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HELLO
In which I finally admit I’m a writer.
Hi, I’m Emma. I’m an editor working in genre fiction and I wrote a book and romance and horror.
Does this mean I’ve got insider secrets to share about publishing? I mean, not really. Publishing is a nebulous, sometimes frustrating, usually mercurial business. And I’m a small cog in the machine. But it took me a long, long time to finally cop to the fact that I am, in fact, a writer. And this seems like a place where I can talk about writing and editing and balancing all of these things precariously with the rest of my life. Maybe some of you will find a piece of this that resonates.
Really, the main reason I started this because I was recently at a writers’ conference. I was asked whether I have a newsletter, because I have a book coming out and I really love talking about publishing and genre and work and horror. And I said no, but sometimes I wish I did, because it’s difficult to distill all my many thoughts into small, social media-size posts. So here goes.
48 Hours in NYC
I went to New York for a couple of days this week, for work. I met with a bunch of agents, had dinner with colleagues, and showed one of the authors I’ve just started working with around the NY office (and found out that our in-person vibes are even better matched than I’d hoped). But …
Why I can’t stop buying books.
Yes, my TBR is out of control and I don’t have enough time to read everything I pick up. But there’s a reason I can’t stop. As some of you may know, in addition to writing I work in publishing as an editor at a Big 5. I sit in lots of meetings about sales, …
Why Reviews Are for Readers
I know, it’s old discourse. But seriously, reviews are for readers. A tale as old as time, or at least as old as the first author seeing a review of their book and spiraling (either publicly or privately—hopefully privately): “reviews are for readers.” As an editor, I field a lot of emails and messages from …
Some days are worse than others.
Publishing is a series of ups and downs. What do you do on the bad days? If you’ve been in publishing for a while, you know the feeling: the publishing rollercoaster of highs and lows. Today just happened to be one of the bad days in publishing. I’m an editor (and a writer), and the …
On what it means (to me) to participate.
Just got back from my second StokerCon. Someone said they felt like this year they actually participated, and I completely understand. I did similar things this year that I did last year: moderated a panel, took pitches, sat in on readings, met new people. But I did all of that last year mildly terrified the …
On being wrong about nonfiction
Obviously I’m terrible at this blogging thing, but maybe the looming release of my book in 6 months will light a tiny fire in me and I’ll get more consistent. We’ll see. Anyway, welcome back to my rambling. I do have a point and I will get to it, but it might be a while. …
Writing Tips that Aren’t About Writing.
Obviously, I spend a lot of my day reading. But yesterday I had the opportunity to do one of my favorite things as part of my job: talking to writers. I am a co-leader on one of our reading committees at work. We read a bunch of books that are submitted to the group and …
On line editing.
Look, I promise I won’t always comment on the discourse of the day. But I’ve been seeing a few comments recently on line edits and whether they even happen any more. They definitely do (at least for the books I work on)! While resources and people in publishing are definitely stretched thinner, that doesn’t mean …
On Submissions.
I was trying to get a little more organized with my new role and get on top of my submissions inbox. It might be helpful to see what things are like on the editor side of things. As an author it is easy to get frustrated and impatient while you await responses. I’ve totally been …
On first steps.
A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me if I could help them with a book publishing question. I think this business I work in is often very opaque, and I like to be able to demystify things when I can. It turned out to be kind of a big question: What do you do …
On letting go of a manuscript.
Editorial ramblings We had our Launch presentation at work this week. We show off all the new books for the season (Summer 2026 in this case) and get the team excited for the upcoming releases. It’s always a bit of a blur but the chaos is exhilarating, and it’s so wonderful to see these projects …
On the importance of finding your weirdos.
I got back from my first StokerCon yesterday. I was going for work reasons: I was moderating a panel on one of my favourite subjects, horror romance (or horrormance, if the marketing folks get their way), plus listening to pitches from authors who wanted to share their projects with me. An author I work with …
The Non-Writer’s Guide to Writing
Writing is part of my job, and I do it in one form or another most days. I still struggle with word choice and phrasing, and it takes a long time to craft even a small blog post. If you don’t write all the time, you may find writing social media posts and blogs even …
How to be a better reader in 2017
I spend a lot of time on this blog writing about becoming a better communicator. There are two things you can do that make a big difference in how well you communicate with others. One of them is writing more, and I mention this quite a bit. The other thing is reading more. Exposing yourself …
Am I Really a Writer?
I was reading a blog the other day about writing, and how to think of yourself as a writer. I realized that I don’t actually think of myself as a writer. If people ask me what I do for a living, I always say “I’m an editor.” Partly because this is a little easier than …
Five Ways to Stay Focused on Your Writing
If you’re anything like me, you know how hard it can be to stay on task. When you work for yourself, focusing can be difficult. I can easily get distracted and start doing something, anything, to avoid sitting down and typing up my thoughts. But when you need to get some writing done, be it …