people held that same standard in other mediums.
It's interesting that, generally speaking, the same people who hold up independent music and film in such high esteem will just a quickly turn their nose up at an independent writer.
Why? Unfortunately, the answer is simple. There's a crap that's self-published. It's not all crap, mind you, but a good portion is. Same can be said with music and film in my opinion. The only difference is that it doesn't take week to listen to a few songs or watch a film.
I'm a huge fan of independent publishing and I think the times are changing and people are becoming more accepting of self-publishing. Blogging has resulted in an explosion of independent publishing.
As always, the Internet is on top of things faster than the man on the street.
More and more bloggers, who are essentially self-publishers, are looked upon as legitimate news, literary, and entertainment sources.
Independent writers also control their fate 100%. With people buying less books, it's imperative for major publishers to put out books by already established authors or "celebrities-turned-authors." In turn, this makes it that much harder for a new writer to break in... so why not just do it yourself?
Who wants to politely stand on someone's doorstep knocking on a door that's never going open, when you can piss on their stoop, build your own house (which will be way cooler), and party with all your friends!
When you put out your own work, you get all the profit. You'll have to work harder to get it, but it's all yours. It's entrepreneurial. It's as American as apple pie, as they say....
Plus, independent publishing is really easy to do!
There's a litany of sources available online to create a product as good as anything you'll find in a brick and mortar store. I've used lulu.com for short stories, audio works, photo books, and my short story collection. It's very easy to hook up with a talented graphic artist to create compelling art work for your book.
More than once I've heard, "Wow! This is just like a real book!"
It is. It is a real book.
It's an independent book.
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