Zoe ,'Bushwhacked'
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
That's a killer example, Deb. The way I look at it, turning the messiness of actual speech into realistic dialogue is a bit like pruning a bush to achieve a "natural" shape. You remove the bits that are throwing the plant out of balance or sucking the vitality from it, but what you're left with is something that really does seem as if it could have just grown that way without any help.
Signed,
Wants to kill the yard guy who trimmed my viburnum so that it looks like a meatball.
Anne, exactly. That whole trim-natural growth analogy, that's just dead on.
A meatball? You mean, he tried to turn it into topiary?
Because topiary is Satan's Personal Handicraft.
Not so much topiary as buzzing it down with a hedge trimmer so that it looked like a green blob on a post. (still mildly bitter - got no beautiful viburnum berries last year as a result)
Yep, I agree, deb. But that's why I think it's very tricky to write dialogue. You have to have the skill to trim the viburnum, but not make it into a meatball.
I just found a great (albeit grim) overview of publishing finances from the publisher's point of view here: [link]
'suela, that's pretty scary.
Anna Louise includes a link to another article, written a few years ago, that covers much of the same ground here.
Looking at all this, provokes a me-me-me question on my part. What are the sales a first time non-fiction book has to make to be considered successful (i.e. at least somewhat profitable for the publisher.) Are they different for a small and large house?
Steph, Deb and Raq got my drabble. It's all about how smart women can't be part of the in crowd unless they're willing to hide how smart they are. The guy that said this to me? I've known him 10 years. We've been part of the same "crowd" the whole time. Still...
Gar, I'm-a sit back and wait for the answer to that one, same as you. Since all my non-fiction has been reviews and crit (yes, I know, but I take them out occasionally to remind myself why I don't write tht stuff anymore, seeing as how I SUCK at it), I've never had to approach a publisher with a proposal. I'm as curious as you are.
I would guess, though, that yes, the reqs and whatnot would be different between large and small houses - they certainly are in fiction.