Do any other writers here have to deal with “reader’s reports?” That’s when your prospective publisher sends a print-out of your first draft to several “readers” for comments.
Oy.
First of all, this will be my third book with this publisher. But they have an all-new staff . . . The two readers, so far, are Professors who want Doctoral Theses, not fluffy pop-culture biographies, which is what I write.
Now mind you, this latest report has a list of questions at the end which was actually very useful, and I will go over them carefully. But the first few pages: yikes! She complains because my biography of Vernon and Irene Castle seems to be, well, A BOOK ABOUT VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE. She says I don’t explain things that I actually explain well enough for anyone of tender intelligence to understand; she doesn’t seem to understand that this is a FIRST PRINTOUT and of course the book will have footnotes, citations and photos . . .
Now, I thrive on good editing and intelligent questioning–I beg for it, in fact, and it invariably improves my work. But WHY are these fools sent to plague me? “Who will rid me of this turbulent pest?” Do any of you other writers have to deal with this tsouris? I need a pill.
One of the nice things about my agent, she didn’t send me the bad news until she had good news. That meant I didn’t see the rejection letters sent by three publishers until after we had a contract with the fourth. But fiction is a different world.
The publisher I work for (scholarly press, mostly legal stuff) doesn’t do this either, though. The acquiring editor looks at it and decides whether to accept it and that’s that. I have sent back some pretty intensely tape-flagged galleys back to authors but nothing I’d call a “reader’s report.” (Although I do think some of the mss. are peer-reviewed before we get them, which sounds like a similar thing. The people who reviewed them then go on to write prefaces, forewords, etc.)
Hey! A book about Vernon & Irene Castle! I can’t wait!
Problem is, my publisher sends this manuscript out to (so far) a professor of the Dance and a Professor of the Rag-a-time Music. So they want their book, not mine. I write pop-culture fluff! Which I do not, mind you, mean as a slam. I like pop-culture fluff, and it’s all I know how to write!
What is driving me quite mad, in a nice way, is that they don’t even seem to be reading the manuscript! “She doesn’t describe how the Castles dance.” (Well, yes, I do, in several places). “She doesn’t tell us if Irene divorced her third husband.” (Umm, well, yes, I do). Etc., etc. The only thing I have found of use is the list of questions this second reader has, which I am very thankful for and will go back and do another edit.
The publisher has already told me they want to go ahead and do the book, so why are they sending it–not to an editor, which they damn well better do as well–but to a bunch of frustrated, non-published college professors who want to write their own book and not read mine?!
I empathize, while I’ve never had a reader per se I once had an editor who’s idea of editing was to share my stuff (presumably everyones) with about a million people, qualified or not. Then she’d get comments back from all of them and send them to me. I swear sometimes her dog was on that list.
Oh, and I know one woman a few years younger than me who’s a ‘reader’. She gets maybe $50 per book read and commented on. She’s a completely damaged person. Almost 40, never dated or even being socially active. She doesn’t hold jobs long. She doesn’t leave the house. But by God they keep sending her stuff to read and comment on.
So how does one get a job as a free-lance reader? I’m almost 50, not currently dating, have held my job for 10 years now, and leave the house as often as possible for as long as I can. I read obsessively and can make intelligent comments. I’m an English education major and a Journalism education minor, so red pencils are second nature to me. I culd use $50 for each book I read.
I write popular medical books. One of my early books got sent to an “expert” even though he was an expert on just part of the subject I was writing on. His notes were exactly as obtuse as the ones you’re getting. Why don’t you say this? (I do.) You leave that out. (I don’t.) This citation says you’re wrong. (Yes, but this other citation says I’m right and your citation isn’t about the same subject.)
Fortunately, I figured a way out of the whole mess. As long as I had a name with qualifications (like an M.D. or Ph.D.) on the cover and they vouched for my accuracy in an introduction to the book, I went through no review at all. No problem. I wrote the introduction, got an M.D. to sign his name and I was never troubled again. It didn’t matter that the M.D. never read the book until after it was printed (I gave the ms ahead of time, but expected no comments and got none) and in fact learned a few things from me. The publisher was in CYA mode and all was right with the world.
I don’t know if you could do the same with your books, but it might be worth a shot. Find a friendly Ph.D. who’ll sign an introduction stating that your book is the most postmodernistic redetermination of the analytical stylings of the premillennial performers involved and add it to the ms when you send it in. I’ll bet it goes down smooth.
Hey Eve – you need an editor with a PhD to vouch for you? Pick me! Pick me!
So the PhD is in sociology of religion – we can fudge that. I really am an editor, and I really am a fan of movie musicals.
I wish. This is my third book with this house, so I don’t know why they just can’t have, like, the acquisitions editor at the publisher read it, and if it’s OK, send it to an editor to edit it. Instead, I get Professor Backwards complaining that I haven’t written a Latin translation of Beowulf, which is what he’d really like to read.
As for “how to become a reader,” I guess it’s a case of “you need the experience before you can get the job, but the only way to get the experience is to have had the job.” You might send your creds to a publisher and hope for the best.
