Top Editor Reveals Slush Pile Traps in Writing

Don’t Murder Your Mystery
Chris Roerden, 2006
Bella Rosa Books, 304 pages.

Between writing sessions, I read up on technique. Doesn’t matter if the book is helpful or not. Reading about writing reinforces the action as I work. The augmentation carries me through. Even if I’m reading a technique book that I don’t agree with, my mental debate with the instruction provided fuels my creative impulses. Learning and writing have always gone hand in hand for me. I literally know of no other way to work (yes, pun intended).

Habitually cogitating opinions of everything I read, my noggin surmised I might be of better service by posting my views for public consumption and discussion. What follows is the first of several book reviews to come. Please feel free to comment on this article or the book described. Post links to your favorite writing books, or feel free to take the discussion to the forums.

Over the weekend, I finished reading Chris Roerden’s Don’t Murder Your Mystery, a masterful instruction book on how to avoid common pitfalls in manuscript submission. Ms. Roerden is a highly accomplished author and editor with over 40 years experience in the publishing industry. Her impressive educational background includes graduation from the NYC High School of Music & Art, English BA summa cum laude and an MA with a focus on fiction technique. She is also a longtime member of Mensa. Her complete biography is featured at the end of the book.

Don’t Murder Your Mystery is slanted toward helping mystery writers avoid winding up in the slush pile. But I would argue that any writer from any genre could benefit from the advice contained in this book. The objective is to help working authors edit their manuscripts to avoid rejection by publishers. The topics are organized into roughly 30 chapters with appendices. Each chapter thoroughly covers a type of mistake made by first time authors. Such mistakes in submissions, Roerden contends, identify the author as amateurish and unready for publication. She deftly exposes common mistakes manuscript readers look for as grounds to eliminate a submission as swiftly as possible, motivated merely by reducing their own workload. Roerden cleverly identifies each mistake as a “crime”, complete with a “body of evidence,” keeping with the mystery theme.

The book begins with a brilliant quote, which I hope I can share here without ruffling any feathers in light of its accuracy and conferment regarding the true nature of the editor-author relationship:

“. . .(The copy editor’s) only aim is to make the author look as good as possible.”
-Clarkson Potter

Take it to heart, fellow writers, because it’s absolutely true. The editor(s) who read your stuff immediately understand you better than your own mother ever will. Arguing with a copy editor is the metaphoric equivalent of punching yourself in the nose hard enough to necessitate an ambulance.

Tags: Book Reviews, review, Writing