Hi. I’m Jessica, your friendly neighborhood editorial assistant, and I’m here to help you get your manuscript out of our discard pile and on its way to becoming a Xchyler-certified novel! I started out at Xchyler as a slush-pile reader; that is, I was (and still am) one of the first people to set eyes on your dearly beloved manuscript. I have read some real duds—and some real winners—in my time. I want to help you help yourself (and in turn, help me not tear my hair out!) to get your story through our rigorous screening process. Rather than giving you a list of specific fixes, here is some good old-fashioned advice to help improve your writing:
- Read our submission guidelines! Get familiar with the type of work we are looking for (and, conversely, what we are NOT interested in). There’s nothing more frustrating than coming across a great manuscript and realizing that they have not followed a single guideline. One of our main criteria for deciding to proceed with a story is how receptive we perceive the author to be to our guidance. It doesn’t matter how great your story is if we can’t work with you. To that end, seeing that your submission conforms to our guidelines is a great indicator as to how willing you are to work with us. You can find those guidelines here: http://xchylerpublishing.com/site.cfm/submissions.cfm
- Check out the rest of this blog. We have new postings at least every week; they’re written by our editors, marketing staff, and even some of our authors. Get inside our brains! The posts offer great insight into our process.
- Now, let’s talk about your manuscript. One of the greatest pieces of advice I was ever offered as a writer was to read my work out loud. This may sound silly and time consuming, but I promise you—this is one of the best and easiest ways to pick out missing punctuation, inconsistent tenses, incomplete sentences . . . the whole lot. It won’t catch every error, but I guarantee it will catch more than you think. It will also improve the flow of your writing and how natural it sounds. When we read out loud, it’s almost as if we are reading as a third party; it’s a great way to get perspective on your writing. Oftentimes, we get too wrapped up in our own heads, and it’s easy to see what we want to see. However, this technique only works if you are truly reading what’s on the page, punctuation and all. I would even suggest printing out your work. Yes, no one likes to waste paper, but I say if it helps you edit your manuscript, then the trees have done their job. Reading something on real paper is a tremendously different experience than staring at a computer screen.
- Ask a friend to read it for you—but make sure you ask someone who will give you a real, honest opinion, not someone who will pat you on the back and tell you that you’ve done SUCH a good job, honey! Even better (and if they’re willing)—make it a double whammy and have them read it out loud to you! An outside perspective is invaluable.
- And last but not least, remember that YOU are the only person inside your head. While I’m sure you are glad to hear that, what I mean is this: your audience, whether it’s a friend or a slush-pile reader like me, only knows what you’ve put on the page. I’m a firm believer in the idea that the author is dead. That may seem extreme, but think about it this way. Once you’ve released your story out into the world, you can’t take it back. You can’t sit on the reader’s shoulder and say, “No, no, what I meant was THIS!” We only have what you give us, and you don’t get a chance to explain yourself after—so, tell us what you mean; or, better, yet show us! We want to know what your story is, and only you can tell it to us.
Now that I’ve sufficiently discouraged you from ever writing anything again, here’s another disappointment: nothing on the list will guarantee your submission will get past the first round. HOWEVER, we can absolutely tell the difference when an author has gone through the effort of doing all of the above. When we are not distracted by the fact that you haven’t followed directions, or trying to figure out what you’re saying because your tenses are all mixed up and your sentences end too soon, that’s when we really get a chance to focus on your story. Good luck, and happy writing!
Jessica Shen is an editorial assistant and proofreader at Xchyler Publishing. Her current project, Mechanized Masterpieces: a Steampunk Anthology, will be released April 30, 2013.
