Beyond the Elements of Style

To Be Edited … or Not To Be Edited?

Okay, so here’s the thing. No one likes being edited. Any author, any writer who tells you that he or she enjoys the process, is lying. That’s all that there is to it.

Second truth: everyone needs to be edited. Everyone. Every writer has idiosyncracies at best and errors at worst, and there is no way that the writer can be aware of them all. The fact is that one editor probably won’t be aware of them all, either, but he or she has a lot better chance of it than does the writer.

So where does that leave you?

You’ve written your book. You’re about to embark on a search for an agent or publisher. You decide that the first thing to do is to get it — your masterpiece, that is — professionally edited. Right?

Wrong.

I’m not saying that your book doesn’t need editing; au contraire, I’m quite willing to bet that it needs a lot of editing. But that same amount of editing is also going to be very expensive, and it may not be the best use of your funds at this time.

Instead, consider this: what you really want to do is capture the attention and interest of a literary agent or of a publisher. That’s your real goal here, not having a picture-perfect manuscript.

What will you be sending out in your quest for arousing that interest? Certainly not the entire manuscript! Instead, you’ll be sending out a proposal, which will include — at most — three chapters of the manuscript. It will also include other essentials, such as a synopsis, an analysis of competing books already in the marketplace, a statement of your platform, an outline, and other components.

You’re starting to get the idea: I can tell. Your first order of business is to make this proposal the best proposal it can possibly be. So by all means have it edited — and have those first three chapters edited, also — and hold off on the whole manuscript until someone has asked you to send it to them.

You can have someone write the proposal — it’s one of the things that I do for clients — but that’s relatively expensive. Consider writing your own and then sending it to a top-notch editor. You’ll pay up to a couple thousand dollars, but you won’t be in for too much; and if no one asks for it (perish the thought!), you’ll still be able to pay next month’s rent!

And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

It’s So Mysterious …

I have to admit: it’s my favorite genre. In fact, I’d rather be curled up with a good mystery — preferably an English country-house murder, a la Dorothy Sayers — than do just about anything else.

And at a time when publishers are constantly shrinking their lists and new books remain on bookshop shelves for a mere 15 days before being returned, it’s heartening for me to know that I belong to a tribe whose appetite for mysteries is as insatiable as my own. There’s a thriving market for mystery and detective novels, which hopefully means that they will always be around for people like me to read.

According to Bowker’s Books In Print database, 5,580 new mystery and detective titles and editions were published in the U.S. in 2006. That’s a nine percent increase over 2005 and a 33% increase over 2002. The peak year for the category was 2004, when 5,715 new titles and editions were published.

How does that divide out amongst the various sub-genres that exist within the categry? Of 2006’s 5,580 new mystery and detective titles published …

• … 22% were mass market editions
• … 23% were hardcovers
• … 44% were trade paper editions
• … 13% were published for children and young adults
• … 37% were reviewed in at least one source monitored by Bowker
• … 7% appeared on at least one bestseller list monitored by Bowker

We have to see that as good news, both as readers and as writers. And it’s certainly a bunch of statistics … beyond the elements of style!

What Kind of Index Was That, Again?

I’ve been concerned for some time about the statistics: one-third of all Americans — that’s 90 million people, folks — are functionally illiterate. Horrifying.

And those of us who write for a living have to be aware of that, have to know that many of the people who read our words are among that 90 million. That doesn’t mean that we should, necessarily, dumb down what we write; but we do need to be, more than ever, aware of who our audience is, and address that audience in language that will reach them. Long words don’t count for much if they’re not being read.

One tool that I only recently stumbled across is the Gunning fog index. It’s a test that measures the readability of a passage of writing. It reduces all the fine words in that passage to a number, which is singularly unfortunate but possibly inevitable; the number stands for the number of years of education required to easily understand the next on the first reading.

Comic books generally come in at #6, for example, while Newsweek rates a 10 and the Atlantic Monthly a 12.

Am I saying that every writer should use it? Not at all; the algorithm is complex and would take me longer to figure out than it took to write the passage. But it’s something to be aware of … especially in view of the discouraging statistics about literacy and illiteracy.

A little shameless self-promotion: my new book, Open Your Heart with Reading, strongly advocates that everyone who enjoys reading should do some literacy work, of some kind — volunteer, donate, whatever works for you. Because reading is a gift we take for granted … until we’re faced with the Gunning fog index. And who wants to write to an algorithm?

Read every day. And do something to help others read, too. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Tolkien, Editors, and the Faerie People

All right, it’s not going to sound like this article has very much to do with language, but bear with me. I’ll try to twist it aound there before I’m finished. Maybe.

The truth is, my mind is filled with swirling colors and haunting music. I’m in Philadelphia this weekend at FaerieCon, a gathering for all things and beings magical, mystical, and downright strange. There are Good Fairies and Bad Fairies (you can probably guess which I find more interesting), Green Men and satyrs, even a dragon or two … and it’s all fabulous good fun.

Saturday morning I sat and listened to a lecture by Tolkien illustrator Ted Nasmith, and afterward my stepdaughter Anastasia brought up what she calls Tolkien’s ability to multitask, writing and lecturing and, in the midst of it all, managing to create several complete languages.

And they are extraordinary. A list barely scratches the surface of the riches and complexeties of languages invented for a race that exists only in one’s mind, yet whose history, sociology, and psychology are so clearly understood and articulated that, to many and for all these years after his death, they seem real. It’s not just a gift, though I’ll never argue that Tolkien wasn’t gifted; it’s also an enormous undertaking that could only be done from some sort of passion in the soul.

And for those of you who look to this column for practical advice, I had a nice long talk with Kerry Estevez, the editor over at Medallion Press, who noted that many, many more books would be accepted if writers (and, for that matter, literary agents) would just read the submission guidelines and follow them. Doesn’t sound that difficult, folks. She’s currently looking for historical fiction/fantasy, and if there’s some romance woven in, so much the better!

So pay attention to guidelines for the good of your publications list, and pay attention to the fairies for the good of your heart. And you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

I Love Languages!

Well, in case you don’t waste enough time online now, I have another black hole to recommend. Perhaps it’s that misery loves company, or something of the sort, but I just spent way too much time on this site and am hereby inviting you to do the same. Perhaps if we all do it, our clients/employers/spouses will see it as part of a hip trend and forgive our absence from real-world concerns.

The site is I love Languages, and if you can ignore its not-particularly-user-friendly design, it’s a wonderful place to wander around. My own weakness is the linguistics section — I think that if I ever pay off my student loans and can think again about academia, I might study linguistics –- but there are a lot of other and equally wonderful places to explore on this site that bills itself as “a comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources.”

The more than 2400 links at iLoveLanguages have been hand-reviewed to bring you the best language links the Web has to offer. Whether you’re looking for online language lessons, translating dictionaries, native literature, translation services, software, language schools, or just a little information on a language you’ve heard about, iLoveLanguages probably has something to suit your needs.

So there you have it. Take some time this week and explore the options and opportunities at I Love Languages. It just might get you … beyond the elements of style!