In this interview with Kat Brzozowski, a senior editor at Swoon Reads, we got excited about National Novel Writing Month (November) and all the interesting behind-the-scenes activities at a publishing enterprise such as Swoon Reads.
We talked about:
- How Swoon Reads lets authors upload manuscripts, readers give feedback, and editors select great books to publish
- How writers can fix the most common problems Kat sees in submissions
- How a writer can know when a manuscript is really ready to submit
- How typos make it into published books
- What different types of editors do
- Why writers should stick with “said” for dialogue tags
- What happens after a manuscript is acquired
- How new authors can deal with feedback from editors when it might seem extreme (like eliminating a whole character)
- Which books coming out soon Kat is excited about
- What kind of books Kat is looking to acquire right now
- What kinds of books and shows make a good comparison when you’re trying to describe your project
You can listen to the entire interview by clicking the player above or by finding the Grammar Girl podcast on any podcasting app, but if you prefer to read it, we also have a complete (rough) transcript.
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