My client Kirsten Krauth’s debut novel just_a_girl was published this week in Australia. I love this cover, don’t you?*

Called “a Puberty Blues for the digital age” and “a Lolita with a webcam”, just_a_girl tells Layla’s story:

Layla is only 14. She cruises online. She catches trains to meet strangers. Her mother, Margot, never suspects. Even when Layla brings a man into their home. Margot’s caught in her own web: an evangelical church and a charismatic pastor. Meanwhile, downtown, a man opens a suitcase and tenderly places his young lover inside.

Over at her Wild Colonial Girl blog, Kirsten has been posting about what it feels like to bring her novel into the world. As in her fiction, Kirsten is nothing if not direct. In her post about what she learned writing her first novel, she says:

I know everyone talks about having an agent, but my personal experience was that it was completely demoralising dealing with agents direct, and almost put me off trying. The publishers and editors were respectful and kind. The agents were aloof, conservative, and often just plain rude (this is when they bothered to reply to my emails). They talked about the market a lot (and I’m skeptical about this kinda talk). I know agents are busy, but so is everyone else. One agent asked me to pay so he could get the manuscript sent to another reader. Come on! In the end, I got a publishing deal, and then sought an agent (note: she was nothing like the above). Not ideal but it worked in a roundabout way.

Boy was I relieved to read to the end of that paragraph. Kirsten and I connected on Twitter after she had already received an offer from her publisher, UWA Press, but before she’d signed anything. So what did I do for her as an agent?

• provided some editorial development advice on the existing manuscript
• read and advised on the publishing agreement (contract), including which rights to hold on to
• helped her consider and respond to the additional editorial feedback from UWA Press’s in-house editor prior to the book going into production
• discussed the options for the book’s cover design
• undertook to seek a publishing deal (or deals) for her in other territories around the world.

Congratulations Kirsten! Here’s her new post with all the details of launches (Sydney: Gleebooks 18 June 6.30pm; her hometown Castlemaine: 13 July) and the various ways in which to find, read, and buy just_a_girl.

*Here’s Kirsten with her brand new book. She admits she likes the cover much more now than she did when it was first presented as one of maybe four or five design ideas.

The Mumbrella website has just republished the article Got a book in you?, which features interviews with me and Zeitgeist Media Group’s Benython Oldfield among a number of media-industry folks who have written books.

First published in the media industry tablet magazine Encore, the article focuses on the financial risks and enduring rewards of writing a book, with an emphasis on nonfiction.

Benython makes the important point that there’s a big difference between a subject that’s right for a long article, and a subject fit for a book:

“A lot of the time people can write a great 10,000 words but you have to ask yourself, ‘can I write 80 to 100,000 words on this topic?’ because a lot of good non-fiction ideas that people think should be made into a book really should be turned into articles.”

I should probably mention that I’m quoted at the end as saying that in order to write a book “you’ve got to be a little bit mad.” I feel I can get away with that because I have written one book and am currently trying to finish my second.

I’m pretty excited to be attending my first artist’s residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida (above) starting on Monday 13th May. I’ll be one of eight people working with acclaimed British writer Geoff Dyer, the author of some of my favourite difficult-to-classify books including Out of Sheer Rage and But Beautiful.

The Center describes the interdisciplinary nature of its residency program thus:

The essence of Atlantic Center’s Artists-in-Residence program is to provide talented artists the opportunity to work and collaborate with contemporary masters. Through a competitive application process, the associates are selected by the master artist with whom they wish to work. The associate artists come from around the world, and are university professors, post-graduate students, professionals, or full-time writers, dancers, painters or composers. During their stay, the artists spend a portion of the day working with the master artist and their group in meetings, workshops, casual conversations and other activities. They are free to spend the remainder of their time pursuing their own projects. The residencies culminate with a public presentation of works-in-progress developed during the residency.

I’m looking forward to meeting the other writers in my workshop as well as the musicians and other interdisciplinary creative types working with writer/performance artist Coco Fusco and composer Judith Shatin. Here’s a full list of attendees of the 149th Artists in Residence Program.

My goal for the residency is to find a clear path to finishing my work in progress, which is coming together but still feels a bit wobbly and unbalanced.

Advice from friends who have attended residencies in the past has ranged from “take a flashlight” to “remember, you can always leave.” I’ll let you know how I go.

A writer asked me recently how can she get her work edited if she can’t afford to hire an experienced freelance editor.

Affordability is a big issue for many writers who are serious about their work and prepared to do the revisions necessary to get closer to publication. In this post I’ll suggest some ways to get around the hole in your pocket.

Definitions
Let me be clear: I am not talking about careful copyediting. I’m astounded at how many queries I receive that cheerfully reassure me that their manuscript has been “edited for typos” when the manuscript itself is undercooked, simply too many drafts away from a submittable standard. In many cases it appears that the author is not aware of how much further development is required, or that apart from her  BFF cheering her on I’m the first person to have read any of the manuscript. In those cases I typically suggest that the author seeks out a writing group or an experienced independent editor to help her develop the work further. I never hear from 99% of these people again.

In this post I am referring to developmental editing or structural editing, which looks at the overall work to identify problems with characterization, plot, tone, point of view, pacing, transitions, the organization of material and so on. Wikipedia’s category definitions in this area are unhelpful, focusing on working with the authors of textbooks and academic articles. Here is a better definition of development editing.

Alternatives to hiring a freelance editor
Aside from cost, there are good reasons why you should not rely solely on the services of a freelance editor. Without a personal recommendation or word of mouth suggestion, it’s difficult to know how heavy-handed or light-of-touch any editor will be. If you’re looking for areas of weakness in your manuscript, you’ll be disappointed if you get back a manuscript only lightly dusted with the editor’s suggestions. Also often overlooked is how much experience the editor has in your genre.

Here are some suggestions for places where you can find cheaper alternatives to hiring a freelance editor to get the feedback you’re looking for.

• Short-duration or one-off in-person classes that focus on a particular aspect of writing craft. This is a burgeoning industry, so depending on your location there’s bound to be something on offer. Meeting face to face is valuable for a range of other reasons – finding a new friend with whom you can exchange pages to edit; learning from the teacher’s informal discussions of writing and publishing; realizing that you’re not the only one struggling with a work in progress.
• There is a proliferation of online classes available. I think the Writer’s Digest University has loads of useful resources. They’ve recently reduced to $25 a one-month all-access pass to their archived workshops, which I think is great value.
• Post your work online to seek feedback. There are formal and informal channels by which to do this. I’ve dealt with authors who were writing in isolation until they tried posting a chapter of their work on one of the established forums such as YouWriteOn.com. At the other end of the spectrum, if you have a regular online presence then perhaps you could ask your Twitter followers or blog readers to give you feedback on a set number of pages.
• There must be more — please share in the comments if you have a good suggestion — but you get my drift.

The trick is knowing what questions to ask to get the feedback you need
In editing, as in life, you need to know what to ask for in order to get what you want. It doesn’t matter if you seek feedback from a trusted friend or a total stranger: you must be clear on what you want to know.

Here are some questions to prompt you before you brief a reader on a novel (I’m assuming this reader has generously agreed to read the full manuscript):

• What does not make sense or is not clear?
• How do you feel about character X? Y?
• What did you want to read more of?
• What did you want to read less of? / Where does it get repetitive?
• Does it begin in the right place or does it take too long to get started?
• What (if anything) did you find amusing or downright funny?
• What moved you?
• What bored you?
• Are there any threads/themes from early on in the work that disappear later or that you missed?
• Was there anything about the story or characters or setting that did not ring true?
• Does the title work for you?

Some additional/alternative questions for briefing a reader on a nonfiction manuscript (memoir or narrative nonfiction):

• Is this the best possible arrangement/order of the material?
• Is the story clear?
• Are the characters alive on the page? Where are they static?
• Where is there too much observation/analysis at the expense of scenes/dialogue in which the characters reveal themselves?
• Is the difference clear between the narrator’s younger self and the older narrator looking back on her younger self (where relevant)?
• Is the narrator’s point of view sufficiently established?

The result of a developmental edit is that the author usually has a lot of work to do. I speak from experience on this point and will write about that in a later post or posts.

Writer, edit thyself
I believe that the best writers learn to edit themselves. Becoming a tough editor of your own work — after the ghastly first draft is complete and not before  – is essential for a writing life that includes regular publication. (That’s also a subject for a separate post.)

If you’ve read this far, I have two things to say. First, thanks. Second, please share your thoughts and questions about editing in the comments. I firmly believe there is no such thing as a stupid question.

All my good intentions to blog regularly this year have been thwarted by the realities of trying to (a) find the right publisher for my clients’ work and (b) finish my own manuscript. The former is difficult enough. The latter project, though not quite an albatross around my neck, has been with me for a long time now. It’s been quite distressing at times to discover myself deep in second book syndrome, which I imagined I would avoid given the rather unusual circumstances of my first. I read this morning that a writer must be prepared to throw away hundreds of pages en route to the final form of the work at hand. I can attest to that, though a lady never discloses exactly how many hundreds of pages she has jettisoned. (For her own sanity more than anything …)

Wrestling with the long form of a book means that it is even more satisfying to complete short pieces in a timely fashion. Hence I’m delighted to provide this link to my report for Brevity‘s nonfiction blog on the Stalking the Essay Conference held on Saturday 6th April at Columbia University. It was such a treat to listen to writers as different as Vivian Gornick, Patricia Hampl, Daniel Mendelsohn, Katha Pollitt, Colm Toibin and Michael Greenberg talk about their own paths to and through the essay form. Though it was an entire day spent away from my own desk, it was well worth it for the inspiration it provided. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.