Insider Information from a career Manuscript Editor.
This book reveals the reasons ninety percent of fiction manuscripts are rejected quickly by first readers, long before character and plot can be evaluated on their own merits.
I couldn't believe it! On the eve of Book Expo America 2009 in New York, my 11th book, DON'T SABOTAGE YOUR SUBMISSION, won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Literary Criticism! The next day it won the Bronze Medal for Writing Book of the Year from ForeWord Magazine. Both are national, juried competitions.
DON'T SABOTAGE YOUR SUBMISSION is advice from my 44 years in publishing, intended for writers in all genres -- an expanded edition of my earlier book, DON'T MURDER YOUR MYSTERY, which had the honor of:
* winning the 2006 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction Book (named for the great Agatha Christie, as you might guess)
* finaling for the Anthony Award for Best Critical Nonfiction (named for editor/critic Anthony Boucher, awarded by the largest mystery convention in the world, Bouchercon)
* finaling for the Macavity Award for Best Nonfiction (named for TS Eliot's cat and awarded by the largest mystery readers organization in the world, Mystery Readers International)
* finaling for ForeWord Magazine's Reference Book of the Year
* being selected for the Writer's Digest Book Club
Authors I've edited over a 44-year career in publishing are published by St. Martin's Press, Berkley Prime Crime, Midnight Ink, Walker & Co., Intrigue, Rodale, Viking, and many other presses, large and small.
In the middle of those 44 years as an editor, I took a long break to rear two sons, write my first book (Collections from Cape Elizabeth, Maine), earn a B.A. in English summa cum laude from the University of Maine, receive the first M.A. in English awarded by the Portland campus, create the graduate student association and serve as its first president and editor of the graduate student newsletter, and be appointed an instructor at what's now the University of Southern Maine -- where I taught writing for three years.
After a family transfer to Syracuse I mentored the writing of off-campus students for the State University of New York-Rochester. Also during those "at home" years I was very active as a community organizer and trainer -- including state president of 3,000 members of a national organization. I wrote its leadership training materials and developed a simulation game, Oops'n'Options, used in Air Force officer training to reduce the number of sexual harassment lawsuits facing the military.
As many editors have done and continue to do, I made a happy transition in 1983 from busy managing editor of a rapidly growing niche publisher in Wisconsin to even busier contract editor. And after my first 6 years of steady client work I took a summer off to volunteer to teach in South Korea for UNESCO. That enriching experience resulted in my sole autobiographical book, OPEN GATE: TEACHING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY -- of which 975 copies are in circulation. (I bought out the remaining 25 new copies.)
Of the other nonfiction titles I've been hired to write or ghostwrite, the only other book that bears my byline is WHAT TWO CAN DO: SAM & MANDY STELLMAN'S CRUSADE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. (I bought the remainders of that book, too, an inspiring story of how the first state to reform its archaic rape laws came about.)
In the mid-nineties I was elected president of a 10-state regional trade association of 250 commercial publishers and university presses, MidAmerica Publishers Association. For 8 years I also taught night classes for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in writing and getting published, then became active in Mystery Writers of America. I served 6 years on the Southeast Regional board of MWA and received the region's highest honor for service, the Magnolia Award. I'm also a long-time member of Sisters in Crime and Mensa.
A native New Yorker, I got my first job in publishing at age 16 right out of high school -- Music and Art, now LaGuardia. Today I enjoy living in the milder climate of North Carolina, but leave it regularly when invited to present workshops on the writer's voice and its role in attracting agents and publishers. If you're curious to see the workshops I offer, please visit "writers info dot info" (no spaces).
