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Posts by author and editor Peter Gelfan, who specializes in developmental editing, line editing, and author coaching for fiction and narrative nonfiction.

Evaluating Nonfiction: A Nonfiction Editor Shares His Perspective What can set your nonfiction manuscript up for success ... or doom it to the reject pile

[by Peter Gelfan]

Fiction lives or dies by the author’s storytelling and writing skills (and perseverance and some luck). For nonfiction, then, one might assume that likewise, an interesting topic well elucidated will do the job. However, the publishing industry and readers regard nonfiction a bit differently.

One reason to hire a nonfiction editor is to make sure […]

By |2024-01-23T19:19:56+00:00|The Editor’s Craft and Process|Comments Off on Evaluating Nonfiction: A Nonfiction Editor Shares His Perspective What can set your nonfiction manuscript up for success ... or doom it to the reject pile
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The Role of Mystery in Fiction An editor's take on the value of mystery in all genres of fiction

[by Peter Gelfan]

Unlike nonfiction, fiction’s motor doesn’t run on information, but on its opposite: mystery.

I’m not talking about mystery as a genre, but as the essential quality in all fiction that cultivates curiosity, stimulates the imagination, invites participation, and generally keeps readers reading. Every step of the reader’s journey should be fraught with questions, not only […]

By |2024-01-06T21:03:15+00:00|The Writer’s Craft|Comments Off on The Role of Mystery in Fiction An editor's take on the value of mystery in all genres of fiction
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Five Short Steps to the Reject Pile And five common mistakes to avoid if you want to land a literary agent

[by Peter Gelfan]

Oh, the dreaded reject pile

Often we like to imagine the (probably imaginary) good old days when editors searched for traces of gold in the rough ore of a first draft and worked with the writer to refine it. Recently, an editor at a major publisher offered a less romantic glimpse […]

By |2024-01-06T21:49:19+00:00|Getting Published|Comments Off on Five Short Steps to the Reject Pile And five common mistakes to avoid if you want to land a literary agent
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Authentic Voice Elements of Craft: One editor’s take on an author’s technique

 

Fiction readers are very demanding creatures.

They want their made-up stories to be as close to truth as possible—sort of like vegetarian meat. If they have to pick between two gritty detective novels, one by an ex-cop and the other by an MFA who has always lived in the nice part of town, you know which […]

By |2024-01-06T22:41:30+00:00|The Writer’s Craft|Comments Off on Authentic Voice Elements of Craft: One editor’s take on an author’s technique
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