Novelist Eleanor Catton and her editor Max Porter's alliance shows how much more than wielding a blade goes into this relationshipHenry James called editing "the butchers' trade". But he also said, "I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort," so you can see how the old anglophile and his editors may have crossed horns.However, if we're honest, wouldn't we, the reader, prefer to chew over a well-honed slice of literature than wade through fatty hunks of unedited, flabby prose? Isn't the editor's first loyalty to the reader, and not the author? Isn't it better to wield the knife than to club out something that the cow might approve of?This weekend, as part of the New Zealand festival, The Luminaries author and winner of the Man Booker prize, Eleanor Catton, discussed deletion, deadlines and several other facets of the writer-editor relationship with her British editor Max Porter. If this sounds a little like sitting down with your ex-husband to publicly discuss why he always disliked your sense of humour, then think again; the modern editor is, according to Porter, "part proofreader, part therapist, part in-house champion and, increasingly, there to put a marketisation on the written word." This was less meat cleavers at dawn, more gentle emails about getting off Twitter.With 391,000 books being self-published in the US in 2012 alone, the old 20th-century model of the creative editor is, according to Porter, "an endangered species". While Porter described his... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 08/02/2011 - 09:05 Michael Dover, Weidenfeld & Nicolson editor-in-chief non-fiction, is to retire at the end of June this year, with several promotions effective from 1st March also marking a time of change for the company. Dover has... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Hounslow council has postponed proposals to save money by cutting eight libraries, after a public consultation showed a majority of residents wanted to keep them all. The Hounslow Chronicle reports however that campaigners say libraries are not yet safe, as the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Essex county council has vowed not to close any of its libraries, or to cut back its mobile library destinations. But consultation is to begin next month on proposals to reduce opening hours to 54 of its 73 libraries. Jeremy Lucas, cabinet member for heritage, culture... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marty Peretz, the editor-in-chief of The New Republic of the past 37 years, is stepping down and taking the title of "editor-in-chief emeritus." Editor Richard Just takes over as editor-in-chief. Perezt, who wrote a blog called The Spine, will continue to write a column for TheNewRepublic.com. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Top executives of some of the leading fulfillment companies were assembled for FMA's annual President's Panel yesterday to provide an update on their companies and how the market is evolving. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster requested that journalists and other writers not comment if asked whether they were responsible for the novel O, about a fictional 2012 presidential campaign. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Plot thickens: Dominic Lawson denies new accusations that he helped MI6 agents when working for the SpectatorRelated stories:MI6's lawyers lose spy book appeal Pen mightier than the sword Russian colonel's defection an intelligence coup for Britain Dominic Lawson, the editor of the Sunday... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2001-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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