Editor Blogs that I follow and you should to

'Editor Girl' by Jimmie Robinson. Yes, editors are superheroes and they have their phrase.
~ 'By the Red Pen, we rise!'

It’s Sunday, which means it’s time to share my favorite blogs from my Google Reader. This week I’m on editing mode, so I decided to pick an editor’s blog to showcase. Turns out it was a harder task than I originally thought. Editors and agents are toughest to filter as they tackle pretty much the same areas. Agents talk about their work and their criteria, while editors talk about their field. The content is quite narrowed down thematically with more touching points. The deal with writers is that they talk not only about writing, editing and promotion, but about the genre they are in, fellow writers, their personal tale on the road to publication; basically add a certain autobiographical touch and a broad list of topics.

What all of the above BS means, is that I will probably repeat myself, when tackling agent or editor’s blogs. Therefore, I decided to group the three editor’s blogs that I almost religiously follow.

Behler Blog [run by editor Lynn Price]: It’s almost sacrilegious to me, if you don’t follow this blog. I admit that I’m blinded by Price’s humor. Lynn is hilarious. No point denying it. Also not denying that her tongue-in-cheek discussion – which switches to a serious, professional and spot-on advice – keeps me coming and coming. Thematically, Lynn discusses the editor’s side of the publishing, particularly a small press’ editor. More often than not, however, Lynn feels that certain etiquette should be taught to her writer audience and what she teaches makes sense. So one blog: not-holier-than-thou advice and awesome conversations between Lynn and her beagle [margaritas may or may not be involved].

Edittorrent [run by editing duo Theresa & Alicia]: I visit this blog, because Theresa and Alicia tackle the technical side, the actual editing that you expect an editor to do [because editors supposedly edit, but somehow there is this complex hierarchy in the publishing industry that confuses me as to which is responsible for what]. Many blogs discuss the business that propels the industry: contracts, etiquette, distribution, querying etc. Most cases advice and opinions wildly differ, until a writer loses the ghost of his sanity. Edittorrent provides an in-depth analytical look at establishing settings in different ways, narrative, passive and active voice, sentence craft, dialog [as in how to fill information in-between the character’s lines], signal words, appositives [yeah, I had to look that one up, too] and many more. It’s highly useful as they explain what you do anyway and how to become aware of how to control.

Editorial Anonymous [run by uh, Anonymous]: I’m going to specify that said blog is aimed at children book writers, so some of the content is geared towards them [useless to you]. However, that being said I enjoy this blog, because the editor has a personal touch. He/she does not write winding posts with too many points [that often confuse], instead rounds up several questions from his/her readers and answers them in a short and understandable manner. It’s a sort of “Dear Shirley” blog, but again useful because the main thing about the publishing industry is that no one gets there the same way. The specificity of the questions and how relative they are to you is what makes use to you. It becomes quite easy to browse the blog and find those gold nuggets you are looking for.