Please The Editor: Make A Sale

by Beth Fowler

Have you ever thought that editor should appear in your thesaurus (http://www.m-w.com/home.htm) under devil somewhere between Beelzebub and fiend? I felt that way until I become one…an editor, that is.

My job, like every editor's job, was to acquire, repair and publish manuscripts. Although I had only 50 manuscripts to edit and enjoyed a flexible deadline, the less tutoring and rework I had to do the greater the odds were that that author's work would be published in the anthology. (Write "Travel anthology" in the subject line of an email to b2fowl@aol.com for your free copy.)

Generally, manuscripts submitted to me were interesting and demonstrated an understanding of the basic principles of composition. Deviations from standard practice, however, made "me want to cry and run away," as Simon & Schuster's (http://www.simonsays.com) Rebecca Saletan put it. I developed sympathy for editors who hadn't thought that my submissions were brilliant. Maybe, just maybe, the editors were right.

Follow these tips to boost the chances of editors reading your queries and manuscripts through tears of gratitude (not despair).

Write their way: Is it colour or color, Dr. or Dr, truck or lorry? Starting with your query and ending with your thank you note to the editor, use the publication's preferred spellings, punctuation and vocabulary. Some style preferences are covered in submission guidelines, but basics that citizen writers are assumed to know won't be. Find American and British spellings at http://www.planetware.com/briteqiv.htm. Lingo varies even inside boundaries. For example, within the USA, regional names for a huge sandwich include hero, hoagie, grinder and sub (short for submarine, which the oblong concoction resembles).

Convert consistently: While serving as editor for the anthology, I received manuscripts marred with inconsistent measurement systems. Feet mingled with meters (and metres), Fahrenheit kept company with Celsius, and miles traveled with kilometers. Successful freelancers use the system the publication uses and are consistent within the body of one work.

Use a chart for quick conversions. Find currency and measurement converters on line (http://www.convertit.com/Go/ConvertIt) or install a converter onto your word processor's desktop. If you calculate conversions yourself, triple-check the answers. Some publishers with international readerships include two measurements in their articles and books, as in "The 20-mile (32-km) trail follows the southern ridge." (Actually, 20 miles equals 32.18688 kilometers, but who wants to read that?)

Be Worldly: I once read a query promoting an area of India as an ideal tourist destination …never mind that two so-called religious factions were killing each other's devotees. Worldly freelancers demonstrate global awareness and intercultural sensitivity. Being worldly means not sending pork recipes to a publication with a Muslim audience, not using nicknames (Yank, Jap, wetback), and it means deleting stereotypes and clichés. Lazy journalists use phrases such as "brash Americans", "inscrutable Chinese" and "friendly natives." Being worldly means banishing dogmas, romanticized images and prejudices. Read articles about cultural customs at http://www.executiveplanet.com. 

Write the truth: The editor of a travel publication spoke with hundreds of magazine and newspaper editors about what they look for in articles. They were unanimous about accuracy. "We are unhappy with writers who get their facts wrong," the editors concurred.

No writer purposely slips up, but slip-ups happen. Don't assume that a "fact" in magazines, newspapers and on TV is entirely accurate. Myths have lives of their own and get repeated. One such myth purports that The Great Wall of China is visible from outer space. In fact, Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard the space shuttle Endeavor acquired images of The Wall. That's not like peering with your naked eyeballs through the spaceship porthole and seeing a wall down there, is it? Visit http://www.urbanlegends.com for a roundup of fairytales caught masquerading as facts.

Re-verify facts with interviewed subjects, check multiple sources and unbiased sources, proofread your final draft against your original notes and references, and ask a sharp-eyed, skeptical, detail-oriented reader to review your manuscript. Check on-line reference resources such as http://www.refdesk.com. 

Write the right editor: You live in Germany. You want to sell an entertaining, informative feature about custom-made shoes to Gentleman's Quarterly. A query addressed generically to "Dear Editor" screams "Amateur!" So you flip GQ open and see 28 editors listed. Six handle fashion. One is the "European Editor." To which editor should you pitch your idea? Aim for editor-in-chief, and you risk miffing this VIP who'd delegated portions of his editorial load for a reason, and you risk snubbing the fashion editor and the European editor.

Contact the magazine and ask to whom to address your query. Staff members might have turned over from the time the magazine was published, so verifying the recipient is wise in any case. It's not unusual to communicate with one editor and later with another one. If you send something to the managing editor and an assistant editor replies, continue communications at that level.

Different editors become involved with an author's work during different phases of the project. After the lead editor is satisfied with a piece, a copy editor combs the manuscript for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations and other elements of house style, but not content. Copy editors consult authors, especially in longer works with a strong authorial voice. Finally, the author and a proofreader check galley proofs. Changes are minimal at this phase. Proofreaders check that the set galley is exactly like the edited manuscript. Errors in spacing, format, hyphenation, spelling, grammar and fact are marked. Knowledge of standard proofreader's symbols and abbreviations found at http://www.m-w.com/mw/table/proofrea.htm facilitate your role in this phase.

Editors working under rigid deadlines with mountains of manuscripts decide: Is this writing "good?" Is publishing it a sound commercial investment? Writers get 10 seconds or less to provide the answers to those two crucial questions. May your works get a "yes" and a "yes." Let some other poor devil's manuscript decompose in the slush pile.
 

About the Author

Read more articles about writing successfully at Beth Fowler's web site: http://www.authorsden.com/bethfowler


© Copyright 2003 Beth Fowler.

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