Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Great Story, Unique Voice


A friend forwarded an interesting link to an article on a website called Christian Fiction Online Magazine, called "Yes, You Will Be Edited - Part 1" by Ramona Richards. Ms. Richards, a highly renowned literary editor, shared a short post about what editors really look for. She writes that there's no such thing as a perfect book, that editors will look beyond the small typos (though obviously nothing major like lousy grammar or anything that requires deep edits - and please do proofread again and again with fresh eyes, unlike the illustration, stage left). But editors take a lot of important things into account, and then and only then, along with if you've hit their "storytelling sweet spot," will they consider making an offer.

Below is the link if you're interested. In the meantime, as noted in the article, know that writing a great story, which shows our unique voice, is the first step to "editor wooing."

Happy Twenty-Eleven! Write on.

http://christianfictiononlinemagazine.com/buzz_track.html

3 comments:

KeVin K. said...

Your title reminded me of an apocryphal story about a rejection letter that's been attributed to a couple of different editors 80 to 50 years ago. The letter read: "The manuscript you submitted is both well written and original. Unfortunately, what is well written is not original and what is original is not well written."

Thanks for the link, interesting reading. It's always good to know what the folks on the other side of the transom are looking for.

Charles Gramlich said...

Story is king for 75 percent of editors, I'd say. There are some to whom it appears unimportant.

Marissa Monteilh said...

KeVin, now that is funny - can't win for losing I guess!! Charles, I agree, some don't study craft and it shows. Even those gifted w/the passion of writing need the hows, whys, whats, etc. of story. Thanks, both, for your comments.