An Editor's Perspective: Q & A w/ Entangled Publishing's Adrien-Luc Sanders, Part II

MuseInks is honored to again feature Adrien-Luc Sanders (@smoulderingsea), Entangled Publishing's Managing Senior Editor of the Flirt and Ever After lines. Adrien-Luc dispenses priceless #editortips on Twitter where he somehow manages to highlight the problems that plague many writers' submissions without degenerating into cutting snark. He blogs at Kowloon by Night.

He was so generous with his answers to my questions, that I broke his interview into two parts. Read Part I here. Today features his responses to five more questions about how editors and authors can make each other's lives easier and suggestions for how writers can improve their chances for success in submissions.

Q:  In general, how far do you have to read in a submission before you realize you love it and want to acquire it?

A:  It varies too much to really have a "general" answer. With some books I know within one page, and I'm praying throughout the rest of the manuscript that it won't jump the shark and will gratify all my boyish hopes and dreams, etc.

Others have had a slow start, but there was a spark that prompted me to keep reading for a chapter, two chapters, five, until that little hint flourished into a great story.

There have been others where even on the last page, I wasn't sure. Those are the ones I have to walk away from for a little while. If I find I can't stop thinking about them, and realize I really made an emotional connection with the characters and they're sticking with me, then I know.

Q:  What are the qualities of your dream author? Which quality is *most* important? Why? 

A:  It's kind of hard to answer this without saying "all my authors are my dream authors." Seriously, they're all different, but I love them all and they're amazing to work with.

If I was going to build an Authortron 2000, though, I'd say they would be a consistent producer of quality stories with a great voice. I don't mean they need to churn out a story a month, but one to two really good stories a year--stories that show attention to their craft and a dedication to good storytelling, while still producing steadily enough to build and keep a loyal fanbase.

They'd need to be patient and have one hell of a sense of humor, both to deal with me and to handle the stress that chopping apart their manuscripts can cause. They'd need to be dedicated. They'd need to be open to the editing process, flexible, and willing to learn.

They'd need a solid understanding of how the industry works.

They'd need to have a great author presence when interacting with readers, and be accessible on social media as a real person readers feel like they can connect with. They shouldn't think of themselves as le artiste. They shouldn't need hand-holding, though I don't mind coaching, especially for new authors on their first book. What matters is that they learn from that coaching and grow through each successive edit.

The most important out of all that? I'm going to cheat and list two: flexibility and dedication. The editing and publishing cycle is one of constant change.

It's rare that the story you submit will be the story that gets published, though the core of it will still be there. Same house, new furniture. (Sometimes same house, same furniture, furniture drastically rearranged. There's a bidet in the kitchen.) Release dates will change. Cover art will change. Jacket copy will change. You have to be flexible to be able to adapt to that and just roll with the punches without having a meltdown.

And you need the dedication to commit to all the hard work involved. Someone once told me that my job as an editor isn't nearly as hard as her job as the writer actually producing the story, and I just didn't understand. I do. I've done both, and I can tell you actually writing the book is just the first small step. That's the easy part. Even selling the book is easy compared to the amount of work both the editor and author must do to get a book ready for publication. There are generally dozens of people involved and it's a whirlwind of activity, change, and sometimes disappointment--and I know how it feels both as an editor and as a writer implementing his editor's corrections. You need dedication to survive that, then dive back in for another round fully knowing what you're getting into.

Q:  You write as well as edit. What has being an editor taught you about your writing?

A:  That I need to listen to my own damned advice. ~laughs~ No, seriously. I kind of had this epiphany when I was working on an author's manuscript, that all these mistakes I keep highlighting? I do this. I do this, but I act like it's okay because it's me, when it's not okay at all. That was years ago, but I basically felt like I slapped myself in the face, and I needed it.

Personal demons lurk on every writer's path...

Every writer's been through this stage, I think. Where they think their mistakes are forgivable because it's artistic license.

No matter how professional you are as a writer, you'll have some demons to work through as you sort yourself out and figure out your path. That was mine: getting over this love affair with my own overdone prose and learning to write as cleanly and sharply as I expect of my authors.

I'm still not sure I've succeeded, but I am more self-aware--and when I edit my own work, I'm probably even harder on myself than I am on them. I'll go through an entire edit pass where I deliberately make myself hate my manuscript, so I can identify what's really good and what really sucks. Before that self-administered slap in the face, I'd have thought it was all good.

In fact, some of the #editortips I tweet? Are actually mistakes I've caught myself making. I'm not saying "Look, this author screwed up with me by doing this; don't do this." I'm saying "Look, I screwed up. Don't make my mistakes."

Q:  What are some things you would like to see more of in your submissions inbox?

A:  Post-apocalyptic. Zombies. Horror. SciFi. Steampunk. PoC. LGBT. Dark stories with the villain as the hero. Anything that breaks the category mold.

I'm a little glutted on contemporary right now, and have a roster of talented authors constantly producing more great stories, so contemporary's a bit of a hard sell for me right now--but I'd love a good romantic comedy.

I have some weirdly specific things I'm looking for, too, like a YA about space gypsies. Or a story that tackles alchemical magic in a way that believably integrates real physics and chemistry. Or a story that combines magic and technology with a good logical foundation. Or, if you really want to sell me a contemporary, something Dexter-ish with highly dysfunctional people who still manage to find romance. If that can even count as a contemporary.

Q:  If people wish to submit fiction to the imprints of Entangled Publishing for which you are an editor, what is the best way to go about it?

A:  For the Flirt and Ever After lines in general, you can submit to:
flirt-submissions(at)entangledpublishing(dot).com or
everafter-submissions(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com.

I do acquire for the Entangled/Entangled Select, Entangled Teen, and various category lines, though, so if you have something for one of those lines that you think is right up my alley, you can send it directly to me at adrien-luc(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com.

The submission information page at http://www.entangledpublishing.com/submission-information/ has links to the submission guidelines for all of the lines, as well as to the Entangled blog, where we post special thematic calls for submissions. We have several open on the F&EA lines right now; I have a sub call roundup linking them all from my blog here: http://kowloonbynight.com/2012/05/23/sub-call-roundup/ .

An Editor's Perspective: Q & A With Entangled Publishing's Adrien-Luc Sanders, Part I

MuseInks is honored to feature Adrien-Luc Sanders (@smoulderingsea), Entangled Publishing's Managing Senior Editor of the Flirt and Ever After lines. Adrien-Luc dispenses priceless #editortips on Twitter where he somehow manages to highlight the problems that plague many writers' submissions without degenerating into cutting snark. He blogs at Kowloon by Night.

He was so generous with his answers to my questions, that I'm breaking his interview into two parts. Today features his responses to five questions about an editor's lot in life and suggestions for how writers can improve their chances for success in submissions.

Q: What is the most common misconception about your role as an editor? 

A:  That all I do, day in, day out, is read submissions, and there's no reason why I shouldn't have had time to read theirs by now, and clearly I must hate them and enjoy stringing them along.

I don't hate anyone. Well, correction: I don't hate any authors. We won't talk about my mother-in-law. I'd never string subbing authors along. I love reading submissions and acquiring new authors; it's just not the only thing I do.

My day can consist of anything from filling out mountains of acquisitions paperwork to working on my authors' edits, reviewing their in-house submissions, developing long-term and short-term strategy for the two lines I manage, management meetings, line meetings, marketing meetings, finance meetings (meetings happen, can you tell?), fielding questions from associate editors, author and editor phone calls, random agent phone calls with "oh my god I have the most awesome manuscript for you!" (love those so much), promoting and supporting my authors, managing contract requests, coaching associate editors, vetting the submissions they want to acquire, reviewing manuscripts they've edited for quality control, chasing down paperwork, answering author questions, calming author meltdowns, creating and tweaking the lines' logos and graphics, designing covers...

I'm sure I've left something out there. That list would be twice as long if I didn't have Kerri-Leigh Grady, my partner in crime for Entangled Flirts and Ever Afters, to handle release scheduling and keep my head on straight.

The point is, reading cold submissions is only a fraction of my job. I still try to prioritize it for a set amount of time every week.

But I've been there as a subbing author. I know waiting is a grueling process, especially when the editor (or agent) takes a long time to respond and you have no idea what they're doing that isn't reading your sub. I learned to wait patiently, if not to be patient myself.

I know that personally, I never mean to neglect any author, and if you're wondering what I'm doing when I should be reading your sub? All of the above, plus snorkeling a mug of coffee and wishing for one more hour in the day so I could, well, read your sub.

Q: What do you consider the best part of an editor's job?

A:  Release day. I love watching my authors on release day. They just transform from this jittery bundle of nerves into this radiant tangle of excitement and joy, and you can see that moment where all the grueling work becomes worth it, to see their book up for sale at major retailers. All the late nights, the frustration over that one damned sentence, the writer's block, the edits that wouldn't end, the "oh god this is the seventeenth time I've read this thing PLEASE GOD END ME NOW"--all worth it.

Sometimes it can feel like an uphill battle through endless rounds of edits, picking at every tiny thing until it's perfect, but on release day it just crystallizes and they're so happy. It leaves me kind of giddy, seeing that. Knowing that I was able to help make them that happy, through our work together.

Q:  What's the toughest part of an editor's job?

A:  Firing authors. It hurts, honestly. Some people just aren't suited for this business, and we find out after one or two books that:

a.) they don't have the mentality it takes to be professional about editing and about their careers as authors;
b.) they only had one or two good books in them and after that they just can't reproduce the magic no matter how much we coach them;
c.) they don't listen to edits and keep shoehorning the same massive issues into manuscripts over and over again; or,
d.) they're just flat-out crazy, demanding, or have unrealistic expectations, and they hid it until they had a contract.

Sometimes we just have to say it's not working out, and part ways. I try not to do that; I try to work with authors to get past the issues, and there's been more than one Come to Jesus phone call -- but there comes a point where the time investment in one author is hurting your other authors, and that's when you have to let go.

That doesn't change that during the editing process, we've built a relationship. We may not be best friends, but it's a bit different from the normal relationship you have with coworkers. You're in the trenches together, and you're with each other at 3 a.m. when that turn of phrase isn't working out, you just can't go to bed until it does, galleys are due in tomorrow, and one of you is freaking out. (It's not always the author.) It does create a certain kind of bond, and as you discuss in-depth edits you get to know each other quite a bit. Every relationship with every author is unique, and firing an author makes me feel like I've betrayed that relationship. It's a necessary part of my job, but it doesn't bother me any less to have to hurt and disappoint them that way.

Q:  What specific advice do you have for authors to improve their chances for getting their submissions accepted?

A:  Don't send me your first book. Well--don't send the first book you've ever written.

Until you're published, every book you send out on sub is your first. But there's a 1% chance or less that the very first thing you commit to the page will be absolute genius. Those savants are out there, but more often than not your first story is a practice exercise while you figure out what this storytelling thing is all about. The end result is most likely a mess. Once you finish it: figure out the mistakes you made the first time through, toss that first book in a drawer, and start another one. I can promise you it'll be infinitely better than the first. The third? Better still. I don't care if you send me your second book or your fifteenth, as long as you send me your best--and not your first.

Q:  If you could permanently eradicate one submission error you see all the time that most pushes your This Irks Me button, what would it be?

A:  Other than mangling my name and calling me Adrienne, Ms. Sanders, and Mrs. Luc-Sanders? (Seriously, people, know who you're subbing to. I don't need a personal love letter, but it's nice to know you took five seconds to know who I am before you try to sell me your book.)

No--I think the most common error is not actually having a story. I don't mean the author doesn't have a manuscript--they do. But they don't actually tell a story. They thought of one or two cool scenes, or a bunch of cool concepts, and kind of randomly jumbled them together into something that may progress over a set time period to a conclusion, but isn't actually a story.

There's no arc, no character development, no resolution of conflict, sometimes no conflict at all. It's just "things happened to people until I got tired of writing and ran out of ideas." That's not a story, but that's what crops up in my inbox much too often.

I won't say it irks me so much as it makes me sad, as more often than not these are naive new writers who need to spend more time honing their craft and understanding the business, and I only hope as they continue to write, they'll get a wake-up call and improve. I can't really be that wake-up call, unfortunately. While I give personal feedback with rejections, if I coached every new author I rejected I'd end up doing nothing else.

Tune in on Monday for the rest of the interview...