Would-Be-Editor
"An editor, a good one, reads to discover a new voice: a fresh sound in the ear, and as yet unmapped route to a particular emotion or thought. Surprise is the editor's drug of choice." -Susan Bell
The Best 100 Opening Lines From Books – Life – Stylist Magazine
The Best 100 Opening Lines From Books – Life – Stylist Magazine.
Found this article via the tumblr site of Beaufort Books. Good job on Stylist Magazine’s part – I found this whole article to be epic, and I love the visual layout, as you can just hover over the book covers and the opening lines appear.
The only issue I had with their selections was a particular opening that I will remember forever, an opening line that grabbed me when I was a young teen and I marveled over for days. The opening line I’m speaking of starts off THE STRANGER by Albert Camus. I guess, technically speaking, it’s the first two sentences, but they go like this:
“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.”
My intrigue with this opening to the novel reflects upon my particular taste for novels/books/stories that possess an absurd edge. Nevertheless, whatever your tastes are, this opening line just cannot be dismissed.
Your Favorite Literary Classics Are About to Be Ruined by Fifty Shades
Your Favorite Literary Classics Are About to Be Ruined by Fifty Shades.
Sometimes, your view on publishing can come down to whether you believe classic works of literature like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte are sacred texts or not. Or, as seen with this article, it can be fun just to experiment and see what would happen if you stripped down the Victorian-like politeness and exposed the rawer truth to texts. This is what is happening when you combine Fifty Shades of Grey with a Victorian novel. On the one hand, you can get a whole new reading to Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet’s romance, or you could be disgusted, shaking your head, asking, “What has this world come to?”
Perhaps, the world has come to something more progressive, more unashamed, or on the other hand something desperate and only getting cheap thrills from novels?
What camp are you in?
Books + NYC = issues with space
Being an avid reader can, on the one hand, be a very good thing, but on the other it can present some issues when it comes to one thing: moving. Yes, I want to move to NYC and live in a 300 square foot apartment. But no, I do not want to give up all my books. So, what’s a person to do in this situation?
Some would argue that I buy a Kindle (which I’ve already done that, but I still buy regular books); others would suggest I get rid of the books (that’s hard to think about); finally, there would be a few people that would say I should sacrifice my bed for a library (I don’t know about that). Either way, it’s kind of funny that books cause this particular feeling of attachment. I think I had a professor once say that it had to do with the idea of showing off one’s pretension like showing off bowling trophies. Whether this is true or not, I do know that being an avid reader does have its drawbacks.
Looking towards NYC
The summer has been a hot one but a good one. As I look towards NYC, I can’t express the excitement I feel, even despite the anxiety I feel. I’ve been writing as much as I can, trying to get ready for this change in lifestyle but sometimes nothing can prepare you enough. Please stay tuned as my posts will be getting a lot more frequent in the next few months as I make this big step.
Free List of 400 Book Publishers and Book Editors for First Fiction and First-Time Novelists
Free List of 400 Book Publishers and Book Editors for First Fiction and First-Time Novelists.
Here’s a great site to start, although let me throw out a disclaimer that by the time you read this post, all of this information could have changed.
Either way, you can find all of the publishing companies including the Big Six in a single place. And actually what I did was went through and composed a list of publishing companies all based in NYC, as seen below:
Now, as I said with my last post: It’s time to get my hands dirty and start contacting the publishers for an internship!
The Big Six Publishing Companies (and Reasons for My Hiatus)
What you see above are the six logos for, what is known, as the Big 6 publishing companies based out of NYC. Now, I know I went MIA for a while, and that is due to a number of reasons. Not only am I trying to optimize a website that I was hired to do, but I also have had other obligations. Let’s just put it this way too: I’ve been really trying to figure out how to tackle this whole job hunt thing.
Yes, I know that I will start with an internship, but it is a little overwhelming when you begin to really sift through the list of publishing companies. One will ask: How do I even get started? Should I just go ahead and send them my resume? Should I apply for only open positions?
Most of all, how do I stay organized when I begin applying to these places? Getting started is extremely difficult, as I discussed in my very first post. However, moving to NYC, there are a few things that you start with:
The Big Six. And here they are.
However, to call them the Big Six is a little deceptive because the “Big Six” actually own numerous imprints, so it’s like a conglomerate of publishing companies owned by one major corporation. You will see in a subsequent post about how I have broken the Big Six and other publishing companies into a single list (which was really through the assistance of Google).
So, here they are. Start here.
Start with an internship.
I am in the process of sending out cover letters/resumes followed by an email and a phone call. Apply to all of them, whether or not they have an open internship or not. I will keep you posted in this huge next step of moving towards the down-the-road career of becoming an editor.
Editors Bookshelf: “The Artful Edit” by Susan Bell
Susan Bell’s 2007 book, The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself, aims to shed a different type of light on the editorial process, not only on the part of the editor but on the writer as well. In fact, while this book delves into how “already established” writers incorporate editing/revision into their writing process, would-be editors can glean how the editorial process can manifest so much within one’s text, oftentimes bringing it to life or causing its demise.
Even though certain parts of Bell’s book are underdeveloped, she does do a superb job of making editing, well, artful. Using myriad examples from writers like Nabokov and of course the infamous Perkins-Fitzgerald partnership in addition to long snippets/quotes from writers speaking about how editing is an essential component to their own writing, Bell overthrows traditional or amateurish views of editorial work by pointing out that “Self-editors [writers]…should break their own editing rules or patterns to create something fresh.” In other words, editing, for Bell, is not the needed finishing touch on a writer’s novel, but “a way to discover a new voice…as yet unmapped route to a particular emotion or thought” (a quote that you find on the homepage of my blog).
In other words, editing serves the purpose of enhancing the complexities of a work, refurbishing nuances that might need more Continue reading
Can Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” Still Kick You in the Gut? : The New Yorker
Can Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” Still Kick You in the Gut? : The New Yorker.
This article by David Denby from The New Yorker appeared this morning, giving an overview of Dostoevsky’s famous novel “Notes from Underground.” I remember reading this when I was younger and being thoroughly confused yet mesmerized.
The reason I post this article is to show how such works like these can really be relevant to readers today. In particular, this passage resonated with me:
Predictors of human behavior, as the underground man says, generally assume we will act in our own best interests. But do we? The same question might be asked today, when “rational-choice theory” is still a predictive model for economists and sociologists and many others. When working-class whites vote for Republican policies that will further reduce their economic power—are they voting in their best interests? What about wealthy liberals in favor of higher taxes on the rich? Do people making terrible life choices—say, poor women having children with unreliable men—act in their best interests? Do they calculate at all? What if our own interest, as we construe it, consists of refusing what others want of us? That motive can’t be measured. It can’t even be known, except by novelists like Dostoevsky. Reason is only one part of our temperament, the underground man says. Individualism as a value includes the right to screw yourself up.
Would-Be-Editor 