Chris Roerden, Editor

Frequently Asked Questions & Resources

What can I do to break my writer's block?

Should I send chapters for editing as I write them or wait and send everything at one time?

Should I have my manuscript edited before or after I've done everything to it that I can?

To have you edit my manuscript, what should I be sending you?

Why do editors want a retainer? I pay all my bills on time.

What do all those odd-looking symbols on my manuscript mean?

I'm overwhelmed by the number of edits written on my manuscript. Yet I keep hearing that I write well. What gives?

What if I don't agree with all the edits?

How do you want my corrected text returned to you for the next step?

10.

Have you ever heard of X Company? They seem interested in publishing my book.

11.

Why do you want to know a self-publisher's marketing plan?

12.

I can't find an agent who'll agree to represent me, though their rejection letters praise my writing. Are they snowing me?

13.

How do I find a small press?

14.

How can I learn more about the mystery writing groups you belong to?

15.

What's the biggest problem for writers?

16.

What resources can help me improve my writing?

Q. What can I do to break my writer's block?

A. Some people say there's no such thing as writer's block. But if you find yourself always "preparing to prepare to write," try the following tips. They work for me and for writers I've coached.

If you're a clear-the-desk-first procrastinator, simply pick up all the piles of stuff and move them to the floor or to another room and deal with them another time. Or pick yourself up and move to a place that's already free of distractions. If there's any procrastinating to be done, let it apply to all that other stuff, not to your writing. If the stuff were so important, you wouldn't have put it in a pile to begin with.
Write some preliminary text for the future back cover of your book, and list the promises you can make to your readers for all the ways they will benefit from your book. Then pick one promise, and let the way your book will fulfill that promise determine the first thing you write.
Use 3x5 cards (or the backs of old business cards) to jot down random phrases or ideas that float through your mind about the book you are writing. To expand on a thought, use a separate card. Take a supply of blank cards and a pencil or pen wherever you go. Later, "play cards," rearranging them as you look for ways to connect the thoughts. The act of physically moving your thoughts around and noticing connections among them stimulates creative thinking. And the resulting pattern offers an outline that gives you a head start.
Go for a walk to clear your head, but put a short pencil and a supply of blank cards in your pocket.
Imagine yourself on Oprah discussing your book before a very supportive audience. You'll find this an effective motivational exercise if you act out the interview scenario instead of just thinking it.
Phone a writing buddy or coach and just chat about your book — or about one part of it. You'll be surprised by how much you have to say and how enlightening you'll find the process.
Tape record your side of the above conversation. Later, play it back and make notes. Since you're not taping your buddy's words, only yours, you don't need permission to record.
If you've prearranged a reciprocal support system, ask your writing buddy or coach to make notes during the conversations you have with each other. Another person's interpretation (or misinterpretation) of how you see your work can be a powerful motivator to get you writing again.
Explain your book to a child. Having to oversimplify gives you a great jump start.
"Map" your project on a large sheet of paper or on a chalkboard. Write your central idea in the middle, and around that write a few words representing each part of the topic that you'd like to cover. Outside of the second circle note the subtopics that each topic suggests. Draw lines between the ideas to suggest what route you'll take in covering all of them. Although the connecting routes will change as you go, the map will get you started on your trip. It's a variation of the index card method above (#3).
Be a reviewer: Write a list of criticisms about other books that a prospective agent or publisher could see as competing with yours. Then draft a rave review of your book that quotes a few of your best points. This exercise not only unblocks your writing but also gives you a head start on the marketing section of a book proposal.
Pick the most controversial idea in your book and write a brief defense of it. Focus on proving your point without whining.
If nothing about your book sparks controversy, you may need to create some, thereby making your book more interesting to you as well as to others.
After you've walked, talked, napped, snacked, cleared your desk, and gotten ready to write, start any place except "chapter 1" and just write. If you type your writing, stare at a blank wall or at your hands, not at the words forming on your monitor.
Make a hasty table of contents for your book (also on cards). Then add the words "Sex and" in front of each entry. Wherever the inspiration moves you, start writing.
Be good to yourself. Call a professional writing coach and ask about consulting services or coaching.

Q. Should I send chapters for editing as I write them or wait and send everything at one time?

A.Send everything together so that the various parts of your job don’t get separated, causing delays and rework. See the checklist What to send at the end of the article, “How to Take Advantage of an Editor.”

Q. Should I have my manuscript edited before or after I've done everything to it that I can?

A. It depends on your genre and your disposition.
   For nonfiction, you are likely to benefit from early developmental editing to ensure that you are heading in the right direction for the audience you want to reach. A developmental edit takes into account your market, content, scope, organization, language level, and other large-scale issues that can save major rewriting later.
   For fiction, you might want feedback on the opening chapter to see if it hooks the reader and sustains interest. But if your novel is well underway, complete it before having it edited. You don't want to break your momentum.
   Your disposition or personality is also a factor. If you reach a point where you can't stand to look at your work any more, that's the time to put it away for a few weeks and then revise it before sending it off to someone else. Revision is part of writing — frequently said to be the most important part of writing. If you genuinely enjoy tinkering, the more you do, the less an editor has to. Most important, the more polished the manuscript when sent for editing, the more clearly your editor can see its underlying structure and help you with the broader issues of organization, sequence, and development of ideas.
   However, save the tinkering for after you complete your first draft, because once you don the self-editor's hat, you might have a harder time keeping your internal editor's voice from interfering with the spontaneous flow of writing.
   Whatever you decide, the greatest contribution you can make to your book is writing it.

Q. To have you edit my manuscript, what should I be sending you?

A. Please see the form that appears when you click READY?

Q. Why do editors want a retainer? I pay all my bills on time.

A. When publishers and published authors find an editor they like working with, they want to reserve time on that editor's schedule many weeks, sometimes months, in advance. The purpose of a retainer is to ensure that once an editor agrees to work with you, you've actually reserved a place for your book in that editor's busy production schedule.

Q. What do all those odd-looking symbols on my manuscript mean?

A. Those are standard editorial symbols. You can find a complete list of them at the back of most dictionaries under the heading "Proofreaders' Marks." The marks I use most frequently can be found on this Website by clicking definitions, abbrev. in the sidebar.

Q. I'm overwhelmed by the number of edits written on my manuscript. Yet I keep hearing that I write well. What gives?

A. Everyone who receives a thorough editing feels overwhelmed. But there's little relationship between the number of edits and a writer's ability. After all, if you've written a 100,000-word book, it's not unusual to get back 1,000 or more separate responses, especially when they apply to an extremely wide range of elements, from plot to punctuation, scene-setting to sentence structure, voice to vocabulary.
Remember when you confronted your first computer? You were overwhelmed then, too. By approaching this new challenge — being professionally edited — in the same spirit of discovery, you might actually learn to like it.
Please know that editing is not a criticism of the writer or a judgment about the writer's ability. Editing reflects the reading experience of a professional who is working alongside you to help you produce the best book possible.

Q. What if I don't agree with all the edits?

A. Edits are essentially suggestions and recommendations. You aren't expected to agree with all of them. As author, you are the authority, the ultimate "decider." Use what works for you; don't use what doesn't. But even the "misfits" among those suggestions — when analyzed objectively — can reveal what it is that made your editor so thoroughly miss the point you were trying to make.
Before eliminating all traces of a comment that you disagree with, take a moment to think about what might have prompted it and come up with your own solution. If you don't see the problem, ask, because doing nothing could cause your next reader (a prospective agent or publisher, for example) to similarly misinterpret your words. Keeping a positive frame of mind helps you replace the editor's suggestion with a remedy that you like better.

(If you would like a copy of my article "Edits Aren't Edicts," which appeared as the lead article in the October 2000 issue of Publishers Marketing Association's newsletter, either e-mail me or send a SASE to Chris Roerden, 3683 Waterwheel Court, Greensboro NC 27409.)

Q. How should my corrected text be returned for the next step?

A. Let's say you've had your manuscript edited and you are now ready with a revised version of it. If you've arranged for editing or proofreading, send the latest version — either a printout in SMF or a complete set of page proofs. If you've arranged for self-publishing and are ready for typesetting and layout, send the updated electronic file plus a matching printout.
In all cases, return the hard copy that shows the original edits and queries, even if you've marked it up so it's almost illegible. In general, do not answer the questions originally written in the margins or explain why you are handling a problem differently from the way your editor suggested; let your revisions speak for themselves. That is, let your revised copy clarify whatever it is that prompted your editor to react to it.
However, if you decide to take no action on a particular suggestion or question, write STET (Latin for Let it stand) in the margin and draw a dotted line under the words to be kept as is. On a manuscript, simply draw a line through an editorial comment that you considered and decided to reject. If you don't mark what you are choosing to ignore, your editor won't know whether you missed seeing the comment or whether you saw it but didn't care enough about your readers to make the meaning clearer. You will probably be asked about it again, which wastes time for both of editor and writer.

Q. Have you ever heard of X Company? They seem interested in publishing my book.

A. If I haven't heard of them, it's because no one can keep up with the hundreds of new publishing ventures that are constantly making an appearance. More than 50,000 companies and individuals are currently doing business as publishers.
   One way to check the legitimacy of a publisher who offers you a contract is to contact an agent listed with the Association of Authors' Representatives, P.O. Box 237201, Ansonia Station, New York, NY 10003; www.publishersweekly.com/AAR/
   Another is to join more than one online group of writers, ask lots of questions, and listen to the answers. Check out the links on the AAR Website (also read their FAQs) and if you are up for the results, try the keyword "writing" on the Internet to get you started.
   In addition to the sheer number of companies and individuals who are defining themselves as publishers, there's a nearly infinite number of publishing arrangements they offer.
    In general, publishers fall into three broad categories:

Risk or royalty publishers — these are the traditional publishers who gamble on what they think will return a high enough profit to them in relation to all their costs — including the cost of production, marketing, distribution, returns, overhead, and a royalty to the author. (One notable exception is the cost of the initial edit, which the first-time author is usually expected to have gotten before an agent or publisher sees a submitted manuscript.)
Whether the traditional risk publisher is very large or very small, the cost of launching each book is a major investment, so the publisher has to be extremely selective in choosing which manuscripts to publish. That's why acquisitions are influenced by far more than the merit of a book's content or the writing talent of its author. Acquisitions often depend on the ability of the author to market his or her work and generate impressive sales figures.

Self-publishers — these are the authors who publish their own work, bearing all the risks and costs but keeping all profits and enjoying the freedom to make their own decisions. Self-publishers act as general contractors, performing some tasks themselves and subcontracting those that they haven't the time, skill, or inclination to do themselves. Many specialists are available to handle those functions, from production services (design, editorial, typesetting, layout, printing and binding) to marketing (the whole campaign or any part of it), to distribution (warehousing, order fulfillment, returns, and so on). There are many advantages for the self-publisher in having all these functions performed under the direction of an experienced general contractor, project manager, or managing editor; however, the quality and the cost can vary considerably.

Cooperative publishers — this category includes most everyone else who agrees to help an author get published. The agreements, costs, and benefits vary widely. Here are a few examples:

• Various online publishing arrangements, which cost relatively little but offer the author virtually no royalty or ownership of the reprint rights or the ISBN. Technically, because your electronic book never goes "out of print," the reprint rights do not revert to the author, as they do when a traditional print publisher decides that sales are too low to continue marketing and reprinting the title.

• Vanity publishers, who take no risks themselves but publish almost anything for the large fee they charge, promising all services but in reality providing very few; namely, a cursory typesetting, a formulaic layout, printing of the manuscript, and the binding and delivery of a small quantity of the actual print run. (If you want the rest of the books you think you already paid for, you usually have to pay for their binding and shipping.)
Historically, vanity publishers perform no real marketing or editorial functions. In a well-documented class-action lawsuit against one of the oldest vanity publishers, the courts determined that TWO criteria distinguish the value-added legitimate publisher from the bogus: editorial and marketing. Running a manuscript through a spell-checker and a grammar checker is not what's meant by "editorial."

• Every sort of other arrangement one can imagine — from the job shop that adds minimum editorial and marketing to the mix (thereby taking a small step up in the eyes of the law from the scam artist), to the truly cooperative arrangement with fellow self-publishers dividing the work and sharing the costs.
The key to knowing which publishing method is right for each author is the word that appears at the beginning of this discussion: RISK. Who takes how much risk and what kind? Today, with the rapid proliferation of every imaginable variation of publishing arrangement, it's difficult to tell the good guys from the not-so-good and the outright baddies. Moreover, dealing with even the not-so-bad often takes a literary agent or attorney who specializes in entertainment law to (a) interpret the fine print in a publishing contract and (b) identify which rights and privileges you are getting, which you are giving away, and which you're at risk for losing.

Q. Why do you want to know a self-publisher's marketing plan?

A. Unless you intend to give all your books away, you may want to recover some of your investment. You might even want to make a profit. Whatever objective you have in mind, a plan helps you get there.
In asking you for your plan, I want to see how realistic the concept is and evaluate for myself how likely your methods will help you reach your defined audience. If I feel you have no chance of meeting your objectives, I don't want to take your money. There are plenty of other editors, book consultants, and "publishing managers" out there who will gladly do that for you, whether you have a good chance at succeeding or are highly likely to fail.
When I speak of "failing" as a self-publisher, I'm not talking about the merits of your book; I'm talking about the soundness of your plan for marketing and distributing it. For all authors, especially self-publishers, writing the book is the easy part; marketing it is the challenge.

Q. I can't find an agent who'll agree to represent me, though their rejection letters praise my writing. Are they snowing me?

A. Probably not, unless they praise your writing and suggest they will be interested in representing you only after you pay for having it edited by a certain editor or editorial service. Agents who take no reading fees (and who thereby remain eligible for membership in the well-respected Association of Authors' Representatives) and no kickbacks from editing services (thereby obeying the law against pyramid schemes) have nothing to gain by praising your writing while admitting, in effect, that they can't sell it. Legitimate agents get paid only when they sell something.
As you might imagine, agents increase their chances of selling a book by focusing on publishers who buy a large number of manuscripts. However, the number of those publishers is diminishing and the number of manuscripts being circulated is extremely high. So you might consider trying the smaller presses that publish in your genre. Depending on how small a particular press is, the number of manuscripts that it acquires in a year can be minuscule. The good news is you can approach the smaller presses directly because agents are rarely interested in such limited odds for making a sale. Nevertheless, you have to do your homework to unearth the right small press.

Q. How do I find a small press?

A. I presume you've already surfed the Net and scoured the bookstores and libraries to compile lists of all the presses currently publishing in your genre. Below are the two resources I like to use for identifying the presses that have published books on a particular subject. ("Press" refers to a publisher, not a printer.) When you research these sources for your own niche, be sure to look up how many titles and how many different authors a given publisher publishes. Be prepared to do your homework so you can narrow down the many possibilities to only the likeliest publishers for your subject matter.

International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses
published by Dustbooks, P. O. Box 100, Paradise, CA 95967
http://www.dustbooks.com/
Your own copy will cost you about $40, but you should be able to find this in a library. Ask.

Books in Print
published by R. R. Bowker
http://booksinprint.com/
This is a multi-volume set kept at the reference desk of any library. Bring a laptop or lots of index cards for taking notes. Start your search by subject, and then look up each publisher's name in the appropriate volume. Avoid publishers whose titles are all written by the same person.

Once you zero in on a likely batch of publishers in your genre, search their Websites for the titles they publish or write or phone to get your own copy of their catalog (it's free). Catalogs let you analyze what a publisher is investing in, thereby helping you identify the most likely prospects. When you've narrowed your list, send a SASE to each publisher's editorial department asking for writer's guidelines, or visit each publisher's Website to see if submission guidelines are posted. Pay particular attention to what publishers say they are looking for and what their stated mission in publishing is. Follow each set of guidelines to the letter.
Even though you might not want to self-publish (and you'll surely want to avoid vanity publishing), it's not unreasonable for a legitimate publisher to expect you to do a significant amount of pro-active marketing to promote your book. It's unrealistic to think your role is limited to appearing at whatever events your publisher sets up for you. Just be sure you don't have to pay for production as well as the opportunity to do most of your own marketing.
Once you succeed in getting a contract offer on your own, consider asking an agent or literary arts attorney to review the contract. A professional's ability to negotiate better terms for you is often worth the cost.

Q. How can I learn more about the writing organizations you belong to?

A. You can contact them directly:

Mystery Writers of America (MWA)
17 East 47th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10017
(212) 888-8171
http://www.mysterywriters.net/

To contact the SouthEast Regional Chapter of MWA, or SEMWA:
http://www.SEMWA.com

Sisters in Crime (SinC)
P. O. Box 442124
Lawrence, KS 66044
(785) 842-1325
http://www.sinc-ic.org/

Romance Writers of America
16000 Stuebner Airline Rd. #140
Spring, Texas 77379
http://www.rwanational.org/

Q. What's the biggest problem for writers?

A. In my experience the answer is "Supermind." To explain that answer, I've typed an article about it in SMF — Standard Manuscript Format — so you'll have a sample of what manuscript pages should look like when you submit your work to an editor, agent, or publisher.

Click here to view or print "The Biggest Problem for Writers" (a pdf file)
(Adobe Acrobat automatically downloads this file, but if you have any difficulty opening it, please contact me by e-mail or regular mail and I will send it to you.)

TO RETURN HERE after viewing "The Biggest Problem for Writers," use your browser's BACK symbol [<] at the top of your screen.

Q. What resources can help me improve my writing and market my book?

A. 1. BOOKS ON SELF-EDITING

Roerden, Chris. Don't Murder Your Mystery: 24 Fiction-Writing Techniques To Save Your Manuscript From Turning Up D.O.A. Rock Hill SC: Bella Rosa Books, 2006. Winner: Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction Book. Finalist: Anthony Award, Macavity Award, and ForeWord Magazine Reference Book of the Year.

Roerden, Chris. Don't Sabotage Your Submissions: How to Save Your Manuscript From Turning Up D.O.A. Coming June 2008. Click here

Bickham, Jack M. The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them). Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1992.

Browne, Renni, & Dave King. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994; revised 2005.

Christmas, Bobbie. Write in Style: Using Your Word Processor and Other Techniques to Improve Your Writing. New York: Union Square Pub., 2004.

Howard-Johnson, Carolyn. The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Foot Forward to Avoid Humiliation & Ensure Success. Red Engine Press, 2007.

Lukeman, Noah. The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Obstfeld, Raymond. Fiction First Aid. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001.

2. BOOKS ON WRITING

Bickham, Jack M. Setting: How To Create and Sustain a Sharp Sense of Time and Place in Your Fiction. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Block, Lawrence. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1981.

Lukeman, Noah. The Plot Thickens. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.

Orr, Alice. No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2004.

Provost, Gary. Make Your Words Work. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1990; Author’s Guild Backinprint.com edition, 2001.

Stein, Sol. How to Grow a Novel. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Ephron, Hallie. Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock ’Em Dead with Style. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2005.

Grafton, Sue, ed. Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001.

Hayden, G. Miki. Writing the Mystery. Philadelphia: Intrigue Press, 2001.

Highsmith, Patricia. Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. Boston: The Writer, 1966; New York: Writer’s Library, 1990.

King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Scribner, 2000; Pocket Books edition, 2002.

Neri, Kris. Writing Killer Mysteries: 8 Lessons to Get You Into Print. Valencia CA: T2G Productions, 2006. (Format: DVD)

Tapply, William G. The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whodunit. Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press, 2005.

Wheat, Carolyn. How to Write Killer Fiction. Santa Barbara: Perseverance Press, 2003. Outstanding comparison of mystery and thriller, plus a useful guide to genres and subgenres.

3. BOOKS ON CHARACTER BUILDING & BEHAVIOR

Ballon, Rachel. Breathing Life into Your Characters: How to Give Your Characters Emotional and Psychological Depth. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2003.

Douglas, John E., and Mark Olshaker. Anatomy of Motive: The FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding & Catching Violent Criminals. New York: Scribner, 1999.

Groetsch, Michael; ed. Chris Roerden. He Promised He’d Stop. Brookfield WI: CPI Publishing, 1997. Profiles the types of men who abuse women.

Kress, Nancy. Dynamic Characters. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1998.

Samenow, Stanton E. Inside the Criminal Mind. New York: Crown Publishing, 2004.

Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

4. BOOKS ON CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

Brown, Steven Kerry. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating. New York: Penguin Group, 2003.

Campbell, Andrea. Making Crime Pay: The Writer’s Guide to Criminal Law, Evidence, and Procedure. New York: Allworth Press, 2002.

Lofland, Lee. Police Procedure & Investigation. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books. 2007.

5. BOOKS ON COPYRIGHT FOR WRITERS

Kozak, Ellen. Every Writer’s Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law, 3rd ed. New York: Henry Holt, 2004.

6. BOOKS ON MARKETING THE MANUSCRIPT

Brogan, Kathryn S. Guide to Literary Agents. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books, 2005.

Herman, Jeff. Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents. Waukesha WI: The Writer Books, 2005.

Maass, Donald. The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 1996.

Page, Susan. The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book. Broadway Books, New York. 1997.

Sands, Katharine. Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye. Waukesha WI: The Writer Books, 2004.

7. BOOKS ON MARKETING THE PUBLISHED BOOK

Howard-Johnson, Carolyn. The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't. Star Publish, 2004.

Marks, Jeffrey. Intent To Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel. Frederick MD: Hilliard Harris, 2005.

Horowitz, Shel. Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers. Hadley MA: AWM Books, 2007.

Kremer, John. 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, 6th ed. Fairfield IA: Open Horizons, 2006.

Levinson, Jay Conrad; Rick Frishman, Michael Larsen. Guerrilla Marketing for Writers. Cincinnati OH: Writer's Digest Books, 2000.

8. HELPFUL WEBSITES

www.LawandFiction.com Attorney and novelist Leslie Ann Budewitz offers resources, research, and answers to your questions about the law and its effect on you as a writer or on your characters and their actions.

http://leelofland.com/ Former cop, author of Police Procedure & Investigation, Lee Lofland blogs daily and answers questions.