The Tenth Circle

Calla, I'm so sorry I'm late but VERY HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY!! Hope you had a lovely day.

I'm totally giddy over here cos I just got my first review (in The Bookseller, the UK's big trade magazine) and the reviewer called it 'brilliantly funny and clever' *cha-chas off into the sunset*

That is AMAZINGGGGG, congrats!!!

Congrats on the great review, GF!

And Lily, that is beyond awesome!

Hey that's as good a reason as any for confetti!

I still have a screencap of the brief window in time I was higher on the list that GRRM

Gratz!

It lasted for about half an hour but fuck it, I'm taking it!

Mr Flibble said:

I still have a screencap of the brief window in time I was higher on the list that GRRM

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Love it!

I have a question for you folks. I've been given a still-rough timeline for the editing of my book that includes galleys in the summer. I just heard about a writing workshop I'd love to apply for, but it's five days in June. Should I not apply and keep the whole summer free? Or apply and figure I can work around it?

Any advice appreciated — I'm new to this process!

Hey Fuschia, definitely book the workshop! It's only five days, you'll have plenty of time for edits or copy-edits around that, and 'the summer' is a long period! Plus things can always change with schedules.

Well my book is a REAL BOOK now I've seen pictures and everything. Not at all spending all my time staring out of the window waiting for the postman... Though on the terrifying side, that means it's now being sent out to reviewers and bloggers, eep.

Just finishing off my sequel and sending it to my editor within the next few days, and then I can relax for a little while and concentrate on Book 1 promo and launch party planning and fun stuff.

In other news a good writer friend just sold their first book in a really nice deal and am sooooo thrilled, the book is amazing, can't wait till I can shout about it properly

Update from the trenches: My freelance work has picked up quite a bit, but I'm still trying to make ends meet. I think the proposal will FINALLY be submitted to the editor next week. Fingers crossed—I am losing my mind over here with impatience (it's been well over a year since this process began). Meanwhile, my brain is dead and my novel is languishing. I'm trying to hold out hope that this will all feel more doable at some point.

Good luck with the revision and speed-writing, Lily!

And good luck to you with the sub, Erin! I hope the long prep process pays off.

I'm still waiting for the editorial letter, which will probably arrive around the end of this month. Until then, I'm free to work on my WIP and wonder if this whole publishing thing is a strange dream I had. I do have to pinch myself sometimes.

I may go ahead and apply to that workshop, though I'm not sure I can actually go, given that it's a hard time to find someone to care for my voracious furry critters.

Go Calla go! Fuchsia, I totally understand. It can all feel very surreal. Enjoy the silence!

Good luck, Calla!

I'm in the same position. Had to stop writing book 3 which is due in April. I need an miracle!

Got my letter. Wow. I'm just sort of processing right now; there's a lot to think about and do. I'm amazed by how carefully my editor has thought about my characters and story; my agent is an excellent editor, but I've never had anyone engage with something I wrote quite like this. As a fellow editor (in my day job), I appreciate it hugely. Even if it means mucho revision in my future.

And I hope to come out the other end with a better sense of how to structure the plots of my future works ... that's the bonus.

Fuchsia Groan said:

Got my letter. Wow. I'm just sort of processing right now; there's a lot to think about and do. I'm amazed by how carefully my editor has thought about my characters and story; my agent is an excellent editor, but I've never had anyone engage with something I wrote quite like this. As a fellow editor (in my day job), I appreciate it hugely. Even if it means mucho revision in my future.

And I hope to come out the other end with a better sense of how to structure the plots of my future works ... that's the bonus.

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Best of luck with that! I had the same feeling of amazement the first time I got detailed feedback like that. Suddenly there's someone else completely engaged with these characters that only you have known for so long. On the other hand, I guess I'm a very private sort of writer and it might be different for people with a lot of beta-readers and such.

Bryan Methods said:

Best of luck with that! I had the same feeling of amazement the first time I got detailed feedback like that. Suddenly there's someone else completely engaged with these characters that only you have known for so long. On the other hand, I guess I'm a very private sort of writer and it might be different for people with a lot of beta-readers and such.

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Same here. I've had very astute and thorough CP and agent feedback, but I can probably count the total number of people to whom I've shown it on one hand. This is another whole level of detail.

I know what it's like as an editor to have a certain feeling of ownership, a sense that you need to get inside the writer's brain and figure out what he or she meant to say (but didn't always quite succeed). But since I work on short deadlines (the story comes in and has to go to print the same or next day), I usually just go in there, rewrite the thing, then present it to the writer and hope they don't freak out. It's brutal, but it more or less works, with negotiation happening on the fly. (Some writers like me more than others, and anyone who's worked in a newsroom has witnessed some hairy reporter-editor tiffs.)

Whereas a book editor, working with a much longer ms. on a longer timeline, presents a blueprint of the proposed edits for the author to execute, and negotiation is assumed. I'm fascinated by the differences in the process.

Fuchsia Groan said:

Whereas a book editor, working with a much longer ms. on a longer timeline, presents a blueprint of the proposed edits for the author to execute, and negotiation is assumed. I'm fascinated by the differences in the process.

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Ohh, I've never even considered the dynamic if I strongly disagree with any proposed changes. I wonder how I'd deal with it. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I need to.

I think they run any really major desired changes by you before making an offer, perhaps even before taking it to acquisitions. So you know what you're getting into before you sign that contract. (In my case, we had a few back-and-forths at various stages, so I had a good general sense of what my editor wanted.)

Fuchsia Groan said:

I think they run any really major desired changes by you before making an offer, perhaps even before taking it to acquisitions. So you know what you're getting into before you sign that contract. (In my case, we had a few back-and-forths at various stages, so I had a good general sense of what my editor wanted.)

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Oh really? I hadn't considered the possibility of it happening BEFORE acquisitions. Thanks for the info!

It probably varies by house, editor and the scope of the desired revisions — something to ask your agent about. But that was my experience.