The Great Wheel of Publishing

First, I've just received word that my poem "Graven Image" will appear in The Prairie Journal (out of Alberta) but I'm not sure when. And my story "Stocking Stuffers" has been approved for the Cleis Press, Christmas anthology Naughty or Nice". I've also received a mostly positive comment on a poem at Abyss & Apex. If I rewrite one line satisfactorily, then they may take it. This is a bit more work than it may sound as the poem is a villanelle and the line is repeated working with different stanzas.

Now, on to the great wheel of publishing. This wheel is large and ungainly, held together with sweat, tears, slush pile mansucripts, spit, unbought or returned books and elbow grease. It lumbers along, turning ever so slowly, sometimes looking more as if it will tumble over then keep rolling. But roll it does, usually, sometimes losing an author, or a novel, some staff or advertising revenue. It does not turn smoothly but continues until the gap of lost material becomes so big that the wheel must be overhauled.

Such is the case with various publishers along the long road of years. Ten years ago I was trying to get copyediting work with US publishers. This Herculean task met many difficulties. Publishers and the editors in charge are over-busy, always reading and procuring manuscripts and then going through the myriad phases of production. Send a letter and if it isn't imperative to answer (we want your manuscript, pay our invoice) it never gets answered, not even if you include a SASE and you're looking for employment. The next stage is to phone and hope you get the right editor in the right department. Should you call and only get their answering machine, presume they won't answer. And if you live on the west coast and have a three-hour time difference it will take early hours and a crystal ball to figure out the best time and day to try and catch and editor. Give up on Fridays altogether.

Should you get through these first layers of the publishing house inferno, you will most likely get a copyediting test. Once that's done you send it back. I did two over two-three years with Tor, where they subsequently lost the test both times. Then said oh well you have to go through St. Martins as they're our boss. And Ace gave me the test; I sent it back and heard nothing. When I queried twice they said, oh we can't hire Canadians. I didn't know that when I sent you a test. Great, I've had a lot of practice.

With Harper Collins, I passed the test. Then they sent me disks because they used a specific computer-based editing system. (This was about ten years ago and I'm not sure Word's track changes feature was that developed then.) So, I received the disks but then had to get a new computer because I didn't have the memory capacity. At that time the guy who was going to train me was on holidays for a month. When he got back, he quit. So they were then trying to find someone else. In that time, they also bought out Avon books.

What ensued was two years of frustration and nary a job out of it. The editor I was dealing with was transferred to a different dept. then fired. Others came and went. I was given various names of people and would call every month. Each time I had to explain the situation who I had talked to, where it had changed, what area of copyediting I specialized in (SF/spec fiction) etc. Each time, it was a different person, a new department, a new system. Two years of calling every month after being told I would be hired as a freelancer and I never got one job out of it.

Over the years I have edited for a few US publishers and Canadian publishers but the sheer frustration of getting New York publishers was enough to stop anyone. You really do have to live there. The longest stint I had copyediting with one publisher was three years or so with Byron Preiss book packagers (now gone the way of the dodo). And I got my first job because I was at the World Fantasy Convention standing in the lineup for the hotel. The guy in front told me he had just got a promotion to editor and I said, hey do you need any copyeditors. He said send a resume when you get back but before I could he called because he had a rush job. Keith DeCandido gave me my first real break in copyediting. He quit before the company imploded and I'd quite before that because getting paid was becoming difficult. He now writes novels. I now think of writing my novel, still copyedit and still write.