When a critic becomes an editor: Cold-Blooded
Dear Reader,
When I was in seventh grade, my dream job was to become an editor. Read books and get paid for it - can you imagine a better life? And if you're working for a publishing company, you get to decide which books get printed. It's probably good that I don't do that. Half of today's best sellers would have died in a desk drawer if I had a say.
But deciding what gets published is only a small part of the editor's job. The greater part is helping authors to create a better version of their manuscripts, line by line. I got to do that with Cold-Blooded, the second volume of the Mattie Saunders series by Rod Raglin. You can read my review of the first volume The Rocker and The Bird Girl here. I liked the first book, but criticized the typos and general lack of editing. For this second volume, Mr. Raglin sent me the next-to-final draft and I took a red pen to it. It was fun. It was a challenge, too, but mostly fun.
I marked errors and scribbled suggestions on the margins until the manuscript was bleeding ink. Then I sent the battered thing back to the author together with a detailed review of story and characters. Mr. Raglin nursed his story back to health and wrapped it in a book cover. The final version of Cold-Blooded came out in february. The differences between the draft and the finished book are fascinating. The scary parts got even scarier. The dog is gone. (Sorry for that.) A big question that stayed open in the draft gets an answer now. A bloodcurdling one.
But wait, you say. Scary? Bloodcurdling? Wasn't the first book a YA romance? Yes, the first book was. The second book contains romance, too. But the story of Mattie Saunders takes a turn for the darker in Cold-Blooded. There's a dead body in this one, and several venomous snakes. This series is unpredictable. What will the third volume be? Only the author knows.
If you're an author, and if you're now wondering if I would read your next manuscript, here's the answer: Yes, I will. I will beta-read, proofread and line-edit manuscripts in German, English and Spanish. Just send them to Manuscriptia.
You can currently win an ebook copy of Cold-Blooded on booklikes. The giveaway ends on april 16th. Or buy both books of the Mattie Saunders Series on Amazon:
The Rocker and The Bird Girl
Cold-Blooded
Visit the author on his blog Writing - the experience.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
