Editors—some good, some bad
Usually the edits the editors ask for are necessary to make your book more marketable.
Recommendations [are] almost always beneficial.

…
First writers sometimes won’t finish a book because they revise too much.
Rosen doesn’t revise until whole book is written.
One author wrote draft; then rewrote the whole book from the beginning. That works for her.

Don’t get bogged down in the mechanics.

Revision:
Before revision, let it sit (longer than 2 months).
Work on something else.
…
Maybe move on to another idea (keep notes about things) but work on another topic.

Getting published:
Don’t write what is popular. Current trends change.
Write about what you want.

5 years from sending to publishing a book.
2 years from sending to publishing a short story.

Only thing that you have that is different is your voice.
The way you tell a story, that’s your voice.

…
Do you read during the writing process?
Early on, no.
Kathleen Cheney can’t read genre lit while writing because the editor stays on.
Muenzler—mostly read short stories when I’m writing novels. I am an avid reader. Read an hour or so each night.

…

Writing practice = creating stories in the style of X.

But don’t just follow/copy.
Don’t soak up indiscriminately.

Muenzler—stylistic issues. Will look at several authors who do that well and then work on it.

Rejection:
Rejection is just rejection.
We don’t remember rejections.

 

This is a continuation of linking to older notes I have out on the net. I have re-read them and find them useful. In this case, though, I took the ones I found most interesting and reposted them here. The original post is Editors: FenCon10 Notes. The panelists were published science fiction and/or fantasy authors.