Marie Loggia-Kee is in the house talking about the middle ground. Welcome Marie!
As the publishing world evolves, a lot of middle ground exists. There’s the self-pubbed author who also acts as their own marketing team and sometimes designer. There’s the editor-agent, and sometimes agent-publisher, and many more combos.
What’s my combination? I’m an editor-writer. While trained as a journalist and editor via traditional markets such as newspapers and magazines, I’m also a published author. I get that BITC (butt-in-the-chair) panic when a deadline approaches, and know the joys of those little steps in the publication process, from getting the first acceptance to receiving the book’s cover to actually spreading the word of a new release.
As an editor, I believe in keeping the author’s voice intact. The final result is their creative work, and not mine. Part of the editing process is finding potential inconsistencies, and making sure that the descriptions work. For me, I learned a lot from my first editor Elle Amery. In nonfiction, we’re taught to remain objective, which means not adding in ideas and emotions. With my first short story, “The Wait,” Elle sprinkled the manuscript with questions such as, “What is she thinking here?” and “How does she feel?” Now, I look for those same elements within the books I edit.
On the same note, I’ve learned even more working with Heather Howell and Stacy Abrams Cantor. Each editor possesses their own strengths, and elements that they focus on.
The authors I’ve worked with so far at Entangled Publishing include Laura Kaye, Sarah Gilman and Nina Croft. All have been a unique pleasure, and it’s fantastic to get to know each one’s writing style, personality and those little quirks.
As for one final role, don’t forget being a reader. My taste in books range from classic literature to horror to the romance realm with erotic paranormal and contemporary releases (and I have a particular fondness for sexy cowboys). Within the past week, I’ve poured through Tara Lain’s new erotic holiday release Mistletoed, The Drop by Michael Connelley, Kate Carlisle’s An Innocent in Paradise and am currently reading one of Robyn Carr’s older Virgin River books, Paradise Valley. Also on the Kindle are Rachel Firasek’s Piper’s Fury and The Bite Before Christmas by Lynsay Sands.
Before you get jealous about that load of free time, I don’t usually get to read that much, especially around the holidays. But, we’ve been traveling via airplane and then I got sick so I spent some alone time in the hotel room, reading.
At Entangled Publishing, there are dedicated teams for marketing, design and editing. I’ve been amazed at the author support network. With that said, I also get it – I understand the pressures and deadlines, and I’m here to support the authors, without leaving anyone feeling like they’re floating in the middle ground.
Marie Loggia-Kee writes erotic romance under the name Louisa Bacio. You can find her online:
Website
About Author
Dropping by to say hello and wish everyone a blissful New Year’s Eve … and into 2012.
And a wonderful 2012 to all of you!It’s the first time I visit (a friend of mine mentioned Entangled as eventually participating this fall in the Women Writers Festival in Matera in Italy – and I live in Italy…)and I’m enjoying your various blogs! Speaking of editors, Maria is right: there are all kinds. Some are incredibly punctilious, others see the overall picture, but in my experience, they’re always helpful, even when as an author you might disagree with the proposed changes. The very fact that the sentence or paragraph (or even the chapter) didn’t pass muster mean there’s something wrong with it and that it needs to be looked at again with fresh eyes.
Of course, having “fresh eyes” on your own work is damn hard! Which is why it’s so useful to have a good editor look at it…And Marie sounds like an excellent one, dedicated to her authors…Thanks for the post!