Aside from the huge pile of rejection letters I still have to send out - far from my favourite part of the job, I've also been doing a lot of reading and editing.
Both Sam and Ashley are busy reworking their scripts ready for me to send out a little later to publishers and, in the meantime, I've taken on another client. Yay!
Say hello to Heather Child.
New Year, new start and I thought we'd dive straight back in and continue with our insight into the publishing industry and who does what. Having been an editor for 15 years, and still doing rather a lot of it now - I suppose I could have done this myself - but really - so much more interesting to talk to someone else. :-D
So from across the other side of the pond, we chat to Anne Groell who is an SFF Executive editor over at Random House USA.
It's not often I'll diverge from books and publishing business on the blog to talk about other things. And I rarely rave about TV or other books - I usually don't have the time to read much other than submissions and the only TV I watch is on catch-up!
However, as a long-time Doctor Who fan I have been watching the progression and coming-of-age of the Doctor with great interest . . .
Having worked in publishing for so long I know that, from the outside looking in, it can seem a rather bewildering and daunting industry. Most readers don't know how long it takes to put a book together, the process involved in getting a script from (a)uthor to (b)ookshelf. It takes a hell of a lot of work both from the author and publisher and all those in between including typesetters, printers and booksellers. It's usually between 12-18 months before a delivered script will see the inside of a bookshop. So what happens during that process?
We all know that the majority of the mainstream would be happy to watch a horror flick and yet most would baulk at the idea of picking up a horror novel. Why is that when the genre has evolved so much in the last few years? And how do the authors who excel in the genre go about writing something that makes other people afraid? I ask two of the best UK horror writers writing today for their tips on how to send shivers down your spine.
Last year on the Tor Books blog I wrote a piece about how frustrated I was that there were so few decent girl's figures for my daughter to play with. I even challenged a toy buyer I knew for one of the major chains as to why this was the case - she seemed not to have really given it much thought but suspected it may well be because the toy makers thought they wouldn't sell.
