Slashdot Mirror
Finding a Tech-Friendly Novel Editor?
Brian J. asks: "I've recently completed a manuscript for a novel that depicts a heist involving elements of the Information Technology industry. Basically, a quartet of laid-off technology workers think they're going to get revenge against their former employer, but it doesn't work out that way. I was wondering if Slashdot knew of author's agents or editorial staff at publishers who have an affinity for technology, especially technology fiction, to whom I could send a query letter."
The movie only had three protagonists, is the fourth person you?
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
and I'll be happy to offer an opinion.
I think the best way would be to find out who edited your favorite techno thrillers, and send targeted packages to them. Some of the authors may thank the editors in the acknowledgements, and you could try emailing some of the other authors (don't ask the authors to read your manuscript though, they probably don't have time). Same goes for agents.
:)
Depending on how much you already know, try reading Getting Your Book Published for Dummies or Cory Doctorow's book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Science-Fiction (even though you aren't writing strictly sci fi, the general principles are the same). Most of the "serious" writing books I read weren't as good as either of those two, but hey, I'm either a dummy or an idiot when it comes to writing I guess
I actually thought you were looking for novel writing software - I'd be interested in that topic as well, I've tried out a few, but they don't seem to fit my needs as well as two open text editors (one for notes, one for writing).
Tips and Tricks for Mozilla
I don't know man, your story sound like that of the movie Office Space.
Oh about the agents/editors, since their are a lots publishers out there that publish technical and sci-fi books I am sure there are plenty of tech savvy agents/editors. Contact the big agencies/publishers and ask them.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
I always go for LyX for all my editing needs, I think it will do just fine for a novel as well... what's that, not that kind of editor? Oh, well, LyX has spellcheck and thesaurus features, so it still might be on topic :)
There are two possibilities.
(1) Your book is so technical that the layperson wouldn't understand it. That would mean that you really do need a technical editor and/or agent. However, your book will be harder to sell to publishers anyway because its audience will be limited to technical people.
(2) Your book, although it contains technical elements, would really be accessible to anyone. In that case, you don't really need a technical agent; you can use any agent. Such an agent might not be able to critique your technical accuracy, but if you can get the technical stuff right on your own, then it should be an added plus for readers who understand it.
The only difference between these types of books is that the latter explains things. A book for a general audience can still use technical language, but it makes it extra-clear whether a technical event is good or bad for the characters, and why.
I'd recommend going for the larger audience. Go over your manuscript pretending to be a non-technical reader. See if a non-technical reader can at least tell what the important plot events are. (If something bad happens, can the reader at least tell it's bad, or is it something that only a technical professional would realize is bad?) Find some non-technical people you know, and let them read the book, asking them if they find it interesting -- if they find your book boring, they are probably passing over technical stuff uncomprehendingly, and missing the main events.
If your book is targeted for a wide audience, you won't need any special technical skills on the part of your agent or your editor, and, besides, the book will sell better.
Sunlit World Scheme. Weird and different.
I bet the /. editors like sci-fi.
OK, maybe a bad idea.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Bad Memory
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By Duane Franklet
it gets technical and it's understandable
findout who did it and ask them....
Type unto others as you would have them type unto you.
An agent can be tremendously useful in steering a manuscript to people who will be able to evaluate it well. A good agent will have a lot of knowledge you won't find on slashdot about getting the MS to the right readers.
Speculations has a ton of good advice, and don't miss The Rumor Mill, especially the Caveat Scrivener sections.
SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. If you know anybody in SFWA, ask to look in the back of the directory at the list of agents representing members.
SFF.net, which hosts most of SFWA's online conversation in newsgroups.
Preditors & Editors is another outstanding resource; if you have any doubts about whether your agent, editor, or publisher is on the level or not, go poke around there.
Just stay out of the slushpile. Which means including the name of *someone* in your cover letter. Work your six degrees. To get the work read, no matter how fine a work it may be, it's pretty much a necessity these days to have a referral. That's why people go to writer's conferences. Contacts contacts contacts.
Kind of sickening, but forget that part, just do it.
And, good luck!
If your work is well written, it'll stand on its own. If it depends heavily on the technology to make it work, then it'll only appeal to techies, which is such a small market (even smaller than science fiction or fantasy), that it likely won't interest any publisher.
If you've worked well within the craft of writing, you'll have a good story and compelling characters and anyone, tech friendly or not, will be interested. If, on the other hand, you've written a story about a lot of cool techno tricks to amaze the reader, they you're basing the story on a gimmick, and it won't be of interest to anyone.
For example, in it's time, Run Silent, Run Deep involved a lot of high tech stuff (it's not high tech anymore, but it was as advanced in its day as movies like Sneakers were). It wasn't the technical details that made the book sell (although they helped a lot with the setting). It was the simple conflict set up between a good submarine captain and a very clever former sub captain who was taking out almost every sub the Allies had in one area. It's true, the tech stuff helped, but it was only added color to help the setting.
If you don't have a good solid story and good characters, and the book depends on the tech stuff and therefore depends on a tech friendly editor, you haven't written a story -- you've written a self-indulgent fantasy.
I truly hope the case is the former, and not the latter. If so, anything you do that gets you out of the slush pile and onto someone's desk -- anyone's desk -- is all you really need.
Go through an Agent, don't bother going through any other route cause they'll send you back till you have an agent
Put the whole thing online.
Ask people to read it, and provide them the ability to post comments, including alternative renderings, page by page! They have to follow the rule of positive criticism (They must provide an argument for why their alternative rendering is 'better').
Then you can have all the editors you want! You could have forty pages of editorial credits! That's pretty high tech, possibly unprecedented! Good reason for additional PR.
Bet you won't do it, because your too precious about making money!
Hey, how about you give this novel to the internet, see what the response is, get famous for authoring the first(?) non-hypertext opensource novel!
Once you are famous, then you can get rich, if you get a good agent!
This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
Think of the four or five books that are most like what you've written. Look up the authors' names in Who's Who or Contemporary Authors to find out the names of their agents. Research the agents to find out if they're likely to want to represent other stuff.
Send them no more than about 20 pages, a chapter or two, with an outline of the whole and a promise to send the whole if they request it, which will make it look far less intimidating on the slush pile. Choose what you send carefully: it should be the part of the book that would be most likely to entice a read to turn to the next chapter, but should be easy enough to understand and read on its own (it shouldn't be too hard to get into). Remember that the reader is likely to toss it down within the first few paragraphs if it's not interesting, and that the reader almost certainly will not be technically oriented.
It will be on the slush pile; unless you've published short stories or done tv scripts or something that has already brought you to the attention of an editor or agent, that's where it goes, waiting for an editorial assistant or agent's assistant to get to it when they have spare time (which is why sending a smaller package is so important - it will look like something that can be knocked off in a few minutes. That's also why it's so important for it to be immediately engaging: if it's not, the EA/agent's assistant [not sure what they call these in agent's offices] will just toss it aside to be returned).
Finally, have patience. You probably won't get it published, and if you do, it probably will take a long time to find a buyer. Very few books get snapped up by the first agent or publisher who reads it.
Not to be mean, but I'm having difficulty believing you spent the *vast* amount of time required to write a book, and did not find time to squeeze in a little research.
Usually, you can get the process going with just a few sample chapters. It is not a short process, and you're going to be doing lots of waiting now. Maybe start writing your next book, and this time get a publisher on board before the book is done.
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Why don't you use a slashdot editor for your editing needs?
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He's Milton.
BTW, Office Space was the first thing I thought of too.
There are two novels I can think of that have a tech aspect (I'm sure there are many in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, but I don't read that).
The first, Dog Days, by Daniel Lyons (sometimes Dan Lyons) is a very entertaining tech/crime caper. It's well worth a read.
The second, Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland, is pretty high on the geeky stuff, but also a very human novel; it's closer to 'high literature' than Dog Days or most of the novels that slashdotters tend to read. It's also my favourite book.
You could do worse than to find out who originally editted and published the above books and contack them.
I'll reiterate what others have expressed: Your novel should stand up on its own and make sense to a non-technical reader! I develop software, but the last thing I want to read in a novel is a bunch of technobabble or bash commands.
Publishers are often looking for the next Michael Crichton or the next drug rehab book -- i.e. they tend to look for new versions of winning formulas. If you can describe yourself or your book as 'the next X' or 'X meets Y', you might be able to help a publisher decide if you are something they are interested in
"The noble art of losing face will one day save the human race"---Hans Blix
Crichton's literary agency is: Janklow and Nesbit Assoc. 598 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022 It's probably best to get the business details of a book under a literary agency contract before finding an editor. Usually, an editor will be under contract to a publisher - and you need an agent to bring your manuscript to the attention of a publisher.
Editors hate manuscripts - the longer the worse: it takes extraordinary measures to convince them to read anything.
1.Write an decent first page. Must have some highly quotable, short paragraphs. Have a cliffhanger right at the end of the page.
2.Print 10 000+ copies of the first page.
3.Get a single engine prop plane (preferrably a crop-duster). Fly over a major city and dump your leaflets all over. (N.Y. is best - N.Y.Times have nationvide circulation but you will have to watch out for wind blowing towards Hudson river and seashore.)
4. As you are getting arrested, mention the troubles with editors ignoring your novel as the reason for doing it.
5. Give plenty of interviews. Save some copies of your sample first page to hand out to the journalists. Avoid any references about devout muslim pilots.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
1: Go to Bae.com
2: Go to Baen's Bar
3: Waste day reading forums on authors and books until you remember why you are there.
4: Go to the Slushpile (a forum)
The remainder is left as en exercise...
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
It isn't really clear what you're asking for. You should probably pay an editor to go over your novel before sending it to a publisher. An editor is a completely different beast than a proofreader. A good editor will do the proofreading stuff, but also point out plot holes, suggest where things should be tightened up, where you may need more exposition, and just generally be an objective second opinion.
Most publishing houses employ editors, who will go over books that they have contracted for, but if you're trying to get somebody to buy it from you, and you're an unknown, get it edited first.
My mom's a freelance editor, so I grew up around this kind of stuff.
my 2 worth.
~ a low user id is no indication I have a clue what I'm talking about.
I must admit that I got a hell of a lot of help editing the thing for typos and some decent editorial advice from the effort. As well as just over $1,000 up to now.
I have yet to accomplish the "get rich" part, am still working on the "get a good agent" step. That is looking at least slightly more do-able than it would have been before I put the book online.
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