by Jamie Chavez | Mar 10, 2014 | Words & Language, Your Editor Says …
You know I love my thesaurus, right? I do. I have at least four of them, from various decades dating back to the ’40s (you’d be surprised how useful that is), as well as a rhyming dictionary, a slang dictionary, and something called the Flip Dictionary, which is more...
by Jamie Chavez | Feb 24, 2014 | The Book Biz, The Writing Craft
Trying to land a book deal is like trying to land a job. In both cases, the gatekeeper (agent, in-house editor, human resources manager) has lots of applicants for the position (a slot in the Fall 2016 fiction catalogue, a job) and must narrow down the field to,...
by Jamie Chavez | Jan 4, 2014 | Books You Might Like, The Writing Craft
I’m making a suggested reading list for a well-educated, well-read friend who has never been able to “get in” to fiction … but has declared her desire to do so. I’ve already decided on the first book: A Virtuous Woman, by Kaye Gibbons. I’ve read it several times,...
by Jamie Chavez | Nov 14, 2013 | Your Editor Says …
An author friend of mine sent me an email the other day. “Am I crazy?” the subject line asked. Her manuscript was in the copyedit phase; as she worked through the copyedited manuscript, she kept finding changes made by the copyeditor that seemed to go too far. She...
by Jamie Chavez | Sep 9, 2013 | Books You Might Like, Guest Posts
Natalie Knaub has—and while I’m getting ready to go to a writers’ conference, I’m going to let her tell you about The Scorpio Races, in a post she also ran on her own blog.* Review: The Scorpio Races (YA) There are books you read and think, That was pretty good. Then...
