Tuesday, October 20, 2009

editing children's books

The challenge I find is reading a manuscript (which I'm doing right now on a manuscript I'm loving) with an adult mind and from the point of view of a reader of the target age. Then I'm challenged by figuring out what the target age for a particular book really is - and accurately filtering that is a key editorial task in children's books. If I read the book with the wrong age in my head or with too much of an adult mind I come up with the wrong editorial decisions, and suspending the adult mind is like suspending my critical faculties on how to make a book better.

3 comments:

anne rice said...

i believe what you are trying to say is you find it challenging to "interrogate the text from the right perspective"

-- luv Anne "i don't need no stinkin editor" Rice xxx

Andrew's red dog blog said...

thanks for the help, but that's not how I'd put it. I wouldn't use the phrase "interrogate the text" as it's jargon and, further, the task of childrens editor is about balancing several perspectives.
xxx

anne rice said...

if you've had the type of reviewers I've gotten, I mean - seldom do I really answer those who criticise my work - but sometimes they strain my Dickensean principles to the max and I just need to like, y'know, tell them they're interrogating my text from the wrong perpsective ... I mean, I AM Anne Rice.

Do your writers mind you balancing their perspectives? No offence to you Andrew (because I am Anne Rice) but for me writing is a virtuoso performance, not a collaborative art. I feel I don't need an editor. But I am Anne Rice, afterall.

-- Anne Rice xxx