editors
-
One Chance to Make a First Impression
An editor’s first look at a writer’s work is in the query letter. Steph Auteri, writing in Ploughshares, explains how writers can improve their introductions, and why it matters when they try to publish. The best way to make an…
-
What Makes a Good Editor?
In a conversation for the Slate Book Review, author Donna Tartt and her editor Michael Pietsch talk through the experience of editing her latest novel from both sides of the red pen. It’s a fascinating insight into the near-magical possibilities of…
-
Getting Out of the Slush Pile
Want to get out of the slush pile and onto the pages of your favorite publications? Rumpus contributor Melissa Chadburn has some seriously wise words for you over at her Daily Dot column. One of the wisest bits comes from…
-
Giving Editors What They Want
For emerging writers, submitting pieces to literary magazines can be like hacking through a jungle of confusion with a guess-machete. This piece from The Review Review, titled “What Editors Want,” will clear a path straight through for you. A teaser: If…
-
“In Praise of Editors”
All writers should go read every word of this essay by Maria Bustillos, written on the occasion of editor Carrie Frye’s departure from the Awl. The gist of it: your editor is your friend, not some censorious know-it-all trying to…
-
Publishing Vocab
Editors, publishers and critics have their own industry-specific lexicon. People in the industry are used to hearing words like “acclaimed” or saying that a book “brilliantly defies categorization,” but apparently this is only the surface level of description. Beyond the…
-
The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Jonathan Lethem has been hired for David Foster Wallace’s old teaching post at Pomona. (via @maudnewton) “Lots of people in Indiana Jones hats today. I approve.” From @WriterDaniel at this Twitter roundup from the LA Times Festival of Books. GIANT’s…
-
Why we need newspapers: They stand against tyranny
In the 1960s and 70s, Central and South America were rife with dictatorships which used secret police, the military, right-wing death squads and tight control of the media to quash dissent and keep power. One of the most egregious of…
-
A Faithful Grope in the Dark
Are marketing departments running the major publishing houses? Do editors and agents know what they’re doing? Are small presses the future of literature? Is everything a crapshoot? What’s a first-time novelist to do?