Peter Orullian joined us in front of a live audience at Westercon to talk with us about dealing with editors. We usually talk about craft, but this is a business discussion, and it’s about one of the most delicate and important relationships in the business. He begins by telling the short version of the story, and how he managed one of the worst-case scenarios: asking your publisher for a different editor.
We then move into some take-aways, and some additional experiences we’ve had that will hopefully help our listeners manage this sort of thing in the future.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:55 — 12.3MB)
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Write a sword-fighting scene, a la Princess Bride, in which the witticisms are part of a magic system, and are part of the fight itself.
Unfettered: Tales by Masters of Fantasy, Written by: Terry Brooks, Patrick Rothfuss, Robert Jordan, Jacqueline Carey, R.A. Salvatore, Naomi Novik, Peter V. Brett, Shawn Speakman (editor)
Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Marc Vietor, Bronson Pinchot, Jay Snyder
That’s another advantage to self-publishing: if you and your editor are a bad match, you can fire them and hire someone else. It’s your career, and you are at the top of the command chain.
I think something that wasn’t quite emphasis enough (but is in earlier podcast), an editor brings a lot to the table. Trying to publish without the type of review they bring can be risky.
It seems even Shakespeare had serious arguments with his editor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvaUwagX_uU
Hope you’ll enjoy it and maybe even find some hidden meaning.
“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” Theodore Roosevelt
Working with people is one of the essential arts of the writer? Well, at least with an editor…
And here’s the transcript! All those words to read.
http://wetranscripts.livejournal.com/91985.html
Also available in the archives. So, no excuses — just go write!
As a long time listener, I implore you to stop having audiences scream and/or Howard do that screeching thing. I’m usually listening to these when doing the dishes or something else where my hands are occupied to where I can’t pull out my headphones quick enough, and even when I can it is still annoying and actually hurts my ears. My ears can’t take it anymore. This is the third episode I have listened to in succession [the others were picked from the archives] where this has happened. It’s like someone yelling directly into your ear. Please!
You’re absolutely right. This episode was especially bad for levels, but ALL episodes have issues. I’ve passed this along to the rest of the crew.
Regarding the writing prompt… Cyrano de Bergerac is the most powerful wizard in history.
Thank you, Howard. 🙂