Editor, My Editor!

In my other life, I am an editor. Nothing so glamorous as mystery novels, I assure you—I’m a college textbook editor. I help authors craft the “story” of their book—or what will be the overall sales handle—help them lay out the organization, direct them toward what features to include and how to handle them, and give them gentle nudges towards completion of the manuscript along the way. I’m a cheerleader with a laptop and a knowledge of what sells in a particular market, say, like the book I’m working on now, the Introduction to Dinosaurs course. Not so different from what my editor does, with a difference: none of the authors with whom I work whine as much as I do.

On that we can rely, as the song goes.

My third novel, now called “Quick Study,” as opposed to “Book 3,” as it was known for most of last year, was due to my editor on December 31, 2007. As that date approached and I got wrapped up—literally—in the holiday hubbub, the ending of the novel got further and further away from my grasp. I have never missed a deadline. Never. So, I wrote, and I wrote, and I wrote. I wrote when the ham was in the oven on Christmas Eve, mere minutes before my loud, Irish, family descended on us. I wrote after a serious bout of the stomach flu the day after Christmas. (I won’t go into details. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t pretty. And the kids get really, really terrified when Mommy makes scary noises.) I wrote while my kids played with their new Wii, and my husband—on holiday break from teaching—lounged downstairs, the most well-deserved session of lounging that you could imagine. (More in a future blog on why I will never be a teacher.) I wrote while the dog stared at me for hours on end as if to say, “Aren’t you done with the dang thing yet?”

It was painful.

At this point, I think it’s relevant to say that I used to be disparaging towards parents who treated pink eye like the bubonic plague. Until I got pink eye and awoke one morning only to find that I couldn’t open my eyes. And I used to scoff at writers who pronounced our profession “hard.” Until I became a writer who had deadlines. And now I have had my comeuppance.

You know what? Writing is hard. But I finished and I hit “send” on New Year’s Eve. Because I MAKE MY DEADLINES, DARN IT!

You’d think I’d be relieved. Yet, with each passing day, dread gnaws at my insides. Because, in my haste to end the novel, the best I could come with was: “And then they all died. THE END.”

That’s not really the end, but it’s pretty darn close.

So, I await my editor’s wise words, her gentle coaching, her therapeutic massaging of what I think are maybe the best 300,000 words of the lot, and not so great 102, 943 words in a four-hundred page manuscript.

And more than once while I wait, I’ll think, “they’re really not paying her enough” something I hope some of my authors say about me as I plow through pages and pages of dissertation on anything from reading skills to paleobiology.

It’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

Maggie Barbieri

5 replies
  1. Anonymous
    Anonymous says:

    Well, I’ve never “blogged” before (is that even a word?)so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. I’m kind of insulted, though, that you mentioned your loud, Irish family and not a single word about your fascinating Irish-Italian side. I’m expecting some details in the near future. For starters, just for fun, next time we’re at Mom’s house, let’s count how many stilettos she has in her closet. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but she used to buy them uncontrollably in the past. I, on the other hand, have always been the practical one. Yea, you’ll find a few hidden in my closet but I only wear them when absolutely necessary. Maybe one of these days I’ll “come out of the closet.” Well, good luck with the blog and I know you will all enjoy reading whatever Maggie has to say. She’s one of the funniest people I know.

  2. Anonymous
    Anonymous says:

    Wow – Your other job as a textbook editor sounds really, really exciting. How does one get into such an interesting industry? And are you really working on an “Intro to Dinosaurs” course?

  3. Anonymous
    Anonymous says:

    I’ve read Maggie’s books and loved them both. And laughed – a lot. I bet she does wear stiletto heels. She’s sassy!

  4. Dru
    Dru says:

    I’ve read both Maggie books and I can’t wait for Quick Study.

    Congrats on the blog and I look forward to my daily readings.

  5. Anonymous
    Anonymous says:

    I really love this blog, I’m not really one to read blogs but this one is special to me :-). It’s really just laugh out loud funny just like your books which were fabulous(I can’t wait till the next one) I don’ think I’ve ever laughed so hard at a book before I started reading yours. And as for the Stiletto’s I don’t really wear them that often but when I do they just make me feel powerful and sexy lol…Keep of the good work “gang”

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