Catching Up with Annie Seaton

Greetings!

Today, we have the fabulous Annie Seaton here with us. Annie is the author of Holiday Affair, which has been on the Amazon bestseller lists (both in the US and the UK!) for quite some time. She’s multitalented, having also written the excellent steampunk novel Winter of the Passion Flower and the paranormal page-turner Blind Lust.

Since retiring from teaching,  Annie has also worked as a freelance editor, and still does so when time allows. Many of her clients went ahead and got published. I was lucky to be one of them. J

Now, some questions I’ve always wanted to ask…

·         What are the most common mistakes romance writers make nowadays, craft-wise?

There are some errors that are quite common to many authors—both new and multi-published. I suppose the two that stand out for me are the use of the word ‘that’ as a filler word and the use of filtering.

Example 1: She opened the door that led to the garden.  Corrected to: She opened the door leading to the garden

Example 2:  The dog dropped the bone THAT his master had thrown.         

The second one I really am conscious of is filtering. That is, when the reader is pulled out of the head of the person whose eyes they are looking through by the use of words such as felt, made, watched.

 

Example 1. She felt the heat in her cheeks. 

Corrected: Her cheeks flared with heat.

Example 2: He watched as she crossed the room to him.

Corrected: Her hips swayed as she crossed the room to him

 

So removing filtering is removing the telling of how the person felt or what they saw, and shows what they are feeling or what they could see.

It is most often described as Show vs Tell and it is one of the most important things to watch when writing a great story.

 

·         How important is an editor for someone who’s self-publishing?

All I will say here it is one hundred percent essential!

·         Should you shut up your inner editor for the sake of getting words on the page?

LOL, Carmen. You have been reading my blog post on this.  (http://annieseaton.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/procrastination-inner-editors-getting.html) It really depends on the individual writer. Sometimes you can spend too much time polishing to the detriment of productivity and word count for the day.

·         Or should you listen to it and have less work later?

But, self reflection is a marvelous thing! Instead of giving up and bemoaning this constant nagging voice, take control and analyze the changes you do make when your inner editor won’t let go. What will you find?  Scenes will be stronger and the plot will tighten. Dialogue will improve. Reading back over your changes, hopefully you will see your inner editor has stepped in, in a timely fashion and saved you hours of editing at the end. So a good lesson. The more you write, the more savvy you become when dealing with that pesky inner editor.

 

·         Do you see any current trend on romance novels you’d like to share?

I watch the release of new romances with great interest and I read widely across many tropes. I can see both ends of the spectrum—the books where a billionaire falls in love with the heroine; and the sweet family books where the development of love and the use of secondary characters in warm family environments, rounds out the story. I love reading both!

·         You worked for an e-publisher. For all of us who haven’t, could you please guide us through the process of how editors acquire a book?

Books are sent to the acquiring editor personally or to the general address for the publisher. The editor generally reads the whole book and looks at the story, the consistency of the plot and the development of characters.  Is the story engaging?

Even if there are craft issues, if it is a great story it will be sent back with a request to revise certain issues and resubmit. If it is considered suitable for the publisher and the line, it will be recommended for contract.

·         Most of your clients have gotten published. What’s your secret?

Hmmm. That’s a hard one.

From the craft perspective, I would say it my love for reading over many years. I am  extremely conscious of grammar, punctuation and spelling and that  means I will always return a manuscript to the author post edits in a structurally perfect form. From a voice point of view, I am extremely conscious of keeping the author’s unique voice and not changing it. If readers want my voice, they will read Annie Seaton books. Voice is unique to every author and that is the key to a good editor. Keep the author’s voice!

 

Annie, thank you so much for stopping by and catching up! :)

My pleasure. I am always excited about taking on new editing clients. When they get the ‘call’, I am just as excited as they are. I have made friends all over the world through my editing including Carmen!

Connect with Annie:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

 

 

Days 3, 4 & 5 at the RT Booklovers Convention in Chicago

Since the last days were so hectic, I decided to write one blog post and highlight my favorite moments.

·        I enjoyed the Name that Vampire game. The room was filled with vampire-loving readers, and Entangled’s Lissa Kessler, Caridad Pineiro, and Laura Kaye were amongst the hosts. At the end, there were tons of prizes and I had to brace myself. For the first time in twenty-nine (okay, thirty!) years, I won something—a bouquet of autographed black flowers and a shirt that read World’s Biggest Vampire Fan. I felt like an imposter, but it looked cool so I’m happy! I guess I have to stop saying I never win anything in raffles.

·        A high-powered panel of accomplished authors, such as Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Louisa Edwards, and Jodi Thomas, delivered a great presentation titled Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary. It focused on contemporary romance, which I liked. They talked about how hard it is to make a good contemporary romance work without lots of external plots involving werewolves, vampires, serial killers, etc. Everything must come from the emotions, the inner conflicts that make us who we are. I really enjoyed Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ sense of humor and how she told us she likes to have male characters who act like typical males (not like women trapped in men’s bodies). I can’t wait to read The Great Escape, which comes out in July.

·        On a personal note, I met my senior editor for the first time on Day 3 and that was, well, kind of awesome.

·        Freelance editor Rie Langdon had everyone on their toes with her presentation on point of view (POV). She has over 25 years of experience in the field and said most publishers she works with are adamant about having only one POV per scene. To some extent, I agree. As a reader, I don’t like head-hopping. However, sometimes in the first chapter I’m okay with two POVs, as long as we see one, then the other. I feel this is when I most want to connect to the hero and heroine. A lot of the time, especially with short contemporary romance novels, they can’t disclose their motivations or goals to each other. The POV (or any foreshadowing) helps me to understand them and relate to them a bit more.

·        One thing I feel needs to improve for next year is tech support. Most of the time, there were no microphones or screens for Power Point presentations. Microphones, people! Even my three-year-old has one. I felt bad for people who sat at the back during very interesting workshops and missed out.

All in all, though, I had a great time. I can’t wait to go to next year’s convention in Kansas City :)