Ghostwriting nonfiction, at least in the way that I do it, has many intersections with developmental editing. Reading specifically about developmental editing is useful when I take the content of my interviews with authors and put them into a written format. While my goal is to write in a “clean” manner without riddling my work with grammatical errors, my primary concern is content. Editing based on grammar and flow is self-evidently technical, but developmental editing is technical in its own way—focused on organizing, amplifying, and selecting the right narratives in the work of creating each book.

You’ll find similarities in the nonfiction elements discussed below and those mentioned in my post about manuscript evaluation. Developmental editing, in some ways, is just an unabridged version of that. It doesn’t just point out problems with a text; it’s a process where the DE rolls up their sleeves to solve them.

Note: both developmental editing and the developmental editor are often referred to as DE.

Weaving a Narrative Web

When I consider developing a nonfiction book, whether that be fully writing it or winnowing existing content, I find frameworks that involve layering and weaving to be useful. Nonfiction often is not tied to a temporal narrative (except in the case of some memoir and historical accounts). Instead, it’s often about developing theses and arguments, then deciding how to structure and present them in a way that keeps readers engaged. The writing process itself is also rarely linear, as new considerations that appear in one chapter can deeply impact another.

Through a series of assertions and explorations, the author doesn’t reach the end of a road; they reach the center of a web, a series of circles that reaches a core understanding of whatever topic the text addresses. The author sits in the center of this web, a home base that is now solid, balanced, and designed specifically to lure readers to it.

Viewing Expertise as an Outsider

A person who specializes in developing manuscripts often works side-by-side with an author who is a subject matter expert. This puts them in a position to objectively observe how content is presented and evaluate whether it is coherent and authoritative. Authors can be so embedded in their subjects that they have a hard time judging what type of base knowledge their readers need to understand their points. A DE can point out what framing still needs to take place for the book to make sense. They can also identify what is relevant to the book’s thesis and make calls on whether some topics can be left out because it is either unnecessary, unrelated, derivative, or outside the scope of the author’s knowledge.

Organizing and Balancing Content

If there is one thing that makes a book inaccessible, it’s a meandering narrative that buries its points in long walls of texts. Managing 60k+ words of content can feel like trying to direct a boulder as it rolls down a hill if you don’t have a track in place to keep it on course.

One thing that I have found helpful to keep books on track both during writing and revisions is having a running record of theses, arguments, anecdotes, and illustrations as I write. It’s a shortcut to seeing whether each chapter introduces ideas so that one builds on the next, and it prevents the same stories being told over and over throughout the book. It’s also valuable to create a reference for titles, subtitles, and headers to ensure tonal consistency and avoid repeating oneself (starting with a table of contents is great for this). Without these references, writing new sections can inspire deja vu, where the only way to determine whether you’ve already covered something is to comb back through pages and pages of text.

Maintaining and Amplifying Voice

Believe it or not, editing for voice isn’t just about vibes (although I would say some consideration of vibes does come into play)! There are rules about levels of criticism, sarcasm, and condescension; there are ways to track overly enthusiastic tones, or ones that seem insincere. Maintaining consistency in these rhetorical areas can help a DE make sure the author is cast in the most authentic light possible. A friendly voice that is respectful of the book’s subject and its audience makes for a much more pleasant reading experience.

A Useful Resource for Developmental Editors and Nonfiction Writers

Developmental Editing by Scott Norton demonstrates how this process, which many people might think of as more intuitive, can be largely systematized. The techniques and systems he suggests for evaluating and improving a manuscript is much like deconstructing a faulty machine, then putting it back together (often with old parts exchanged for new) so it runs much better than it did. 

I enjoyed how each chapter explored a different aspect of a DE’s job, using different imaginary books, authors, and publishing companies to illustrate the process. The examples did double duty; they didn’t only act as technical manuals, but they also provided context for working with different types of publishing houses and different temperaments of authors. One warning I’ll give is that, in the process of discussing how to prevent authors from stepping in it by producing offensive material, there was some problematic language used in reference to transgender people.

Many of his points resonated with my experience developing manuscripts and gave me some useful ideas and frameworks to improve my own work. I’m sure I will continue to refer to it as I work on future projects.

The post Nonfiction Developmental Editing: Systematizing Expression first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Nonfiction Developmental Editing: Systematizing Expression appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

CW: Many cusses!! (Back to our roots, we suppose)

Happy almost Halloween, scouts! On this episode, we’re joined by the wonderful Emily Edwards, host of the Fuckbois of Literature podcast, a podcast about the toxic characters you encounter in all your favorite books! (Apparently, Amy March is not a fuckboi (?!)) We also chat about the delightful Grady Hendrix, horror writer and author of Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, two books that will make you laugh, cry, and gasp in horror, sometimes at the same time! We also discuss our experiences with supernatural phenomena, why Edgar Allan Poe was a real son of a gun to be married to, and, of course, Dear David, one of Twitter’s most important—and scariest!—contributions to social discourse.

Guest Bio

Emily Edwards is a longtime writer, producer, and host of a comedy podcast about books: Fuckbois of Literature, on which she discusses toxic people from your favorite novels. She barely graduated with a degree in writing, literature and publishing but is still making a go of it; in addition to the podcast she also is a freelance writer and is shopping around a mystery novel.

Relevant Links

• Emily’s Fuckbois of Literature Podcast and on Twitter
• Grady Hendrix’s Twitter story about the guy in the walls
• Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
• Another Twitter Ghost Story, complete with pictures and video!
• Episode 20: Unlikeable Female Characters — includes poem by Virginia Clemm Poe
• Theories on the death of Edgar Allan Poe

The post Episode 51: Talking Grady Hendrix with Fuckbois of Literature first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 51: Talking Grady Hendrix with Fuckbois of Literature appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Enjoy the first installment of our “Business of Being an Author” Series—Branding!

Presented by Lori Carroll of Jan’s Beaverton Bookstore and Hybrid Pub Scout

We invited Mary Bisbee-Beek, Courtney Clark, and Tara Lehmann to participate in HPS’s first ever live recording! Lori Carroll’s brainchild, the Business of Being an Author series, aims to arm writers with publishing business knowledge beyond the usual writing craft instruction. We were so pleased when she thought of us to partner with her on this project.

Questions posed included:

• What exactly is a brand—for an author and just in general?
• What is the difference between an authentic brand and forced authenticity (the “Instagram effect”)
• How does genre play into the way you market yourself, and how do you know how to craft your image to fill that niche?
• How much time and money should you invest in building your brand?
• Do you really need to be on every social media platform?
• How do you balance marketing, writing, and day-to-day work and life?

Guest Bios

Mary Bisbee-Beek

Mary Bisbee-Beek has worked in book publishing for over 35 years both as a staff member at independent presses on the West Coast and at the University of Michigan Press. From 1992 through 2003 she was the owner and director of Beeksbee Books, a full service publicity and marketing consulting office.

In 2010, a move to the West Coast precipitated the opening a new independent office, READ! A Unique Perspective covering the areas of publicity, marketing and foreign rights work and in 2016 Publishing Sherpa was added to help writers move from manuscript to book. The READ!/Publishing Sherpa offices are in Portland, Oregon and their working territory is world-wide.

Courtney Clark

Courtney Clark has been in the creative business all her life and in the creative business branding business for almost 3 years and is a natural creative type who received a degree in art with a focus on painting. She is a graphic designer and social media manager with a focus on helping small to medium size businesses be seen. Brand development and social media communication is where she thrives.

Tara Lehmann

Tara graduated from Portland State University with a masters of science in writing, specializing in marketing and editing in book publishing (with a concentration in children’s publishing) in 2013. My work has progressed through sales, marketing, editing, design, and event coordinating. She currently works as Marketing and Publicity Associate at Oni Press in Portland.

AND as promised…

here’s the Mr. Sandman Tik Tok featuring a precious, precious ginger kitty.

The post Episode 33: Live Author Branding Panel first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 33: Live Author Branding Panel appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Today we continue Maple Leaf May by interviewing Erin Klassen. She’s a writer, founder, and Editor in Chief of With/out Pretend.

(What, you think we’d just leave Canada without lingering?)

With/out Pretend is an independent Toronto-based publisher focused on producing, promoting and distributing works by women and non-binary writers and artists. They also host storytelling events and run a digital and print magazine called The Vault.

Erin Klassen is the founder of With/out Pretend. She’s also an editor, collaborator, community-builder, and fiction writer. Her work has appeared in a number of print and online publications, including Studio Magazine, The CBC, Ephemera Magazine, and You Care Too Much. She enjoys Nina Simone, Italian food, and talking about the future.

Erin shares how she curates a diverse collection of women and non-binary creators, revealing how her collaborative zine examines a range of human emotions that many literary journals overlook. Erin shows us how With/out Pretend and The Vault make the creation process transparent from the seed of an idea through its full-grown splendor. Plus, Erin gets real about the financial side of independent publishing.

We also explore the subject of genuine (non-Goopified) self-care, and we all agree on our favorite Kid in the Hall.

Find Erin Klassen, With/out Pretend, and the Vault On Social Media

• Erin’s website: erinklassen.com
• Erin’s Instagram: @erin.klassen
• With/Out Pretend’s Instagram: @with.outpretend
• With/Out Pretend’s Twitter: @WithoutPretend
• The Vault’s Instagram: @vaultzine

Get books and zines from With/out Pretend

• Join The Vault
• You Care too Much, a zine on the subject of what self-care truly means
• Visit the With/out Pretend online store

Check out On Pleasure and throw your hat in for the giveaway)

On Pleasure includes writing from Alicia Bunyan-Sampson, Mollie Coles Tonn, Colleen Conroy, Lizzie Derksen, Jaime Eisen, Margeaux Feldman, Ruchika Gothosar, Carvela Lee, Brooke Manning, Maria Isabel Martinez, Kyisha Williams, and Kristen Zimmer. It’s Illustrated by Violeta Noy, and features photography by Alison Maxwell.

Then at 36:55 Emily and Corinne air some grievances

To maintain the inspirational glow of our interview with Erin, stop the podcast at 36:55. After that, Emily and Corinne gripe about (more) careless disregard for the people who make traditional publishing possible. Specifically, we talk about the recent layoffs at Portland’s own Oni Press in the wake of its merger with Lion Forge. We also lament the withdrawal of Baker & Taylor from the retail and wholesale business. Long story short? Monopolies should GTFO.

MAPLE LEAF MAY ZINE GIVEAWAY

Get in on our giveaway of two physical zines from our sisters to the north. We’re giving away one copy of You Care Too Much from the Vault and a copy of Return Trip, created by Episode 21’s interviewee, Erin Pehlivan.

The post Episode 22: Erin Klassen, Editor in Chief of With/Out Pretend first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 22: Erin Klassen, Editor in Chief of With/Out Pretend appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Charlee Hoffman is a USA Today bestselling ghostwriter of more than 25 books. After working in traditional publishing for five years, she recently moved from New York to Montana, and is loving the change of pace. She is a full-time writer, and there’s rarely a time where she doesn’t have either a cup of tea or an orange cat next to her.

Charlee took the time to talk with us about her turn from the life of the theater to the world of publishing. We discuss the secretive nature of ghostwriting, niche marketing lessons that traditional publishing can take from self-publishing, and valuing books and artists—i.e., not letting them starve!

Also, hear Emily’s voice steadily get more and more laryngitisified as we discuss the sordid affair of Mr. Amazon.com and his Alive Girl. It may be petty, but when a man holds your livelihood like one would hold a spider over a cooking fire, it can be pretty satisfying to read his embarrassing text messages.

(By the way, we recorded this before the Hamberdler weighed in on Twitter, so there’s no political nuance to this discussion. In fact, there’s very little nuance at all. It’s just full-on gloating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Read the transcript for this episode here

• Your new favorite Insta-Cat!
• Charlee’s Instagram
• (In the most tabloid-y voice possible): Last week’s breaking news about Mr. Bezos’s betrayal!!!
• This is the major-bummer story. Why wouldn’t you want to meet your unicycling dad?
• This is also hard to read, but for different reasons.

• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
• I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
• 33 1/3: Court and Spark by Sean Nelson
• The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
• The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

The post Interview with Charlee Hoffman: New York Literary Agencies and Ghostwriting Bestsellers first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Interview with Charlee Hoffman: New York Literary Agencies and Ghostwriting Bestsellers appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.