In this season of Thanks and Giving, I am so thankful for our wonderful Sisters in Crime chapter which has given all of us encouragement, support, and an empowering community on our writing journeys!
Although I loved being a workshop presenter and reader at the Louisville Literary Arts’ Block Festival, I was sad to miss our November meeting, which included another powerhouse presentation from Miki Reilly-Howe on Janet Burroway’s classic craft book, Writing Fiction.
Thanks to Susan Bell’s excellent recording skills, I got a chance to listen to the terrific talk by Catherine Luttinger, currently a freelance developmental editor who has also worked as a literary agent and an editor at a major publishing house. Miki Reilly-Howe, who has been working with Catherine on her own debut novel, asked her super questions, and we learned a lot.
Catherine clarified that a developmental editor offers deep and substantive feedback on a novel as a whole, working with story development, plot aspects, dialogue, and world building. A good developmental editor will work to help make the writer’s voice “the most powerful it can be” and point out places where an author is telling rather than showing, as well as over-explaining and not fully trusting “the readers’ creativity to fill in the blanks.”
Catherine loves her job and the “treasure hunting” involved and thoroughly enjoys helping a manuscript become great.
Whether an author plans to seek traditional publication or self-publish, she strongly advises enlisting the services of an editor. Even something as basic as spelling or formatting errors can be extremely distracting and torpedo a writer’s chances of publishing success. Catherine admits she herself finds it hard to focus on content when she encounters spelling errors. From a behavioral science perspective, Miki points out that writers have only a split second to make a positive impression.
The second part of Catherine’s talk dealt with literary agents. In recent years, literary agents have taken on more and more of the editorial process role and aim to make the manuscript the best it can be for submission. An agent is the writer’s advocate and will not only try to sell the book to a publisher but will review contracts and push for publicity and marketing for the author’s work. Agents take a 10-20 percent commission off of net sales.
While there are lots of agents out there, there are many fewer publishing houses because of consolidation. It’s vital for authors to do research to find agents that are a good fit for them. Research what they’re looking for and what books they’ve represented.
Authors need to nail their query letters and submission packets. With agents receiving thousands of queries, they’re looking for reasons to reject submissions.
It’s important to personalize query letters, and authors may even want to enlist the help of a freelance editor to polish their query letters, since first impressions are so important.
Miki pointed out something I think we all need to keep in mind, which is how important encouragement is. She noted that she might have abandoned her writing project had she not received Catherine’s positive feedback that she had a good story worth pursuing. Honest support and encouragement is such an important gift we can give one another.
I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of the good points Catherine made in her talk, and I encourage you to go to listen to the entire presentation!
Book Signing! I’m looking forward to December 3rd. Books make great holiday gifts, and from 1-3 PM at the Hurstbourne Barnes and Noble, seven chapter members, Susan Bell, Gloria Casale, Elaine Munsch, Jeanette Pope, Carol Preflatish, Lynda Rees, and Lynn Slaughter, will be signing their books.
Then, at 4 PM, we’ll have our annual holiday luncheon at Olive Garden on Hurstbourne in Louisville, where we’ll vote on nominees for the board and present the Volunteer of the Year Award to Elaine Munsch. If you do not plan to attend the holiday luncheon, please submit your votes for board positions to Lynn Slaughter, lynnslaugher03@gmail.com, prior to the December 3rd meeting.
Our nominees for 2023 are:
President: Elaine Munsch
Vice-president: Carol Preflatish
Secretary: Leanne Edelen
Treasurer: Patience Martin
Programs: Miki Reilly-Howe
Webmaster/Membership: Susan Bell
Publicist: We’re still looking!
Also: Elaine has sent out a questionnaire to chapter members about what kinds of programs, topics, and activities members would like to see the chapter get involved in.
Writing News
Carol Preflatish attended three conferences or festivals in the last month, Prime Crime in Indianapolis, Purrs in the City in Jeffersonville, and the Writer’s Block Festival in Sellersburg. She was joined at Prime Crime by Elaine Munsch and Lynda Rees.
Carol reports finding both Prime Crime and the Writer’s Block Festival “very educational and informative.” And at Purrs in the City, she sold the most books at one event since 2018! She was also interviewed for a magazine article about drinking tea to help with weight loss. The article in which she’s identified as a mystery writer will appear in the print issue of Woman’s World Magazine and will be on sale on or about December 8.
Lynn Slaughter participated in the Louisville Book Festival and the Kentucky Book Festival at the end of October and this month, presented a workshop on “Writing Young Adult Fiction 101” at the Louisville Literary Arts’ Block Festival, where she also did a reading from her latest YA novel, DEADLY SETUP. This month, she’s excited to begin teaching a creative writing class at the Louisville Academy of Fine Arts.
All for now. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you on December 3rd!