Andy Unedited – Page 34 – Exploring Books, Life, and Writing

The Future of Editing 1: Everyone Needs an Editor

Jim Sire, my predecessor at IVP as editorial director, loved to tell the story of a book review he had drafted. He showed it to Paul to look over before he sent it off to a journal.

Paul told him, “Here you say the book has merit but wasn’t evocative enough. What you actually write, however, is, ‘The book isn’t suggestive enough.’ That actually has a very different meaning than the one I think you intend! I doubt you mean that the book fails to contain adequate sexual innuendo.”
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Books That Can Change Lives

On November 3, I was honored at the annual InterVarsity Fall Leadership Meetings in recognition of my 42 years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and my upcoming retirement in February. About seventy key people from across the country in InterVarsity attended. After hearing some generous comments from Interim President Jim Lundgren and IVP Publisher Bob Fryling, they let me offer a few words. Here is what I said.

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Getting a Job in Publishing

A college senior told a friend of mine, “I think I’d like to work in publishing.”

So the friend asked me, “Do you have any suggestions I could offer her?” Here’s what I said.
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Lighting a Candle Instead of Cursing the Lack of Reading

Once again another survey has emerged noting the decline of book reading among Americans across all formats–print, digital or audio. The new Pew Research Center Survey confirms a long-term trend. As more forms of entertainment arise and as education levels decline, reading goes down.
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Questions Academic Authors Should Ask (4)

Here are two final questions in my series (see here and here and here) of questions that scholars should be asking about publishing.

What about self-publishing?

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Questions Academic Authors Should Ask (3)

I’ve been writing (here and here) about questions scholars should be asking about publishing, but often aren’t. Here are a few more.

What about academics writing for a general readership?
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Questions Academic Authors Should Ask (2)

In my last post I offered a few questions academic authors should be asking before they start thinking about a manuscript. Here are some more.

Aren’t simultaneous submissions taboo?
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Questions Academic Authors Should Ask (1)

Sometimes academic authors come to me as an editor with questions about book publishing. Too often they do not. They simply have their proposed manuscript to present. As a result, they sometimes make missteps on the road to publication. As we approach the season of academic conferences where I will be meeting dozens of prospective authors, here are some questions they should be asking.
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An Un-Business Book

Leadership and Self-Deception is one of the most unusual business books I’ve ever read. It’s a parable or fictional story, but that’s not what made it different. A number of business books have taken that approach in recent years.

What surprised me was that I found nothing in this book about strategy, tactics, mission statements, creativity, disintermediation, Hedgehogs, BHAGs or getting the right people on the bus. It didn’t talk about innovation or being customer focused or how we live in a totally new normal.
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A Sci-Fi Homage to The Canterbury Tales

Dan Simmons pays homage to The Canterbury Tales in Hyperion, his sweeping science fiction classic, by tracing a group of pilgrims who journey to confront the mysterious and godlike entity known as the Shrike. As they travel each one tells his or her tale of why they are compelled to go on this dangerous journey. We even find these long short stories or novellas entitled “The Priest’s Tale,” “The Poet’s Tale,” “The Soldier’s Tale” and so on.
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