What It's REALLY Like to Hold that Red Pen
Yesterday Karmela Johnson visited this blog and asked me what it was like to wield that red pen as an editor before I became an author. Oh, the tales I could tell.
Years ago I started out as a production editor at Simon & Schuster. I left because they paid too little to live on in the NYC area. As in . . . too little to buy groceries AND pay rent. From there, I embarked on a fifteen-year-career as a freelance book doctor, book editor, and consultant. Eventually, I started working with some big names--some in fiction, some in nonfiction. I saw my authors get on Oprah, and I saw them go amazing places with their books. As my career went along, I began ghostwriting--but I can't tell you who I wrote for or I'd have to kill you. LOL!
I would say that wielding the red pen was so much fun! I was generally involved with people at publishing houses who really wanted to put the best book out there--who were passionate about publishing and books. I loved being around all those people--and one of the best things about being on THIS side of the desk is that I still get to be around them.
I met some amazing authors. But I met some real jackasses, too. I met one Harvard doctor, well-published in self-help circles, who called the Vice President of the company I was freelancing for because I dared to question the his writing. I was told he said, "I AM HARVARD-EDUCATED, how DARE this woman question me."
And I have to tell you that I met some beautiful souls, who, when they wrote nonfiction, really tried to make a difference. Like Sally Downham Miller. If you know anyone going through death in their family, this book is powerful. She's an amazing person, as gracious and real as anyone I have ever met in publishing.
But, in general, I often found that a lot of the people in biz were like the Wizard behind his curtain in Oz. National speakers who were slick and could talk a good talk, but really were dysfunctional, womanizing, drunken, arrogant folks in real life. I have no problem, in essence, if you want to be a womanizing weirdo and make passes at your editor. Or if you want to get so drunk at BEA that you vomit in a plant in the hallway of your hotel. BUT, to do so and go on the Today Show as a paragon of psychological self-help, or as the "guru" of love? Um . . . the hypocricy of it stinks. Consequently, my experiences shaped how I view my world and myself. I don't tend to look to others for solutions because I pretty much assume that most of the time, they are a thousand times more screwed up than I'll ever be.
The fiction authors I met, instead of being so dysfunctional, were more often than not divas about their words. As in don't touch my words. As in I don't want to hear ANYTHING but praise. Fawn over me.
I have been told--more than once by more than a few editors--that I remain a grounded and unfailingly nice person in a biz that breeds divas. I think, sometimes, people think it's an act. Like, she can't be that nice. And in actuality, if you are around me and my four kids, you'll hear me yell and you'll hear me scream about the puppy that just ate my shoe, or you'll hear me complain about the python (I really, really hate that my son has a python). So am I ALWAYS nice? No. But pretty much what you see is what you get. YES, I have remained the person I always was. I have actually greatly improved upon that person. I don't need to be a diva over my words. I am OK with the journey. I unfailingly thank my copy editors for jobs well done, or the cover people for beautiful designs, or my editors for their contributory ideas that make my books better.
I've been on the other side of the desk. And it ain't pretty.
Does any of this surprise you? Know any author-divas? Self-help wrecks?
Years ago I started out as a production editor at Simon & Schuster. I left because they paid too little to live on in the NYC area. As in . . . too little to buy groceries AND pay rent. From there, I embarked on a fifteen-year-career as a freelance book doctor, book editor, and consultant. Eventually, I started working with some big names--some in fiction, some in nonfiction. I saw my authors get on Oprah, and I saw them go amazing places with their books. As my career went along, I began ghostwriting--but I can't tell you who I wrote for or I'd have to kill you. LOL!
I would say that wielding the red pen was so much fun! I was generally involved with people at publishing houses who really wanted to put the best book out there--who were passionate about publishing and books. I loved being around all those people--and one of the best things about being on THIS side of the desk is that I still get to be around them.
I met some amazing authors. But I met some real jackasses, too. I met one Harvard doctor, well-published in self-help circles, who called the Vice President of the company I was freelancing for because I dared to question the his writing. I was told he said, "I AM HARVARD-EDUCATED, how DARE this woman question me."
And I have to tell you that I met some beautiful souls, who, when they wrote nonfiction, really tried to make a difference. Like Sally Downham Miller. If you know anyone going through death in their family, this book is powerful. She's an amazing person, as gracious and real as anyone I have ever met in publishing.
But, in general, I often found that a lot of the people in biz were like the Wizard behind his curtain in Oz. National speakers who were slick and could talk a good talk, but really were dysfunctional, womanizing, drunken, arrogant folks in real life. I have no problem, in essence, if you want to be a womanizing weirdo and make passes at your editor. Or if you want to get so drunk at BEA that you vomit in a plant in the hallway of your hotel. BUT, to do so and go on the Today Show as a paragon of psychological self-help, or as the "guru" of love? Um . . . the hypocricy of it stinks. Consequently, my experiences shaped how I view my world and myself. I don't tend to look to others for solutions because I pretty much assume that most of the time, they are a thousand times more screwed up than I'll ever be.
The fiction authors I met, instead of being so dysfunctional, were more often than not divas about their words. As in don't touch my words. As in I don't want to hear ANYTHING but praise. Fawn over me.
I have been told--more than once by more than a few editors--that I remain a grounded and unfailingly nice person in a biz that breeds divas. I think, sometimes, people think it's an act. Like, she can't be that nice. And in actuality, if you are around me and my four kids, you'll hear me yell and you'll hear me scream about the puppy that just ate my shoe, or you'll hear me complain about the python (I really, really hate that my son has a python). So am I ALWAYS nice? No. But pretty much what you see is what you get. YES, I have remained the person I always was. I have actually greatly improved upon that person. I don't need to be a diva over my words. I am OK with the journey. I unfailingly thank my copy editors for jobs well done, or the cover people for beautiful designs, or my editors for their contributory ideas that make my books better.
I've been on the other side of the desk. And it ain't pretty.
Does any of this surprise you? Know any author-divas? Self-help wrecks?
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:14 AM
9 Comments:
I'm in the middle of a rewrite, so my red pen is getting a workout right now.
I enjoy editing.
I often, in my mind while I'm reading, edit published books. One time I was reading something so crappy I actually took the pen out and went to work on it.
I guess I'm the opposite of a diva. I enjoy BEING edited, love it when someone gives me ideas to make my work better.
None of this surprises me. Some of the 'prettiest packages' (attractive-educated-proffessional) house some of the most damaged interiors I've met--and I'm related to a few of 'em!
Funny you should mention the diva thingy. Its something I've puzzled over lately. In the year that I have lurked on forums/blogs, I've seen about a dozen woman land their first sale. Many of them are exactly who they always were--honest about the agony and ecstasy, with a charming sense of wonderment, that 'I can't believe this is happening'! Sadly, a few appear to have been body snatched. They have a sense of superiority and entitlement. Where their posts used to have the same conversational tone as everyone else's, it has become argumentative and instructional: "NO, you're wrong, this is the way I did it, so it must be the ONLY right way."
IMHO, these 'diva's' are lacking a true sense of self. If they define themselves by an accomplishment or a false sense of superiority, where will they be when the next book doesn't sell, or when the people they were looking down on sell twice as many copies?
I make it a point to try and not edit published books I'm reading. I spend too much time doing that when I glance over my WIPs as it is.
I think that maybe the people you've met made you subconsciously think, "I don't want to be like that."
Hi Jude:
For the most part, I enjoy being edited--it's very cool to see whether someone else see the story the way I do or not--and where I can strengthen it.
lainey:
OMG, but do I know a number of first sale authors like that. It's really, really sad. When it happened the first time, I thought . . . OK, a fluke. But then I saw it another time and another. And another. Pubbed authors do offer something unpubbed writers maybe don't have and that's insider knowledge of the biz and tips and things they picked up along the way. But that doesn't put them in rarified air, and there are so many TALENTED people who haven't caught their lucky break yet. We're all the same.
E
may:
I tend to read nonfiction to avoid that--and I usually pick thick quantum physics texts because I couldn't edit them and make them better if I tried. Right now I am knee-deep in Bill Bryson's hysterical book on the universe.
E
Hee...
It's when I read non-fiction that I really get out the red pen.
Do you know how horrifyingly convoluted economics texts can be?
I was joking with a friend the other day that I am becoming an economist to save other pitiful students like me the tedium of reading boring texts.
may:
Wow! I can't imagine editing economics. Bill Bryson is my favorite science writer . . . and he manages to make it so accessible--love that!
E
OMG!! People's behaviour never ceases to amaze me.
My trouble is I'm too much of a pragmatist to be a Diva... but I'm a quick learner... I'll soon be so far up myself you won't be able to see the soles of my feet..... LOL!!!
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