At Undercover HQ we're always keen to find out more about our amazing authors, and share it with you! But behind every wonderful book is the invisible guiding hand of a great editor. So we asked Zoë Marriott and her editor, Annalie Grainger, a few questions about their daily jobs, and about Shadows on the Moon.
Zoë, what made you decide to be an author?Zoë: The first time that I opened a book and read it for pleasure, I knew I had discovered some kind of secret magic. The wonder of living in someone else’s world, painting the characters experiences with the colour of my own imagination, transformed me forever. I wanted to be a writer just like that. I had no idea at the time what it actually meant to be a writer, how you went about it or the challenges involved, but I was a stubborn kid and I spent the next twenty or so years doing my research and finding out.
Annalie, what made you decide to be an editor?
Annalie: Like Zoë, I’ve always loved reading. I used to drive my mum crazy as a kid because I was forever “just going to finish this chapter” before starting on my homework/getting ready for school/tidying my room etc. It’s a total cliché but it only takes one book to make someone a reader – and the thought that I could be involved in creating that one book and sharing the pleasure I get from reading with someone else just seemed too great an opportunity to pass up.
Zoë, what’s the best part about being an author?
Zoë: Seeing other people react to your work. Looking at a book cover or a piece of fan art, or getting an email telling you that your book is the reader’s favourite and describing all the bits that they loved the most. Reading a review where someone really got all the things you hoped they would. Having a young person walk up to you in real life and tell you that this scene or that made them cry. That’s when you realise it’s real. You’ve done something impossible. You’ve literally gotten into someone else’s head and communicated with them, and they understood. Like I said: magic.
And the hardest thing?
Zoë: Seeing other people react to your work. Getting reviews that miss the point of, or deliberately misinterpret your work, or having someone dismiss your books without reading them because they’re young adult, or fantasy, or for some other arbitrary reason. Seeing that someone has given you a one star rating on a site like Goodreads but hasn’t explained why. Realising that you failed to communicate with that person, and that they don’t understand.
What’s the best part about being an editor?
Annalie: Feeling like you’ve played a small part in making a book the success the author hoped it would be. It’s an amazing feeling when an author says “Thank you. Your comments really helped.”
And the hardest thing?
Annalie: Getting reviews are hard for editors too – you so desperately want your author to get good ones, because a bad review can be heartbreaking and will be remembered by the writer long after everyone else has forgotten about it. But, personally, I find sending an edit off to an author the hardest thing. A writer can have spent upwards of a year on a book and it feels like an enormous responsibility to be their first reader. It can be a fine balance between offering constructive criticism and plunging someone into the depths of despair. It takes a lot of time, care and masses amount of tact to talk to an author about their work. I still feel physically sick each time I click send on an email with editorial notes in it. I’m just praying that the author will get where I’m coming from and either agree, or if they don’t, not be offended - and certainly not cry!
How much input does an editor have on the final book?
Zoë: Because I trust Annalie immensely, and value her opinion more than anyone’s, she has a lot of say in how my books develop. If she tells me she doesn’t think the character needs to do this, or that this scene feels repetitive, or that the ending is rushed, I know I must have gotten something wrong in my writing to make her feel that way. Sometimes we differ in how to fix problems like this, and sometimes I disagree on what the problem actually is, but nine times out of ten if she has highlighted something, I’ll look at it again and try to clarify or amend it so that it does what it was meant to do. And that goes from something as small as punctuation and word choice all the way up to character arcs and plot events.
Annalie: I think being an editor is about asking questions about parts of a novel (albeit plots, characters or a single sentence) that don’t ring quite true. But how many of those questions an author wants to answer is entirely up to them. One of the nicest things about working with Zoë is that she is willing to answer quite a lot of my pesky questions! But she also keeps me on my toes because I know that, while being incredibly receptive to my comments, she will challenge anything she disagrees with and so I have to be able to justify every suggestion I make. And it’s really nice to get a discussion going like that because often you find it pushes both of you to think of new ideas and solutions, and the final book is hopefully much stronger because of it.
How long have you been working on Shadows on the Moon?
Zoë: A looong time. I started work on it in April of 2008 and delivered the manuscript in October 2009. Then Annalie and I worked on it together doing major revisions until March 2010 (we cut out 30,000 words!). And then there were line edits, which are about smoothing out the prose, tweaking the pacing, making everything perfect, and finally copy-edits and pass-pages, which is the part where you go through the book with a fine-tooth comb looking for any possible mistake, from repeating a word too often, to typos, to fact-checking. So all in all…nearly four years. Good grief!
Can you tell us what Shadows on the Moon is about in one paragraph?
Zoë: It’s a Cinderella re-telling set in faerytale Japan, and follows the story of a young shadow weaver – a magical illusionist – as she is forced through a series of painful transformations and new identities in order to survive the hatred of those who destroyed her family. Eventually she must make a choice between the past and the future, between bitter truth and beautiful lies, and between the revenge she craves, and the love she needs.
What are you working on at the moment?
Zoë: Ah! That would be telling. I’ll just say that it’s completely different from anything I’ve worked on before – and that I hope Annalie loves it as much as I do, when she gets to see it!
What advice would you give upcoming writers?
Zoë: Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Rinse. Repeat. And don’t give up!
Annalie: I second that. Determination, persistence and lots of reading. Also, I’d say write what you love, and write because you love it. Good writing takes a long time and lots of practice – there are no shortcuts. And also, don’t despair. It can be tempting to read your favourite book and underestimate all the time, energy, sweat, blood (tears!) that have gone into it. Take solace from the fact that even the very best authors write, rewrite, write again, rewrite that and so on.
Is it necessary for authors to have agents?
Zoë: I know there are a lot of writers in children’s publishing who successfully represent themselves, and I respect them very much. But the world of rights, sub-rights, contracts and clauses is so complex that agents dedicate their whole careers to understanding it – and unless an author is willing and able to do that, they’re going to be at a serious disadvantage without an agent to take care of the fiddly bits. Once you find the right agent, you have basically found an advocate who believes in you and loves your work, and who will do everything they can to make sure that you are as successful as possible. And what’s more, they will often become a friend who you enjoy having in your life.
Annalie: I think that nowadays it is incredibly hard to make it as a first-time author without an agent. Publishers are inundated with manuscripts and some have a policy of not reading them. And then even if you are a published author, I still think having an agent can be really useful. They are the people that are always one hundred per cent on your side and will fight your corner whenever you need it. That’s not to say that publishers aren’t on your side, but it can be good to have someone willing to play the bad guy sometimes and say what you are too afraid, or don’t feel comfortable, saying.
What do you look for when you’re reading through submissions?
Annalie: A good central character, a strong plot, beautiful writing, an original take on the world… A hundred and one things and also just one thing: a story that you are desperate to share with everyone you know (and those you don’t). It is impossible to define what makes an amazing book – it just is amazing and you can’t wait to tell everyone about it. I felt like that the first time I read Shadows on the Moon (Zoë, you can pay me later!).
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serendipity_viv
What a fabulous post. It is lovely to hear Annalie's thoughts too.Post a Comment