Spotlight Profile
April 2006
" Edit It " --
(I've had these words on my license plate ever since people began imitating Archie Bunker's "stifle it.")Chris Roerden began her publishing career more than 40 years ago, learning her editing skills as an understudy to talented and experienced New York manuscript editors and eventually working her way up to managing editor. She received her B.A. in English from the University of Maine-Portland, where she was subsequently hired as a writing instructor. After earning her M.A. in English, she began to mentor independent study writing students, which convinced her that writing could be most effectively taught through what she calls "one-on-one coaching and a gentle but instructive process of editing". In 1983, she started her own editing business and has since become one of the foremost freelance editors in the country. She initiated the first outreach program in publishing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and for 8 years led a series of evening classes on the book industry and how to use "market savvy" to become published. Similar classes were conducted at Alverno College and various writer's conferences, and she has spoken at publishers' conventions throughout the Midwest on streamlining the editorial process. From leading workshops to serving on the board of Mystery Writers of America's Southeast region, Chris has devoted her life to helping writers reach their goals and potential. She has edited more than 500 book manuscripts, written 50 plus articles, and has been included in the pages of Who's Who in American Women since 1991. Her most recent contribution to aspiring authors is a long-awaited book on self-editing called Don't murder Your Mystery: 24 Fiction-Writing Techniques to Save Your Manuscript From Turning Up D.O.A. You can learn more about Chris and information for ordering her books on her website, www.marketsavvybookediting.com.
IC: Can you tell us a little bit about your history and involvement with Sisters in Crime?
CR: I came across an item about Sisters in Crime in some print publication -- it might have been in the late eighties. I was excited by the mission of getting greater recognition for women mystery writers, and I joined right away. I wasn't part of a chapter, and maybe I missed seeing a renewal notice, because I lost track of SinC for a few years. At one of the Dark & Stormy Nights I attended in the early nineties, Carol Hauswald asked me to join the SinC chapter in Evanston. I was so glad to feel a chapter connection that when I moved from Milwaukee to Greensboro, NC, in 1999, I immediately joined the Tarheel Gumshoes chapter. But I held onto my Chicagoland membership, too, because I'd made many friends there. Two years later I became one of the founding members of the Murder We Write chapter in Greensboro/High Point. But I kept up my memberships in Chicagoland AND the Tarheel Gumshoes. Then I joined the Internet chapter and kept all four. Do you see a pattern here? Separation issues? Yet I get something different from each chapter, all of it very welcome.
IC: When you were in the sixth grade, you won first place in the P.S. 186 National Spelling Bee Trials. Do you think that might have been an indicator that you were destined to become an editor?
CR: Absolutely. But if you think I'm going to admit what word I misspelled when I represented my grade school at the next level . . . all I'll say is that a well-meaning girlfriend coached me the night before the Borough of Manhattan trials. She told me a "rule" I'd never heard until then: "I before E except after C." Because this "rule" was so new to me, I hadn't any opportunity to discover its exceptions. Spelling, for me, had always come from a near-photographic memory, not from rules. There were dozens of competitors from all over the city. Eventually, the field narrowed to two finalists, a big, athletic-looking high school senior, and a skinny 11-year-old wearing pigtails and glasses. Me. Back and forth we parried until I was given that word. I remember standing there arguing with myself, my right brain telling me to go with what I knew was the correct spelling--and my left intruding with that pesky "rule." The rule had to be right, didn't it? After all, it was a RULE. I'd like to say that my defeat became the definitive moment when I began questioning all rules, but I was contrary before then.
IC: You seem to have a history of bucking expectations. For example, your initial training was in commercial art and design. So how did you go from artist to freelance editor?
CR: The only career advice I ever got was "Go where the artists are." So at 16, right after high school graduation, I became a "mail girl" in a big corporation, and for a year I turned down every promotion until an opening came along in the department I'd set my sights on, public relations. At last I could be where the artists were. Well, I watched them whip out one finished piece after another, and I realized I could never work like that. I was a refiner, a reviser. My art career was over at 17. Meanwhile, every piece of paper in a 30-member PR department passed through my hands. This was way before email. And whenever I carried a press release, or the draft of a brochure, or whatever, to its next stop, I pointed out an improvement or two. Apparently, an employee who can read and write gets noticed--skills I'd assumed everyone had. I was on my way as an editor.
IC: Do you feel your background in design has affected your career as an editor in any way?
CR: Yes. I learned all about book production B.C.--before computers--which proved useful in providing consulting services to small start-up presses. I designed the interiors of six of the nonfiction titles I ghostwrote for clients; developed and designed a game; designed a few book covers, though covers are not my strength; and I illustrated Open Gate, a book I wrote about my teaching experiences in South Korea.
IC: Then, in 1983, you started your own editing business. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
CR: In 1983 I was managing editor for a niche publisher, working 60-plus hours a week but doing less and less hands-on editing. Both of my children were out of college then, so I quit my job, downsized to a smaller house, and started Edit It. My first assignments came from the women I'd met in the seventies when we volunteered to work for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Now they were corporate executives or owners of their own businesses. Word of mouth did the rest, and I've been happily self-supporting from the beginning -- including buying my own health insurance. Just before the Edit Ink scam became public, an agent I knew suggested I prevent confusion by changing my business name. Thus was born Market Savvy Book Editing--which reflects my belief that good editing involves knowing a book's market. Otherwise, editing is little more than proofreading. I still work 60 to 70 hours a week, but for my own clients. And though business books paid the bills for the early years, gradually I cut back on them so I could focus on more book-length mysteries.
IC: What do you like best about your editing work?
CR: Focusing on book-length mysteries. I like to immerse myself in one manuscript at a time and feel that I'm really getting to know each author's writing style. For a change of pace I enjoy meeting with groups of writers to share what I've learned about publishing after 40 years in the business.
IC: With such a long track record, you've obviously worked with a variety of clients over the years. What would your dream client be like?
CR: All my clients are dream clients now, a wonderful mix of talented writers who are witty, create interesting characters, aren't afraid to put an opinion in the mouth of a character, reserve editing time well in advance, never send me a manuscript reeking of cigarette smoke, and always give me a copy of the finished book to display on my office wall.
IC: How do you feel about the term "Book Doctor"? Do you feel it's an accurate description of what you do?
CR: I don't care for the term because it suggests that a manuscript is sick. More accurate terms for what I do are line editor, manuscript editor, and developmental editor.
IC: With thousands of editors to choose from, what can writers do to ensure a good choice?
CR: I wrote an article on this for Breaking and Entering, the SinC guide compiled by Denise Swanson. I recommend asking several candidates, especially if they are unknown, whether they'd be willing to provide a sample edit of, say, five or six pages. Give each the same pages. What you get back will be mostly what I call PUGS: punctuation, usage, grammar, spelling. But you can tell a lot by comparing what you don't get.
Recommendations from other clients are useful for learning about work habits, such as meeting deadlines, following directions, respecting your voice, and offering positive suggestions, but less useful for judging editorial expertise. However, some authors prefer not to "out" their manuscript editors, perhaps because it might suggest that the writer really needed the help, or because one's favorite editor might become too busy and not be available when needed. Fortunately, most manuscript editors are content to stay in the background.
IC: In addition to your editing business, you've taught writing classes and workshops for many years. What have you learned from teaching other writers?
CR: That writing can't be taught in a classroom. You can teach grammar, you can show what good writing is, but you can't teach a class to write. After three years of trying, I was hired by the State University of New York (SUNY) to mentor independent study students for their written course work. I discovered that working with each student one-on-one, as in an editorial meeting, led to a significant improvement in their writing ability. Instead of teaching writing, I prefer leading discussions on editing and getting published. For 8 years, that's what I taught after work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
IC: And now you have a new book about editing for mystery writers. It's called Don't Murder Your Mystery: 24 Fiction-Writing Techniques to Save Your Manuscript From Turning up D.O.A. Can you tell us a little bit about the book and how it came to be?
CR: I was driving home from a Tarheel Gumshoes meeting feeling frustrated that I hadn't presented certain points as clearly as I'd wanted to. So I decided to turn my workshop notes into a booklet called Self-Edit Your Mystery: A Dozen Deadly Clues. As I began writing it, I knew I had to double that number--which meant a full-length book. Don't Murder Your Mystery describes the submission and screening-out process and analyzes 24 ways that manuscripts trigger their own death. For each of these killers, I demonstrate numerous alternatives by reviewing examples of effective techniques used by many of today's mystery writers (and SinC members).
Originally I'd thought of the book for new writers, but the feedback I got by circulating early drafts enlightened me on two fronts. (1) Published writers who are asked at signings and in workshops "How do I become a writer?" said they'd welcome being able to reply by simply recommending Don't Murder (2) Experienced writers began telling me they'd learned a few techniques they hadn't already known.
IC: Sounds great! When will it be out and where can I get a copy?
CR: Its official launch is May 1, but it will be available in early April from my publisher, and in late April, I'll be signing copies at Malice Domestic.
IC: Books you've edited have won more than a dozen awards. Do you have any advice to help aspiring fiction or mystery writers reach that level of quality?
CR: Writers already know the value of outstanding characters, fresh voice, and so on. Less well-known are the clues that instantly reveal the amateur's voice. Even if your voice is still developing, at the very least you can learn to get rid of the techniques and unconscious writing habits that make your work sound unpolished, like that of the average writer.
IC: You've accumulated an impressive list of personal honors, including The Kate Mooney Volunteer Service Award, the Positive Action Award for Leadership, and Who's Who in American Women. Of your many honors, is there one you find especially gratifying? If so, which one and why?
CR: Spelling champ of P.S. 186? No, I'll be serious. Having a writer entrust a work-in-progress to me for scrutiny is itself an honor. And when an award goes to a writer whose growth I've been able to witness, and whose writing convinced me from page one that it was destined to succeed--as Deb Baker's Murder Passes the Buck did--that's what I find especially gratifying. When Deb won the Authorlink competition at the Harriette Austin Writers Conference for best mystery, and also for best-of-show over all categories, I was thrilled. When her agent showed the manuscript to Berkley, even though they didn't buy it, the quality of her writing was enough to have them offer her a three-book contract to develop another series for them. I felt so proud of her. Still do. Then Murder Passes the Buck brought a two-book contract from Midnight Ink. I was not surprised--which itself is gratifying. And the author does all the hard work!
IC: You're in the Spotlight. Is there anything you'd like to add?
CR: Only that the best editing is invisible, and that all edits are suggestions. Writers always, always have the ability to decide which suggestions to take.
(Addition made after the interview) My 10th book, just out, is titled Don't Murder Your Mystery. It will be at Malice, and so wil I -- signing at the SinC table Saturday 12-1 and Sunday at 1:30 in Salon F, G, or H. The rest of the time, follow the fortune cookies!
This interview was conducted for SinC-IC
by Elizabeth Terrell.
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