Hello, faithful followers and readers/writers of all stripes!
The MANA Sunriser has moved to a new address. We’re excited about the move and what it means for the future of the Sunriser. You can now follow what’s happening here at MANA (and boy-howdy is there a lot!) and participate in the MANA family here:
http://manasunriser.blogspot.com/
So stop in and drop us a line. Let us know what you think of the move! And most importantly,
Keep writing!
We’re back from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), and while it’s good to be back, we love this conference. This was our second year attending, and it was a treat, just like last year. The conference was April 7-9 in Atlanta, Georgia.
A little bit about the CCCC (from the conference’s website, available here):
“The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) supports and promotes the teaching and study of college composition and communication by 1) sponsoring meetings and publishing scholarly materials for the exchange of knowledge about composition, composition pedagogy, and rhetoric; 2) supporting a wide range of research on composition, communication, and rhetoric; 3) working to enhance the conditions for learning and teaching college composition and to promote professional development; and 4) acting as an advocate for language and literacy education nationally and internationally.”
Conferences are also a great way to promote a book because you’re sure to be presenting it to people that are interested in the kind of writing or book that you’ve published, assuming that you’ve put some thought into which conferences to bring your book to. Two of our authors even book signings at our booth this year!
Ms. Ivy Higgins had a signing for her book To Market, To Market…. Ms. Higgins also served as a chair a session entitled “Refiguring Assessment as Situated Performance.”
To Market, To Market… is the story of Calvin Joe, a young Jamaican man who comes to the U.S. to work, and of his family and loved ones in Jamaica. Ms. Higgins was born in Jamaica (she now lives and teaches in Nassau, Bahamas) and uses West Indian dialect in her book, which adds an engrossing depth and flavor to the characters and their experiences.
Dr. Gregory Shafer had a book signing for the 4th edition of his English textbook, Process and Voice in the Writing Workshop. The goal of Process and Voice in the Writing Workshop is to help a beginning writer enjoy the process of developing good, engaging prose, rather than slavishly following prescriptive rules. Dr. Shafer is a professor at Mott Community College
in Flint, Michigan. He is committed to the idea that, “Writing, when
it is good and meaningful, is not about instructors but about their
students and the rediscovery of writing’s liberating potential.”
In brief, we had an absolutely fabulous time this year, and are eagerly looking forward to the 2012 CCCC convention in St. Louis, MO. Until next time,
Keep writing!
This post will finish our primer on editors for new authors, and we’re gonna just dive right in! If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.
“What Do I Need in an Editor?” (continued)
2. You need to be able to listen to your editor, and he/she needs to listen to you.
Part of being a good communicator is being a good listener, but it bears being listed separately in this case. All the straight talk in the world isn’t going to do you or your editor any good unless you are both listening. Your editor may tell you things that you don’t want to hear: suggestions to cut things that you’ve worked so hard on, critiques of your process or concepts, questions that you think have perfectly obvious answers. Your editor is not saying these things to make you upset or make your life difficult; he or she is saying these things to help you make your work better. Listen to what your editor has to say. You don’t have to like it or to agree with him or her, but you should take the time to listen and to really consider what he or she is saying.
If your editor is not listening to you, on the other hand, bring that up. (Open and honest, remember?) It may be a symptom of another issue, and once you and your editor talk about it and figure out what is getting in the way of you communicating and working with each other effectively, you can start to get some really great work done. If your editor seems to not be listening to your concerns about him or her not listening, it is possible that you simply need to start working on getting a new editor.
3. You need to be able to trust your editor.
Maybe you are writing to specifications, including a deadline that seems two days closer for every one that passes. Maybe you are writing from your heart and spirit. Maybe the piece that you are writing is just entirely new territory for you. With all the pressure, anxiety and vulnerability that can easily be associated with writing and publishing, it is important that you trust your partner; trust your editor. Different projects may demand different levels and kinds of trust, but in the end, you need to be able to trust your editor. This can take time and it will take effort, but if you don’t trust your editor you won’t listen and you won’t talk to him or her, and it will hurt your writing.
If you don’t, can’t or won’t trust your editor in a way appropriate to the project, then you need to take a good, long look at the situation and why that might be. If your editor has given you good cause to distrust him or her, then do what you have to in order to get a new editor. Not doing so will hurt your writing and cause you undue stress.
Working with an editor may be hard or downright frustrating at times, but it will improve your writing and that will always be rewarding.
Our next series will discuss taking a book from manuscript to published product. It can seem daunting, especially if you’ve never done anything like it before, but it’s also fantastically rewarding to see your work printed and bound, whether for a handful of friends or the readers of the world. ‘Til then,
Keep writing.
Hello and welcome to MarketNewAuthors.com’s blog, the Sunriser!
This post is the first in a series intended to provide new and aspiring authors with some basic information about editors, who they are and what they do, and how to have a good working relationship with them. Working with an editor can (and should) take your writing to a new level, but if you’ve never had more than a fleeting relationship with an editor, you may not know what to expect or what you might need. This article assumes that the author is building a relationship with an editor for the long haul, but authors may benefit from this information even in short-term partnerships. Some of this information may seem obvious as you read it, but if you are a new author and you’re considering seriously having an editor for the first time it can be easy to lose track of the basics.
“What Does an Editor Do?”
In the context of writing and publishing, an editor is someone that works to make a piece of writing better. This includes addressing technical matters such as grammar, syntax and formatting; matters of content such as organization, accuracy and consistency; and any number of other things that affect how a written work comes out. Editors facilitate the authors’ creative process and are especially helpful when there are specific goals for the project.
“When Should I Have an Editor?”
You should have an editor whenever you are going to publish your writing. You don’t necessarily need to hire a professional editor for every article and short story, but you should have an editor for each piece that you write. You may have noticed that published authors often acknowledge family (especially spouses and significant others) and friends in their books for being editors along the way, and these people can be fine choices for editors. For longer or more seriously professional works, such as a book that you want to get published, you will probably want a professional editor. It helps the writing process if your editor’s primary role in your life is that he or she is your editor; it will also save your relationships with your friends and family (especially spouses and significant others) a lot of stress.
“What Do I Need in an Editor?”
1. You need to be able to communicate with your editor openly and honestly and he/she needs to be able to communicate with you in kind.
Your editor needs to be on the same page as you about the piece of writing that you’re working on. You need to tell your editor things, any and all kinds of things, about your writing in order for this to happen. When you have an idea, speak up. When you’re unsure about where to go next with the work or if all of a sudden it’s taking a turn that you didn’t expect, say so. When you’re confused about the feedback that your editor is giving you, let them know. Your editor is there to make what you’re writing better.
Similarly, you need to be on the same page as your editor. It is part of an editor’s job to try to massage the writing out of you, and to work with you to meet the needs of the project. An editor should have ideas about your process and the work, and should be sharing them with you to that end.
In our next installment we’ll finish our primer for new authors about editors. Please comment with your questions, suggestions and requests; we’d love to hear from you! Most importantly,
Keep writing.
Welcome, dear reader, to MarketingNewAuthors.com’s blog for ambitious authors, “The Sunriser.” Our purpose with The Sunriser is two-fold.
First, we will share some of what we’ve learned in 20 years of publishing with writers of all stripes, to support a community that we feel is going through a renaissance. A lot of advice and guidance given to writers can be boiled down to pithy sayings and truisms that many have heard for years. The problem with these platitudes that get beaten into us like pegs of wood through a toddler’s toy is that they are not always delivered in a way that makes the ideas accessible and easy to use. We want to do our part to make sure that writers don’t just get dogmatic aphorisms, but real and usable advice and guidance.
Second, we will demystify some of the world of self publishing and provide guidance and support for those authors who are interested in self publishing or who may already be self-published. Self publishing has become a wonderfully easy proposition in recent years and all of a sudden, and websites that offer à la carte services can make the process snappy and user-friendly. This means, though, that it has also become easy to make decisions that will hinder the success of an author’s publication. So we’re going to share pro tips and advice to help self-publishing authors ensure that they’re doing everything they can to realize their ambitions.
Above all, we want to help ambitious writers fulfill their desires. So check back here often, and keep writing!