Man, that was one heck of a papercut. Right on the pad of my index finger, too.
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.
So what have I been doing recently? Well, I've got several books in the Hallowmere series in various stages of the editing process*, and I'm working on Bronze Dragon Codex, the followup to last month's release of Red Dragon Codex. (Late night post=no links, sorry. Google is your friend.) I've got a couple other things in the works that I'll be able to announce as soon as the ink is dry.
In the midst of all that, I try set aside time every week to respond to submissions, but as you can probably guess, that's not at the top of my priority list this month. But I promise, I'm working on it! It's definitely part of the plan.
Then at the end of March, I'll be in Salt Lake City for World Horror Convention to take pitch sessions, and then in June I'll be at BYU for the Writing for Young Readers conference. Whew! But that's waaay in the future. For now, I just have to go to bed so I can be clearer tomorrow than this sinus infection is letting me be right now. All I want for Christmas is my two frontal sinuses, please. Maxillary will do.
*Most recently, volume 5 of Hallowmere, Queen of the Masquerade, by Tiffany Trent and Amanda M. Jenkins. Tears! Tears for the beauty, I tell you! And before that, just finished off volume 4, Maiden of the Wolf by Tiffany Trent and Angelika Ranger (who is on LJ but again, late night, not clear, hopefully I'll remember in the morning). Ilona! Countess Bathory! Humiliations galore! (Okay, so maybe not humiliations galore, but I've always wanted to use that.)
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janni and I talked about in the car on the way to Albany (I flew out of Albany--don't ask, it'll only remind me of frustration that will distract me from my KW high, and besides, it was worth it to be able to make it there and stay through Sunday), you have to crash sometime. So the sinus infection is pounding away near my brain and I've got a book I need to edit, and that leaves my KW report till later.We actually had snow yesterday morning, so I like to take credit for bringing a little Vermont back with me to Seattle. I'm working from home today because we feared there might be more snow. If you've never been to Seattle in the winter, snow is kinda scary here because you combine all these hills with freezing rain and a tiny supply of salt trucks and snow plows, and you get pileups and strandings. Turns out the snow didn't come--just more regular rain--but I'm working from home anyway because it cuts out a lot of distractions. Including LJ! Off goes the internet! See you later.
I'm not making a New Year's resolution to change that any. The blog has been down on the totem pole for a while now, sadly. On the bright side, I've been accomplishing a lot of cool things that I just haven't had time to tell you about. Like a couple really cool series which I can't tell you about yet, but which you'll hear much more about later when the time is right.
... If I have time to blog. Which probably won't be this month, given that I'm traveling to Philadelphia mid-month for ALA Midwinter, and then at the end of the month I'm disappearing
to the Great White North of Vermont for the Kindling Words retreat. All time not spent out of town will probably be spent keeping up with work in the office!So I'll be around, though in a minimal way for a while yet. I'll still pop in from time to time to announce things. Perhaps I might come away from Kindling Words with some interesting information I can share.
Come to think of it, we have a release this month you need to know about--the debut of the companion series to A Practical Guide to Dragons! Red Dragon Codex comes out within the week (I think Jan. 6 is the official release date) so go find it! R.D. Henham has penned a fun adventure that fans of the Practical Guides will love!
My essay on what I look for in a story and Mormons in the children's and YA field is up at By Common Consent. Note that this is written from a Mormon point of view for a Mormon audience, so it's not my normal blog fare, but I thought you all might be interested.
In other news, there is no other news. It's time for a vacation! I hope everyone's holidays will be lovely. I myself will be spending Christmas Day with my brother who lives nearby, and the rest of the time I'm not really quite sure what I'll do. I'm going to see the new National Treasure movie tonight with my roommate. (I am so strangely drawn by National Treasure. It got such bad reviews but it's just so fun.) I'm going to a boys' choir concert tomorrow night with a friend. Then I'll have my house to myself. I plan on rearranging and scouring my bedroom, perhaps hanging out with a few friends who will remain in Seattle over the break. I'll be helping a friend move later in the vacation. And I have some work to catch up on--when you have a week and a half off work, sometimes you fill the time by working. I'll be knitting a LOT (that's what I get for deciding "hats for everybody!" a month before Christmas), and perhaps doing a little of my own writing. So I might not even have time for it all!
At any rate, I know it will be a lot of fun, and I hope yours is too. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and definitely a happy new year to all!
- Mood:
pleased
...please to put a penny in the old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do...
Oh, hi!
I can't get Miss Piggy singing that out of my head.
So we've decorated the house in a style to which I think even my Grandma Nelle would be proud. Wreath on front door, lights everywhere, tree in front window with pretty white lights and matching ornaments, but with just enough old, personal ones to make it interesting. Kissing Christmas bears on the TV and the Hallmark Jingle Bells snowman/snowdog on the trunk. About 3 or 4 different nativities stashed in various places. And a bookshelf now sporting every different kind of Santa I own plus a Darth Vader snowglobe that plays "Let It Snow."
It's a little overboard.
And why shouldn't Grandma Nelle be proud? I think she gave me every single one of those Christmas decorations.
Finally getting over a virus that hit on Thanksgiving Day. Now it's just a bit of the sniffles and the need for a very long nap. Hopefully I'll feel 100% in the next couple of days because I'd like to get back on the wagon with my workout schedule. Right now I'm too asthmatic to even go get my allergy shot yet.
Got new glasses. Will show off a picture of them when I feel like putting on makeup again.
And now back to my regularly scheduled galley edit. Sorry I haven't been around lately. I've been a little frazzled with being a sickie.
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!
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.
It's Employee Appreciation Week here at work, which means free pizza for lunch today, various contests, and also today, Game Day! I went to a discussion group on girls in gaming earlier this morning, and this afternoon we'll be talking to
tltrent for a book discussion group. There are groups learning to play D&D (both basic and advanced; believe it or not there are some people at this company who learn the game after getting hired), Magic, the new Star Wars RPG, etc. It's a good day to work at Wizards.For those of you wondering about the chocolate chip cake recipe, here it is:
1/4 cup oil
1 yellow cake mix
1 large box vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs (don't forget the eggs!)
1 1/4 cup water
roughly 6 to 12 oz of chocolate chips (my grandma says 6, I say the more chocolate the better)
Pour the oil into a cake pan and coat. Then dump in all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips--right into the pan. It might help to beat the eggs into the water first, but I don't notice a significant difference. Beat with a fork until moistened and relatively smooth (but don't overbeat, just like any cake). Smooth out, then sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the cake.
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until cake is golden brown.
It's SO easy, and the cleanup is obviously a cinch due to mixing it right in the cake pan. It's a dense cake, quite rich, and even better on day 2 than right out of the oven. HIGHLY recommend it for chocolate lovers to do a chocolate cake instead of yellow, but be warned: it's REALLY rich, and you might want to try the yellow first for comparison.
Argh.
Over the course of the last week of this happening I've kind of gotten used to the idea of maybe getting a new computer, so I've been pricing them and it really might be fun to get a new computer--though I'd have to automatically go with Vista and of course there's the little matter of paying for the new computer.
Sigh.
But it's a possibility, and I need a computer--both for working from home and remotely while I travel, and for personal stuff like managing my money and my writing and my family history and pictures and all of that. So I'll do what I must.
But I also like the computer I already have, and don't really want to get a new one. So I'm rooting for the keyboard being the problem.
If I do need a new computer, I've considered getting a MacBook, since they've started equalling PCs in price. Still something I'm considering, though, because it would mean getting new programs, which would add to my costs. Macs can run Windows now, but I'd have to buy it--unless... would my old WindowsXP discs work to install Windows on a Mac? Something to think about!
Also: since my friend is doing all this because he's just nice, I need to do something nice for him. I'll bake him cookies, that's a given. What else can you do/give a coworker for just doing something nice? Product points? Gift certificate?
And I got it, for about an hour. After a while, though, I realized it was getting really painful to read from the brightness. But it wasn't until the bees came out that I decided it was time to come in. Actually, I think it might have been wasps, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. The flowers behind the bench I was sitting on were blooming quite nicely, so I hope it was bees, but it could have been wasps attracted by the trash bin that was about 50 feet away.
Still, perhaps I got some nice color out of it, and perhaps my bones will thank me later. (Don't you need vitamin D for calcium absorption? Maybe I'm just associating that in my head because milk always has vitamin D added. I knew the answer to this once.)
So now I'm back inside, gazing longingly out the window (that's a perk--I have a cubical by a window, and mostly my view is of treetops, though at the right angle it's also of the front parking lot). But I'm off to relocate once again to the soft chairs in our library, which are the next best place to edit a manuscript compared to sitting outside in the beautiful sun.
I've missed you, sun. Stay for a while.
But I might share with you a few links and a few pictures. Eventually. Pictures of what? Perhaps my overflowing desk? The beautiful sunny day outside that is wooing me? Don't worry, I'm holding firm, sitting in my air-conditioned cube and going through a copyedit so I can turn over a book to typesetting.
Speaking of, I have to get back to that. More later. And perhaps pictures. Why not? I have to use the camera I've been hauling around for a couple days somehow. Which reminds me, I have a gift card for the camera store that I should go spend before leaving for Toronto. Suggestions for things to see if I have time? I've never been there and really don't know anything about it.
The last couple of weeks have been full of me running from meetings to putting out editorial fires. Crazy things happening at the last minute that push everything else aside until you figure out what happened. Quick thinking on the part of everyone involved to make it work. Big sighs of relief when you know the book will still make it out on time, and even in excellent shape.
I'm sure if you work in another industry you can still sympathize. Sometimes it all comes piling up at once. Then you get a moment to breathe and realize just how much you need to catch up on to balance things out!
My goal for the weekend is twofold: to read, read, read, and to sleep, sleep, sleep. I also just remembered that I am teaching a Sunday School class for my church this Sunday, which means some of that reading will be non-work related. But the goal is to get as many responses out so that my submission pile is once again under control. Then on to more editing, and I will at last be caught up before heading out of town next week.
So if you're waiting on hearing from me, thanks again for your patience.
So now my title is Editor, and I'll have some new business cards. I think I need to go out for dinner to celebrate. I'm thinking I might just indulge in that salmon chowder at Cutter's I've been craving since my first taste at ALA Midwinter....
If you've ever seen our building, you'll know that it's entirely glass-fronted, so this is a large job. It's one of two twin buildings, which we alternately have dubbed the Flash Cubes or the Borg, depending on who you're talking to. The Borg will be shiny clean in a day or two, the better to assimilate you.
Today I am trying to catch up with submissions. Perhaps it's the window washing, but probably more likely just the state of my desk, but either way I've decided I need to catch up.
Now that I have a longer commute, I've picked up several audiobooks for the boring half hour drive each way to work. Lately I've been listening to Pulling Princes: The Calypso Chronicles by Tyne O'Connell, which is read by the author in a lovely British accent that I'm now hearing every time I read anything. A friend's email was talking about babies, for example, and I couldn't help but hear it in my head as I read as "bay-bies" in that posh English accent the author uses for the rich upperclass girls who call each other "dahling."
(ETA: I'd never heard of this book before, just grabbed it off the YA audio shelf at the library. Now, browsing the author's site, I see there are 4 books! And I'm afraid the cover text for the sequels has given away more than I wanted to know. Na nanana I didn't see that! I didn't see it!)
I must say, though, that I'm really enjoying the book. She pulls out a lot of chick lit cliches--the idea of winning over the popular girls by lying about having a boyfriend, the nasty A-list girl enemy, etc.--and turns them on their heads. Hollywood has spoiled me and I cringe anytime anyone tries to lie in a story, because I have a feeling that it'll either turn into the teen-movie cliche of everything falling apart and the girl learns her lesson that she didn't really want to be friends with those non-humans anyway, or even worse, the result will end up sounding more like a sitcom than a teen movie.
(There are a lot of teen movies that I love despite the deception bit, but really, it's an overused hook that just isn't original anymore.)
But O'Connell uses that cliche value to her advantage, and every time I expect a certain event to blow up on Calypso--such as leaving a letter, presumably from her fake boyfriend, on another girl's bed--it turns out to be a nice surprise instead, completely not what I was expecting. The cool girls turn out to be mostly human, the prince is a modern-day boy who happens to have to deal with papparazzi and nasty girls, and people are human for better or worse, no matter their station or richness.
Now, saying that, I'm only in disc 4, so I'll reserve final judgement until probably tomorrow, given that I seem to go through a disc a day or a little more. But so far, it's a good listen. It's made the drive better, and it makes me want to hear more even when the drive is over.
howardtayler(of Schlock Mercenary) and sandrataylerand their awesome kids. They're in town for the Emerald City Comicon--which is this weekend, if it somehow slipped your memory, so if you're going, stop by the Blank Label booth to talk to them. All the kids knew so much about making books that I didn't have to tell them all the boring details--instead we got to the fun stuff. And they all love reading enough that it was gratifying to see how interested they were in our books. The most fun part was bringing them to the desk of our art director, who had a couple sample sketches from A Practical Guide to Monsters on hand and was able to tell them how they ask artists for sketches then comission finished art, and then finally how everything goes into the book. (The kids have A Practical Guide to Dragons, so I hope it was fun for them to see how the next book was progressing.) It looked like it was especially interesting to their nearly-12-year-old daughter (codename Kiki, I think?) who had all sorts of questions about the process. Perhaps a future art director? (Or artist, given her family!)
Of course, the next most fun part is always at the end of the tour when I have free stuff to give away, and today happened to be a good day for that--our receptionist happened to have a whole bunch of NeoPets and DuelMasters, not to mention many handfuls of Magic cards. (Sometimes she gets damaged boxes, that sort of thing.) I also wanted to get some minis to give to Howard and Sandra, but due to the afternoon receptionist being on jury duty the product room was closed. Never fear, the good people of Wizards came to the rescue and I had offers of more minis than I could use, and Howard went away with as big a smile as his kids. I love how the things my company does makes people smile!
So thanks for coming, Taylers! I had a great time showing you around.
Also along for the tours were two Dans--one, a friend of the Taylers with whom they're staying while in town for the Emerald City Comic Con, the other was my friend Fellfrosch, in town coincidentally on the same day because he happened to be interviewing here at Wizards in a different department. My Evil Plan to convince all my friends to move to wherever I live is going to succeed, I just know it! (Okay, so that's just one person and his family so far, and that's if he gets the job. But another friend applied for a job out here recently, too, and several other friends say they want to end up in this area, so you never know--within a few years... :) )
Pictures behind the cut. There's no real guessing involved--I'm sure you can figure out what the objects are--but I thought you'd get a kick out of them. One of the objects is from
jeffsampson. Can you guess which one? Oh, and I couldn't resist sharing my two favorite recent cat photos.
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