It's actually kind of fun, but in a much different way than earlier on in the life of a manuscript. This step in the process really brings in my detail-oriented side. Comparing details and thinking about minutiae perhaps might not be as exciting as the developmental stage, but it's an important step in the life of a book. The extra eyes of the copyeditor and proofreader are vital to making sure that I haven't missed typos, grammatical problems, blue eyes here and green eyes there on the same character, and other mistakes--mistakes that readers will always catch.
The thing about being an editor is that you're looking at different versions of the same text four, sometimes five or more times. When I'm first editing, I'm not looking for grammatical problems because if a character isn't working, the text might change dramatically. Not to mention that typos can be introduced in the course of even small revisions, so it's best to leave the detail work until the big picture is taken care of.
Perhaps likening this to the installation of a new bathtub will help: you don't caulk the seals of the old tub and then rip everything out and put in the new tub, because you'll just have to recaulk (can you tell I just learned how to caulk a tub last weekend?). So leaving the details until the third or fourth pass is necessary.
But that means that by the fourth time I'm reading it, the eye can easily elide over mistakes, even very obvious ones. This is why another pair of eyes is crucial to catch those last few errors. And then it comes back to me, the one who knows the project best (on the publisher's side--it also goes back to the author for one last look), to be sure that it all comes together.
So that's what I'm doing this week--working on bringing it all together for a couple books in various stages.
I'll be speaking there and then just generally participating, networking, etc. The title of my talk is “Passion or Practicality—Writing for Love or the Market."
So go check it out, and sign up if it sounds like just the thing you've been looking for.
One of the things an editor must sometimes do that isn't editing is to write copy--catalog copy, cover copy, and even sometimes ad copy and discussion guide copy. After all, the editor is the champion of the book in the publishing house and they tend to know the book best, so sometimes coming up with a summary or a teaser is best done by that person.
I've heard that this varies from house to house--sometimes your editor writes that copy, and sometimes someone in marketing or an editorial assistant might write the copy.
But as you can imagine, for the catalog to be interesting to the buyers (book buyers at both independent bookstores and chains, and mass market buyers too), the catalog copy needs to really give a great sense of what the book is about and why that buyer would want this book. They need to get a sense of the atmosphere and to know what the plot is all about, who would be reading it.
It can be quite a challenge, which uses an entirely different part of the brain than editing. In fact, I like it, exactly because of that. Sometimes it's nice to have the change of pace. It brings back some of my earlier days in newspaper and trade magazines, in fact. I've never considered myself good at titles and headings, so to come up with one tagline to describe a book can be mind-racking. Yet at the same time, the brainstorming process--listing words and key phrases which might be combined to interesting effect--is quite fun.
I think this process might actually help writers as they write cover letters and queries in the submissions process. Pretend you're writing cover copy for your book. What does the reader need to know to want to pick up this book? A good rule of thumb is "less is more" in cover letters--boil it down to one or two sentences. In Hollywood I think they call it "high concept." (Not that your story should be high concept, but that you can boil down your plot and characters to a few sentences for such purposes.)
An example of catalog copy from a previous season might help you know what I'm getting at. Here's what we had for Red Dragon Codex in our Spring 2008 catalog:
Mudd lives a peaceful life in his small town, tinkering with the mill and any mechanical devices that he can find. But his peaceful life soon changes when, out of nowhere, a red dragon attacks, burning the town and kidnapping Shemnara, the village seer. Only one clue is left behind—a cryptic note telling Mudd, “Seek the silver dragon.” In this first Dragon Codex, R.D. Henham spins a fantastic adventure where dragons take center stage.
Now, obviously, you wouldn't praise your own writing the way marketing copy might praise the writer's writing. But the point is the same: your cover letter or query is marketing copy. You are marketing your writing to an editor or agent. So briefness and the big concepts are what matter here. It gives the editor the hook and doesn't ramble on.
Also, keep an eye out this month for book 3 of Hallowmere, Between Golden Jaws. Tiffany Trent just traveled down to see a library in New Orleans who won a visit from her for their Teen Read Week activities. (See here for coverage--it's the second part of the piece, so scroll below the ad.)
Last month's release, Magic in the Mirrorstone, has been getting some great reviews. If you haven't checked it out yet, you don't want to miss it.
- Music:No Life Without Wife, Bride & Prejudice soundtrack
But sometimes in that frenetic pace you need to take a break. I'm also drowning in paper here at Chez Stacy, and it was time to answer especially the most languishing of languishness in my submissions pile.
But what to do when my brain is slightly fried, and I don't feel like you can concentrate on a whole novel? After all, the reason I needed a little break in the first place was because I was working on a novel under contract already. I need something a little shorter, a break in the pace.
So I went to the partials, rather than the requested manuscripts. Sample chapters are always going to be answered a little faster, because they can be taken in small chunks, and sending out five or six responses in a couple hours feels like I've accomplished something. The requested manuscripts need more time and contemplation, obviously--for one, they're larger, and for another, they're usually, percentage-wise, better written.
Another thing about slowness of response on submissions: Sometimes, it's the just-on-the-cusp work that languishes the longest. Not always, but usually. Sometimes the best work will languish because the editor wants to find a place for it and doesn't want to say yes until she gets approval, but can't bear to say no because then she'd have to let it go. But usually, for me, at least, it's the work that's pretty good, but I'm on the fence about, that stays around the longest because those are the submissions I want to give encouragement to. It's those writers that I know that perhaps this submission isn't quite there, but with this and that tweaked perhaps their next work might make it. That kind of response takes thought and time, which of course is always in short supply when you've got several contracted books in various stages of the editorial process demanding your attention, with several other books in various stages of writing whose authors need questions answered or whose marketing information is coming due or for which the map orders or cover art or cover copy needs to be concepted/written.
( A little bit about editing series )
So that gives you a little better idea of one short day in the life of an editor, and the thinking that goes into getting through submissions one one short day. On another day, the thinking might be, "Wow, I have a whole leisurely day ahead of me to read an entire requested manuscript!" but generally requested manuscripts are read on our own time, late at night or on weekends. So if your manuscript has been requested, patience is indeed a virtue. It probably means that editor wants to make sure to give it the time it deserves.
Despite all the deadline-oriented stuff, I also spent some time catching up on the submissions pile, so if you've been waiting for a response from me, there's a 33% chance that you'll have received it by now. (The other 60% of the pile, which was more recently submitted than that last bit, will hopefully also hear from me soon.) If you've sent along a full manuscript, though, the patience quotient will have to extend a little longer. Note, however, that I take simultaneous submissions, so if you're at the point where you felt you've been waiting too long, you're welcome to continue to shop it around. If your manuscript is a gem, it will be my own fault if I miss it! (But if you do get an offer from someone else, please be sure to let me know so I can make sure I'm not missing out!) The wheels grind ever slowly on.
This also means that I've gone nowhere near my friends page here in about 3 weeks or perhaps more, so if there's anything earthshaking going on, I'm completely missing out on it. But that's okay, because I feel so caught up! And that's a wonderful feeling--one that never really lasts long in this business!
As a teenager, I wanted to read books that didn't have sex in them. As a writer, I want to create the kind of books that I wanted to read as a teenager. Yet, I was afraid that an editor or an agent would want me to put sex scenes in my books to appeal to the greater audience (though I was willing to fight them for it).
Then I read on Editorial Anonymous some instances from the Best/Worst Query contest. From that, it looks like a lot of books with sex have sex because the author wanted it.
So, what are the odds that an editor or an agent would want me to make a YA/adult book more edgy by putting in sex or foul language?
I can only speak for myself and my own experience, but the odds are very slim. The YA market is so diverse, and we can put "clean reads" like Shannon Hale's Goose Girl beside edgier work like Holly Black's Tithe or M.J. Anderson's Feed (both books that tell great stories but have some language content some might not want to read), and both kinds of books will be valued and enjoyed by their target audience. There are so many different kinds of teens and so many different kinds of readers that I think a good story will find its home.
Personally, I as an editor choose books for what's IN them, not for what's NOT in them. I want a good story. Thus, I can love Tithe and Feed and many books like them because they tell good stories. I feel the content that some might find objectionable is rarely gratuitous in YA (not so for some adult books I've read . . .)--it always supports the story. (For example, when you read Feed you feel like the characters' use of degraded language directly illustrates how their culture has degraded.)*
A lot of people feel that "teens talk that way" and if you don't include foul language it won't feel real to teens. I know teens who talk this way and I know teens who don't--just as I did growing up. I myself have never found a need to use a curse stronger than "darn," but I have many friends who swear like sailors and want to see their own reality reflected to them in books as much as I do my own.
If you write a compelling story, no editor I know is going to make you add edgy content you don't want, unless you're trying to write an edgy story without edgy content and coming off corny. (Example: if your "bad" character swears a lot but the worst he ever says is "fiddlesticks," there's something wrong.) If your characterization and plot work, the story should work without adding anything extraneous. Your content should match the story you're trying to tell.
Here at Mirrorstone we try to make sure our books--even our YAs--meet a self-imposed PG-13 rating. We don't have any hard and fast rules that I have posted on my wall or anything, but we weigh every swear word, every scene with implied or overt sexual content, and scenes of extreme violence, and ask, "Does it serve the story? How can we tell this without disturbing our younger readers? Is this going too far?" And then we edit accordingly. Usually it's to tone down a scene already written, not to add content to a scene.
For example, for an older middle grade novel I once edited, we had a fight scene that included decapitation. I weighed whether the violence was too graphic. I decided it was okay because the good guys were fighting off monsters and the monsters could only be killed by cutting off their heads (any other kind of wound just temporarily slowed them down). It worked for that book and the author handled those fight scenes artfully.
My take on this: Write the book you want to write. Write a good story. If your story is one that doesn't need that kind of content, it's rare that someone would suggest it should.
Also . . .
As you go through the editing process, your editor will undoubtedly say many times, "It feels like a scene/paragraph/reaction is missing here . . ." She might suggest something, but usually she'll leave it up to you to answer the questions she asks.
But perhaps at some point an editor might suggest that the story should veer in a direction you don't want to take it. Editors are here to suggest how to make the story better, and you never know, an editor might feel something you are opposed to is necessary for the particular story in question.
If this rare occurrence ever happens to you, it's nothing to be afraid of. Discuss it with your editor. Find out what she feels is missing, and then see if you can find another way to solve the problem the editor has identified. I know few editors who will say you MUST do this or I won't publish your book (it has to be a BIG problem for that to happen after a contract has been signed). Both editors and authors must learn the art of negotiation, and of getting to the heart of what's wrong in a story. I give suggestions as a way to spark ideas for the author. Suggestions rarely mean edicts.
*I must say, if you haven't read these books because you don't want to read bad language, you're missing out on a good story. But then, I rarely watch rated R movies despite being told they're a good story because I find that few balance out against the content that got them the rating, so I understand where the concern comes from. I can skim things as I'm reading that I can't as easily when I'm watching something. (But I won't give up Glory. Or, well, I have a soft spot in my heart for Terminator 2.)
I can only speak for myself and my own experience, but the odds are very slim. The YA market is so diverse, and we can put "clean reads" like Shannon Hale's Goose Girl beside edgier work like Holly Black's Tithe or M.J. Anderson's Feed (both books that tell great stories but have some language content some might not want to read), and both kinds of books will be valued and enjoyed by their target audience. There are so many different kinds of teens and so many different kinds of readers that I think a good story will find its home.
Personally, I as an editor choose books for what's IN them, not for what's NOT in them. I want a good story. Thus, I can love Tithe and Feed and many books like them because they tell good stories. I feel the content that some might find objectionable is rarely gratuitous in YA (not so for some adult books I've read . . .)--it always supports the story. (For example, when you read Feed you feel like the characters' use of degraded language directly illustrates how their culture has degraded.)*
A lot of people feel that "teens talk that way" and if you don't include foul language it won't feel real to teens. I know teens who talk this way and I know teens who don't--just as I did growing up. I myself have never found a need to use a curse stronger than "darn," but I have many friends who swear like sailors and want to see their own reality reflected to them in books as much as I do my own.
If you write a compelling story, no editor I know is going to make you add edgy content you don't want, unless you're trying to write an edgy story without edgy content and coming off corny. (Example: if your "bad" character swears a lot but the worst he ever says is "fiddlesticks," there's something wrong.) If your characterization and plot work, the story should work without adding anything extraneous. Your content should match the story you're trying to tell.
Here at Mirrorstone we try to make sure our books--even our YAs--meet a self-imposed PG-13 rating. We don't have any hard and fast rules that I have posted on my wall or anything, but we weigh every swear word, every scene with implied or overt sexual content, and scenes of extreme violence, and ask, "Does it serve the story? How can we tell this without disturbing our younger readers? Is this going too far?" And then we edit accordingly. Usually it's to tone down a scene already written, not to add content to a scene.
For example, for an older middle grade novel I once edited, we had a fight scene that included decapitation. I weighed whether the violence was too graphic. I decided it was okay because the good guys were fighting off monsters and the monsters could only be killed by cutting off their heads (any other kind of wound just temporarily slowed them down). It worked for that book and the author handled those fight scenes artfully.
My take on this: Write the book you want to write. Write a good story. If your story is one that doesn't need that kind of content, it's rare that someone would suggest it should.
Also . . .
As you go through the editing process, your editor will undoubtedly say many times, "It feels like a scene/paragraph/reaction is missing here . . ." She might suggest something, but usually she'll leave it up to you to answer the questions she asks.
But perhaps at some point an editor might suggest that the story should veer in a direction you don't want to take it. Editors are here to suggest how to make the story better, and you never know, an editor might feel something you are opposed to is necessary for the particular story in question.
If this rare occurrence ever happens to you, it's nothing to be afraid of. Discuss it with your editor. Find out what she feels is missing, and then see if you can find another way to solve the problem the editor has identified. I know few editors who will say you MUST do this or I won't publish your book (it has to be a BIG problem for that to happen after a contract has been signed). Both editors and authors must learn the art of negotiation, and of getting to the heart of what's wrong in a story. I give suggestions as a way to spark ideas for the author. Suggestions rarely mean edicts.
*I must say, if you haven't read these books because you don't want to read bad language, you're missing out on a good story. But then, I rarely watch rated R movies despite being told they're a good story because I find that few balance out against the content that got them the rating, so I understand where the concern comes from. I can skim things as I'm reading that I can't as easily when I'm watching something. (But I won't give up Glory. Or, well, I have a soft spot in my heart for Terminator 2.)
*If you're wondering, the book in question is Red Dragon Codex by R.D. Henham (with assistance from Rebecca Shelley!), the first of a series of books featuring the dragons from A Practical Guide to Dragons. In the first book, Mudd lives a peaceful life in his small town, tinkering with the mill and any mechanical devices that he can find. But his peaceful life soon changes when, out of nowhere, a red dragon attacks, burning the town and kidnapping Shemnara, the village seer. Only one clue is left behind—a cryptic note telling Mudd, “Seek the silver dragon.” It's a fantastic adventure in which dragons take center stage. Look for it this coming January--I hope you love it as much as I did.I think the authors I work with can attest that I tend to haunt them.
I can't seem to link to today's, so I posted it with a link to the comic, which came out in the PW Children's Bookshelf, a really informative newsletter that comes out every week. That link is to last week's strip, which I got when I clicked on "see the most recent installment." Maybe by the time you read it, though, it'll be updated?
Speaking of that imprint, remember that the open call for the Discoveries imprint is open now. More information on how to submit, including submission guidelines, can be found at the Wizards website.
But it would be awesome if there WERE mole people in one of my books. Only guess how long THAT revision letter would be???? “I understand how much you love the Mole People, Meg. But seriously…where do they bathe? I know that Mole People probably do bathe somewhere, but where? He must brush his teeth or his breath would be stinky when he kisses her, but where does he do this? You see? This complicates the plot in ways I fear we don’t want to get into….” See what I mean by how editors are the sheriff? Better not even to risk it….)
I'd never read any of her books before this year (strange how sometimes that gap in reading happens), but as you can see from my sidebar, I've been making up lost time. Her audiobooks also have some really good narrators, so that just adds to the experience.
In other news, today is a multiple book birthday!
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tltrent's In the Serpent's Coils has been sighted, and Nina Hess's A Practical Guide to Monsters comes out today, too. Pictures later, when I can upload them on a computer with an SD reader.Just a reminder that the Mirrorstone blog is your source for announcements regarding all of Mirrorstone's books. I'm a little biased here because, of course, I'm talking about my work in particular. But at the Mirrorstone blog we're going to make sure to point out news that relates to all the books we're publishing, the authors who write those books, and even all the editors. Take note of yesterday's post in particular, if you're in the San Francisco area and thinking about going to the local SCBWI conference next month:
A few words from Nina Hess, Mirrorstone’s Senior Editor
Thanks to everyone who has friended Mirrorstone! We're excited to be here on MySpace and able to reach out to people across the country.
A few upcoming appearances, we'd like for you to know about:
I will be speaking and critiquing manuscripts at the San Francisco East/North Bay Region SCBWI conference on Saturday, September 8, 2007. If you're in the area, please stop by! I'd love to meet you. Information available at the SCBWI site.
Stacy Whitman, intrepid Editor, has graciously agreed to step in for me to speak at L.A. Public Library's monthly meeting on September 4 at 9 AM. (The meeting is open only to L.A. librarians.) Thank you, Stacy! I'm sorry I had to miss meeting librarians in L.A., but I'm excited to have the chance to meet with writers in the San Francisco area that same week!
If you can't make any of our in-person appearances, meet me on the Internet! I'll be speaking via the magic of the world wide web on September 28 at 11 AM Eastern time. This "webinar" is hosted by the amazing duo of Susan Raab of Raab Associates and Jeannette Larson of the Texas Public Library. A webinar is a speech broadcast over the Internet. You call in to a phone number to get the audio, and log in to a website to see the power point slides. Pretty fancy, huh? Here's the write-up:
A Practical Guide to Fantasy
Nina Hess is Senior Editor at Mirrorstone, an imprint at Wizards of the Coast, where she edits fantasy fiction for children and teens. She is also the author of A Practical Guide to Monsters (August 2007), which follows the company's New York Times bestseller, A Practical Guide to Dragons.
In her web-based seminar, Hess will discuss the popularity of fantasy for all kids and its value as a means for encouraging more boys to read. She will introduce ideas, including role-playing, costume parties, and fantasy script writing, that can be incorporated into library programs for school-age children and teens.
Though this webinar is primarily aimed at librarians, it should be of interest to any writer intrigued by the fantasy genre, or any published fantasy authors looking for ideas to use in school-visits or local bookstore appearances. There is a fee to participate, but there are discounts for groups of ten or more. Full information and registration available here.
But I wanted to address the misconception that a book isn't "well-edited" if a reader has found a typo. I've heard that a lot in my time as an editor, and used to say it a lot when I didn't understand the editing process either, and I just want to lay the idea that "editing a book" means that all an editor does is look at a finished, beautiful manuscript from a writer, change a few typos, and call it good.
Catching typos and grammatical errors is the job of an editor, sure. We certainly don't want typos in the finished manuscript! But it's not their only job. As you can tell from those posts about the process, it's the polishing end of a long process of sculpting with an ever-finer tool. First the writer starts with this large hunk of stone, and tips and taps and sculpts. It's a beautiful piece of art. It could be a statue of a Grecian god. But wait! there's a rough hunk at the back here that could be sculpted--did you do that on purpose? His nose is missing--shouldn't he have a nose? Etc. And then the line editing might be thought of as chipping off the little bits that have been clinging that we couldn't get to until we had the overall shape down.
Copyediting and proofreading, the processes that most lay people think is all an editor like me does, is like taking a fine piece of sandpaper (or whatever a sculptor uses--I admit ignorance on this, but let's just go with the imagery) to really smooth off the finish of the piece, and give it that beautiful sheen that proclaims, "this is a finished piece of art, ready to be seen by the world." (Keeping in mind that we're talking the Classical idea of beauty, not something intentionally left rough. Go with me here.)
So when a typo shows up in a published book, am I mortified? Indeed. It appalls me that I could have looked at that problem again and again and not seen it, and not just me, but that two other editors--the copyeditor and the proofreader, usually freelancers--and then myself again, looking at the final galley, could have missed something that is so obvious to me when I can't do anything about it.
But I also have to have a little mercy on myself, because when you think about it, the tiniest flaw in a great sculpture doesn't negate the sculpture's greatness. How long have I looked at that manuscript? How many times? Was a flaw introduced because I sanded too hard? I just did that in a recent proofread--in trying to fix something, introducing more problems that thankfully the proofreader caught and I'm entering the changes this very day.
Which is what made me think of this post. Hopefully, not one single error will remain in this book when I'm done going through the proofreader's changes to the manuscript. But if there are one or two tiny little errors, have mercy on the editor. It was just a tiny piece of a large masterpiece, and perfectionists that we are, we're probably already mortified that the error made it through on our watch.
There are a few other books besides Hallowmere coming out in the next few months you should be aware of. (Hallowmere has gotten talked about a lot lately because we've been doing a lot of promotion for it this summer.) (ETA: Not least because it's tltrent's birthday today. :D)
Also releasing at the same time as In the Serpent's Coils is another book I edited, A Practical Guide to Monsters. If I haven't posted the final cover here (and I don't think I have), here you go!
Then coming up after that we've got the final installations in several Dragonlance: The New Adventures trilogies, starting with jeffsampson's Stolen Sun in September, Stephen D. Sullivan's Warrior's Bones in December, and learsfool's Tempest's Vow in April 2008. If you haven't read the first two books in those trilogies, now's the time to pick them up to be ready for books 3!
Then, the exciting news for Jan. 2008, the first of a series of novels featuring the dragons from A Practical Guide to Dragons! Be sure to look for Red Dragon Codex in January.
One book that I was able to acquire but due to scheduling changes, another editor has been working on, is a new anthology edited by mroctobercalled Magic in the Mirrorstone. A number of amazing writers have contributed stories, which I've mentioned here before--like Holly Black, Cecil Castellucci, Cassie Clare, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, as well as our own Tiffany Trent--but I don't think I've showed you the cover before.
Those are just the books I have edited--check out the rest of Mirrorstone's books on our site.
I mentioned this in my last entry, but now the travel arrangements are final and I've heard more about it, so I just thought I'd say that come the day after Labor Day, I'll be in L.A. talking to a group of YA librarians about Hallowmere, Mirrorstone, and all sorts of things. And the nice thing is that I'll get to go a couple days earlier and spend the weekend with my friend
zeliot, who I haven't seen in a good two years. I've been saying all summer that I need to just get out of town and go somewhere that isn't work, and this will be the next best thing.I'm still hoping to go hiking in the next couple of weeks, but that might depend on the state of my shoulder. Remember my rollerblading accident? Yes, it's more than road rash and bruises, it's a hairline fracture and who knows what else. I say that because really, no one does know yet, because I still need one more test to see what's up. I finally got an X-ray the other day (which is where they saw the little lines that indicate possible hairline) and since then the doctor has banished my right arm to a sling to immobilize it, but I am off to get a CT scan in about an hour that will give a better view of just what's going on. I must confess that I've only worn the sling about 25% of the time because it's just plain annoying. I can't type or drive with it in the sling. I can't reach for anything because I'm so severely right-handed. Well, I can steer left-handed; you learn to do that driving a stickshift--but I can't turn the key or shift gears without the right hand. So I've been cheating. I can move my arm and use my hand without pain, except in certain directions, and I can't lift anything without causing stress--and that's what the sling is supposed to prevent.
Getting back to the point of this post, though, I can't imagine I'll still be in a sling when I head to L.A. I can't imagine having to haul a suitcase around with my left hand.
n First of all, if you don't know about Readergirlz, go check them out--they've got thousands of teen girls excited about reading. As Tiffany Trent posted on her LJ (tltrent</lj>), for Teen Read Week this year Readergirlz is hosting 31 Flavorite Authors for Teens, and Tiffany will be one of them on Oct. 2. They'll talk to a different author every day. But don't wait until October--they're featuring Holly Black this month.
n I already told you about hallowmere.com, but you should go there again. And share it with your friends. And their friends.
n Speaking of which, if you’re on MySpace, you should be Corrine’s friend! And Hallowmere’s, too. (I’m there too, though I don’t go over there as often as here.)
n I will be traveling down to L.A. in early September to talk to some YA librarians. I’m very excited about it.
n I am spending the week catching up on my way-too-far-behind towering pile of submissions. If you’ve been patiently waiting to hear from me, fear not, the wait may be over soon. Though the wheels of justice—er, publication—do grind slowly, so if it’s not a rejection letter, it might take a little longer for deliberation. I’d post a picture, but I think the real thing is guilt-inducing enough. If you want another editorial perspective on how that goes (and/or, if you miss Miss Snark), I’ve recently discovered Editorial Anonymous, the blog of an editorial assistant who deals with this stuff in a most Miss Snark-ish manner.
In other news, there's not really other news. Just rolling along trying to hit a deadline for a manuscript edit. I also got three first drafts in practically at once, and am waiting on a fourth. Those will all require first reads and edits, and on top of that I'm trying to really look at some new stuff for planning out my next year. So this month is rather busy! If you're waiting to hear from me on a submission, hopefully you'll be hearing back this month or next, as I sit down and really go through the pile. That means reading all requested manuscripts in addition to reading samples that have been sent in. If you sent a sample and I end up asking for a full, though, of course the timing on that might take a little longer!
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