I was so sad to hear that Les Pockell, the former associate publisher and vice president at Grand Central Publishing, passed away on Monday.

I wasn’t sure what to make of Les when I first met him. He was enthusiastic and expressive and I was a scared baby editorial assistant – even now, I’m not a big fan of people touching me that I’m not related to by blood.

But everything changed when my boss, legendary Mysterious Press editor Sara Ann Freed, passed away. I was an editorial assistant without an editor to assistant, and Les became one of my biggest advocates. He watched over me when I had to pack up Sara Ann’s office. And when all of her authors slowly but surely decided they wanted me as their new editor, he was as excited for me as I was.

Mysterious Press became me, Les, and publicist Susan Richman. We’d have weekly meetings in his office that were as much about fun as they were about business. I was thrilled to discover how much of a mystery fan he really was, and he became one of the first readers for any project that I wanted to buy.

Sara Ann gave me the tools for becoming the editor that I am today, but Les was the one that watched over me while I implemented them. He was an amazing mentor and I know there are many other editors who feel this exact same way.

In no particular order…

1) Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume

I think I read this book weekly in junior high. Sally was so real to me and – as a shy kid, I needed all the additional friends I could get. She found herself while visiting her grandmother in Florida, and I think she helped me find myself too. I had that book memorized, and even now images from it come to me unbidden.

2) The Fourth Wall by Beth Saulnier

I picked this up on a take shelf while working at Warner Books in 2002. I enjoyed reading it so much that I rushed to ask legendary editor Sara Ann Freed what else the author was up to. That put me on Sara Ann’s radar, and eventually led her to ask me to become her editorial assistant. I don’t know where my copy of that book is, but I can clearly remember sitting with Sara Ann and the author in her office talking about ideas for her next book. And everything I learned from that conversation and from the dozens with Sara Ann after that led me to become the mystery editor I am today.

3) The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

I read all of the books in the Harry Bosch series once before, but I decided to reread them once I moved to Los Angeles. I was totally lost in a strange city I didn’t really want to be in, and Harry kind of showed me the way. Rereading all of the books in the series slowly but surely over my first year saved me. I felt like I had a friend that had treaded these steps before. And maybe most people would have been disturbed that suspects and bodies kept showing up on the exact street in West Hollywood that they lived on, but it made it feel like home to me. I’ve added some of Harry’s favorite restaurants to my own list of favorites in the city that I’m now completely settled in, and I know I can always turn to Harry if I feel lost.

I’m sure there are many more, but these stand out at the moment. I’ve had a book going pretty much every single day that I can remember and – like songs for other people – they form the soundtrack of my life.

Please note,  I’m not counting any of the books I’ve worked on as an editor. I hope it goes without saying that every single one of those has changed me in one way or another.

Below is an excerpt from an email I sent this morning to a potential client who was feeling discouraged about rejections she has been receiving. As sometimes you just need a little encouragement, I’m happy to share it with anyone who has been receiving vague rejections and wondering if they should just give up….

Fiction is so subjective – it is really like falling in love – and I am sure there are many critically acclaimed novels that you yourself couldn’t get into. The worry is when you start wracking up a lot of these vague but nicely worded rejections. You can only submit to an agent once, and you don’t want to lose all your top choices if there really is something in your manuscript that needs to be fixed. The other thing is – agents and editors just don’t have a lot of time these days to dedicate to a first novel that needs extra help. When they used to have time to take on a novel that was only 50% there, now they might be looking for closer to 85% – which is really hard for a first time novelist to accomplish on their own. You’re not going to be able to see any problems yourself because you’re just too close to your words. And so that’s when you might need to call in professional help – a good developmental editor will give you a letter that essentially serves as a flashlight, lighting up the cave of your manuscript that you might be lost in.

Don’t let these rejections make you think you’ll never be published. James Lee Burke’s first novel was rejected over 100 times. You just need to find the agent who sees your work like you do – and if you start to feel discouraged or want a second pair of eyes to look things over, that’s when you should call in professional help.

This is the first year in a very long time that I didn’t pull out a long dress to attend the Edgar Awards with all my publishing colleagues. And there’s something really hard about knowing it is happening while I am all the way on the other side of the country.

Full disclosure: I knew when I was attending last year that it would probably be my last Edgars for a bit, at least as an in-house editor. So I tried to view it through that veil and take in everything, storing up enough memories to try and make myself ready to say goodbye.  And for awhile – in the excitement of moving across country and starting a new life out here – I really didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

I loved attending the Edgars. Not everyone in-house feels this way – it was sometimes a struggle to even find enough bodies to fill our table – but that’s nothing against the mystery world. It’s just hard to find people willing to attend a black tie event on a Thursday night that often runs past midnight, when they already worked a full day and had to do it again the next day.

But I was always thrilled to know I had a seat. I took full advantage of every Edgar week activity that was offered, filling my schedule with lunch and drinks dates with agents and authors that came to town, attending the MWA agent / editor cocktail party the night before the Edgars, and basically living it up to the full extent that I could. The Edgars are the closest thing the mystery world has to the Oscars, and I was always so honored to be part of that world.

I definitely am enjoying my life as an independent book editor out here in all the sunshine, but there are some things LA just doesn’t have. I’m going to have to make sure I’m back in NYC next year..until then, I’ll be glued to my computer reading all the updates.

Here’s a snapshot of my current reading pile:

As you can see, it is a mixture of books I bought and books from the library, along with a copy of the latest In Style. I’m currently reading Echo Park with plans to dive into The Spellmans next. Julie Bauxbaum’s first book, The Opposite of Love, was one of my favorite books last year so I am saving her next one, After You, for a rainy day.

I also have a pile of manuscripts that I am working on, but those aren’t such pretty colors.

I’m an editor, but I’m also a reader and a fan.

The reason I was approached for my very first job in the mystery field – to become the editorial assistant of legendary Mysterious Press editor Sara Ann Freed – was because I would read every book the imprint published and try to get her to talk to me about them. Instead of calling the police, she gave me a job.

Working with books is a dream come true for me. After the husband and my pug (I guess family and friends fall in there too), books are my one true love.

This all leads up to the fact that I was a ball of excitement when I went to see Jonathan Kellerman signing books at Barnes and Noble last night. My mom giving me a copy of When The Bough Breaks in 8th grade changed my life. I never looked back, moving on to Sue Grafton, Nelson Demille, James Patterson, and Tami Hoag. Those were the books we had around the house and – before I discovered the “adult section” of the library – were how I pretty much spent every waking minute that I wasn’t at school, sleeping, or hanging out with friends.

Seeing Jonathan Kellerman last night was a huge moment for the beginning mystery fan I once was. One author said he thought I’d be jaded after working in the business for so long, but if I ever do become jaded, that’s when I’ll know it’s time to go.

Until then, I’ll hang on to every amazing moment I can find…the best one being when I introduced myself to Harlan Coben at a mystery event and he said, “Kristen Weber, I’ve heard about you.” I manged to reply back that I had heard about him too…and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of interactions like that.

I was just (well, not just – somehow the month of March has flown by!) on a panel at Left Coast Crime with a couple of agents and a bookseller. One of the questions we were asked was how we all decide what to read.

First of all, I am an avid – almost obsessed – reader. And I am super fast. In fact, when I was in school the other kids would always choose me to read aloud as I could do it quickly and coherently. With that being my best skill, it’s no wonder I ended up as an editor. I have much more free time to read now that I am freelancing – even being “fast”, as an in-house editor most of your editing / reading is done after you get home from work or on the weekends – and I’ve found myself reading one or two books a week in addition to the manuscripts that I work on. During a slower weekend, I can probably completely read four books.

So how do I find the books that I read? When I was an in-house editor, I depended upon the recommendations of other editors and agents. Many of these were for projects that they worked on, and often resulted in free copies! While, I still get “care packages” of books from editor and agent friends in NYC – and that’s a great way to discover new authors –  as a “civilian”, I am now doing my research much more naturally.

I do have a list of authors that I track. When their new books come out, I am the first on line to buy them. I haven’t found a great way to do this – I usually just check web sites a few times a year and note any pub dates in my calendar – and am always looking for a new system that would make this even easier.

I also browse bookstores. I’m lucky enough to have ended up living near The Mystery Bookstore in Westwood, and I go there at least three or four times a month just to see what’s new. When I enter a bookstore, I usually know what I want. I’ve read reviews and made a list or received recommendations from friends. But I can also be swayed by a new discovery – and to buy a book  I know nothing about, I am drawn in by the cover, I read the flap copy, and a chapter or two, and – this comes from my experience in book publishing – I study who published it, edited it, and represented it. I usually at the very least know something about the agent’s taste, and that will help me decide if I want to read it. That’s almost exclusively for hardcovers though. I will pretty much buy anything in paperback if it catches my fancy. I just love stocking up on books.

And for anything outside of the crime genre, I check the bestseller lists, track down anything that I noted of interest on Publishers Marketplace or from Publishers Weekly, read reviews, and seek recommendations from friends.

I’d love to know how you find the books you read, and what makes you decide to put down the $25 or so to buy a hardcover. And, if you have any book suggestions, I’ll always take those as well!

The Left Coast Crime Mystery Convention (http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2010/) is happening this weekend! I’m so excited, especially because it is happening less than 10 minutes from my apartment. I’ll be speaking on a panel on Saturday at 1:30 (Agents & Editors & Bookstores: They Can Make or Break Your Career) so please stop by if you can.

When I was an editor in-house, my authors were always asking whether it was worth going to one conference or another. There’s really no right answer to that as it really comes down to your own personal budget and writing schedule but here are my thoughts.

For any authors writing in the crime genre, I personally think Boucheron and Malice are pretty amazing, although if your books don’t steer terribly cozy you can probably skip Malice. I always found both of these conventions kind of awe-inspiring. Attending one would send me back to my desk at Mysterious Press or NAL with excitement that could sometimes get lost in the day to day of too much work and reading and only so many hours to get it all done. I highly recommend all authors and inspiring authors try to hit Bouchercon or Malice at least once.

The one thing about those two conventions, though, is that you’re not going to sell a large number of books unless you already are very well known as an author, or are on a panel and really act as your own salesperson. Those conventions are really fan conventions and are a chance to immerse yourself in the mystery world, to network, and to learn more about the genre. If you’re an aspiring author, I’m also not sure you’re going to have much luck finding an agent or editor at Malice or Bouchercon. It has happened, but most agents or editors are very busy with their current clients and don’t have the time to solicit new ones.

If you’re looking to have more of an impact as a newly published author, I’d look to smaller conventions like Left Coast Crime or Sleuthfest or more regional conferences hosted by the local chapters of Mystery Writers of America or Sisters in Crime. If you’re an aspiring mystery author, you can’t beat the Mystery Writers Conference hosted by Book Passage, the amazing bookstore in San Francisco.

There are a ton of other great conferences run all over the country. But even one with a great reputation can be hit or miss – it all comes down to the caliber of agents, editors, and other authors that are attending. So it is important to look over the list and make sure the people attending are really people you want to meet and spend (a lot) of time with.

This is just one former editor’s opinion…I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks.

I am a developmental editor, which means I focus more on the overall content of a novel rather than the more technical details of punctuation and grammar. Those technical details fall under the domain of a copyeditor, and I am happy to share a perspective on the world of copyediting from Christine Cuccio Radlmann, a freelance copyeditor and former senior copyeditor at Hachette Book Group:

I like to compare a copyeditor to a housekeeper. The piece of writing is the house designed and built by the author with a lot of input by the editor (whose role on said house can be anything from contractor to project manager to interior decorator, and so on). The housekeeper is paid to clean the house first and foremost! In our figurative house, that means cleaning up all the errors–and I do mean true typos, misspellings, gross factual or logical errors, obvious problems with consistency, etc. It sounds simple, yet so many of the freelance copyeditors I’ve worked with seem to overlook the core of the job–finding the mistakes–and instead try to act like editors.

Say you hire a new housekeeper to clean your custom-designed house, but she does a mediocre job cleaning (she skips the blinds–apparently that’s just beneath her) and instead leaves you a lengthy list of ways to rearrange the furniture in the house and provide psychotherapy for its inhabitants. Heck, she even does a little rearranging without asking your permission! Some of her ideas might be spot-on, but that ain’t what you’re paying her for. You end up resenting her for questioning your talent when all you asked for was a shiny kitchen floor.

A good copyeditor will save your behind by finding ten times more errors in your manuscript than spell check could ever dream of; she will make your manuscript read the way you intended: smooth and free of mistakes that would trip up a reader. Only if a copyeditor can achieve that level of perfection should she feel confident to offer suggestions of the broader editorial type (plot changes, character tweaks, etc.).

Back to my metaphor–when a homeowner finds a housekeeper who is damn good at cleaning and is equally reliable and consistent, she’ll never let her go (and will be hesitant to share her!), and she’ll welcome that housekeeper’s ideas on how to improve the house–indeed, she’ll solicit them. So it goes with copyediting.

I have had the pleasure (curse?) of copyediting a mega-selling fiction series. The author went through several different editors in the life of the series but requested little old me as the copyeditor on every book. By the last novel in the series I was being asked to rewrite lines because the author had come to trust my editorial judgment so completely. But I never lost sight of the fact that my primary job was to clean house.

In order to be a successful copyeditor, you must have a keen eye for finding mistakes (to the point where they jump out at you on a page before you’ve read the words); but equally important is that you ENJOY finding the mistakes. Misplaced commas, dangling participles, and the like should turn you on, otherwise you’ll glance over them continually.

I always tell my trainees: you have to read a project not “word for word” but “character by character”–and by that I mean read every single letter, piece of punctuation, space break, and coffee stain in that darn manuscript. That’s why a copyeditor should read the manuscript more than once during the copyediting stage: once to get the gist, a second time to look at every character on the page, and a third time if her employer is paying her what she’s worth.

While it may feel like you’ve been revising your manuscript “forever”, it is important to realize that is only one step in what will hopefully be a very long writing career.

I hear from so many authors that are in a rush. They are almost tired of their manuscript and just want to send it out and see what happens. But once it is out there, you can’t take it back. If an agent rejects your project, they’re not going to want to hear from you again because you realized you submitted your manuscript too early and it really wasn’t ready for any professional eyes.

It is so important to look at your career not as a sprint but as a marathon – and take your time to do the best job possible with every step along the way. You should treat your writing as a true “business” because ideally that is what it is going to turn into.

Plus, nothing in publishing moves very fast. Once you find an agent and then an editor, it still will take at least a year – if not more – for your book to end up on a book shelf. So already feeling so impatient before anything has even really started doesn’t bode well for your career.

If you really are tired of your manuscript and just can’t face it anymore, I suggest putting it away for a month and then coming back to it with fresh eyes. It is amazing the kind of things you pick up once you’ve been away from something for awhile. And if you come back to your manuscript and realize that you’re actually very happy with it and just can’t think of one thing more to make it even better, that’s the time to start sending it out. And, since everything in publishing does take so long, once you start submitting that project you can hopefully distract yourself from all the responses you’re waiting for by burying yourself in your next manuscript.