edwardseymour

[edwardseymour]

Saw a fun little conversation on Threads but I don't have a Threads account, so I couldn't reply directly, but I sure can talk about it here!

I've been wanting to get into this for awhile, so here we go! First and foremost, I wanna say that "Emmaskies" here is really hitting the nail on the head despite having "no insider info". I don't want this post to be read as me shitting on trad pub editors or authors because that is fundamentally not what's happening.

Second, I want to say that this reply from Aaron Aceves is also spot on:

There are a lot of reviewers who think "I didn't enjoy this" means "no one edited this because if someone edited it, they would have made it something I like". As I talk about nonstop on this account, that is not a legitimate critique. However, as Aaron also mentions, rushed books are a thing that also happens.

As an author with 2 trad pub novels and 2 trad pub anthologies (all with HarperCollins, the 2nd largest trad publisher in the country), let me tell you that if you think books seem less edited lately, you are not making that up! It's true! Obviously, there are still a sizeable number of books that are being edited well, but something I was talking about before is that you can't really know that from picking it up. Unlike where you can generally tell an indie book will be poorly edited if the cover art is unprofessional or there are typoes all over the cover copy, trad is broken up into different departments, so even if editorial was too overworked to get a decent edit letter churned out, that doesn't mean marketing will be weak.

One person said that some publishers put more money into marketing than editorial and that's why this is happening, but I fundamentally disagree because many of these books that are getting rushed out are not getting a whole lot by way of marketing either! And I will say that I think most authors are afraid to admit if their book was rushed out or poorly edited because they don't want to sabotage their books, but guess what? I'm fucking shameless. Café Con Lychee was a rush job! That book was poorly edited! And it shows! Where Meet Cute Diary got 3 drafts from me and my beta readers, another 2 drafts with me and my agent, and then another 2 drafts with me and my editor, Café Con Lychee got a *single* concrete edit round with my editor after I turned in what was essentially a first draft. I had *three weeks* to rewrite the book before we went to copy edits. And the thing is, this wasn't my fault. I knew the book needed more work, but I wasn't allowed more time with it. My editor was so overworked, she was emailing me my edit letter at 1am. The publisher didn't care if the book was good, and then they were upset that its sales weren't as high at MCD's, but bffr. A book that doesn't live up to its potential is not going to sell at the same rate as one that does!

And this may sound like a fluke, but it's not. I'm not naming names because this is a deeply personal thing to share, but I have heard from *many* authors who were not happy with their second books. Not because they didn't love the story but because they felt so rushed either with their initial drafts or their edits that they didn't feel like it lived up to their potential. I also know of authors who demanded extra time because they knew their books weren't there yet only to face big backlash from their publisher or agent.

I literally cannot stress to you enough that publisher's *do not give a fuck* about how good their products are. If they can trick you into buying a poorly edited book with an AI cover that they undercut the author for, that is *better* than wasting time and money paying authors and editors to put together a quality product. And that's before we get into the blatant abuse that happens at these publishers and why there have been mass exoduses from Big 5 publishers lately.

There's also a problem where publishers do not value their experienced staff. They're laying off so many skilled, dedicated, long-term committed editors like their work never meant anything. And as someone who did freelance sensitivity reading for the Big 5, I can tell you that the way they treat freelancers is *also* abysmal. I was almost always given half the time I asked for and paid at less than *half* of my general going rate. Authors publishing out of their own pockets could afford my rate, but apparently multi-billion dollar corporations couldn't. Copy edits and proofreads are often handled by freelancers, meaning these are people who aren't familiar with the author's voice and often give feedback that doesn't account for that, plus they're not people who are gonna be as invested in the book, even before the bad payment and ridiculous timelines.

So, anyway, 1. go easy on authors and editors when you can. Most of us have 0 say in being in this position and authors who are in breech of their contract by refusing to turn in a book on time can face major legal and financial ramifications. 2. Know that this isn't in your head. If you disagree with the choices a book makes, that's probably just a disagreement, but if you feel like it had so much potential but just *didn't reach it*, that's likely because the author didn't have time to revise it or the editor didn't have time to give the sort of thorough edits it needed. 3. READ INDIE!!! Find the indie authors putting in the work the Big 5's won't do and support them! Stop counting on exploitative mega-corporations to do work they have no intention of doing.

Finally, to all my readers who read Café Con Lychee and loved it, thank you. I love y'all, and I appreciate y'all, and I really wish I'd been given the chance to give y'all the book you deserved. I hope I can make it up to you in 2025.

[edwardseymour]

Stop making me have earthly desires

pretending this ask was sent to me by a lithe and pathetic young catholic priest with sad eyes who's never felt this way before and is also tired and shaking and sweating and miserable

[edwardseymour]

not blogs i respected doing xmas shoutouts to zionists .. oohhhhhh throw 2024 away

[edwardseymour]

Detail of a page from the Book of Hours that belonged to Juana of Castile, showing an image of the Queen kneeling in prayer.

[edwardseymour]

— Head of Elabagalus, restored as a woman, Ripon, Newby Hall 20, front. (Forschungsarchiv fir Antike Plastik, Universitat zu K6ln, neg. no. 1302/5) / Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture, Eric R. Varner (Brill, 2004)

[edwardseymour]

btw getting your cleavage out and playing up this fake posh sultry persona to promote your gimmicky book in the same post as you claim to criticise a ripperologist for conning the public with false information to sensationalise the brutal murder of (at least) six women just to sell a book rather defeats your point

bad news for the hack ‘historian’ grifter who blocked me on insta bc i kept commenting citations that debunked her sensationalist false claims about history … bc i just found her ass on tiktok

[edwardseymour]

why is this mangione official court sketch kind of giving tumblr fandom check my carrd before interacting

[edwardseymour]

Fragment of an ancient Greek Attic white ground kylix showing a Thracian woman with tattooed arms. Pistoxenos Painter, 470-460 BC.

[edwardseymour]

obsessed with this exchange

[edwardseymour]

Gender Nonconforming Jesus: A look at art history. CW: religion, transphobia, artistic nudity, depictions of open wounds (Long post)

[edwardseymour]

popular tudor history is just a revolving door of people selling out any kind of academic integrity for the chance to peddle some more snake oil

[edwardseymour]

Blackout Poem Made of Disability Benefits Applications and Denial Letters:

[Image ID: A blackout poem. The edges of the black are straight and rectilinear. I will indicate breaks in the line using the slash symbol /. Some of the excerpts include boxes where you could draw a check mark. I will indicate these by writing (box). The poem goes

Answer every question. / Please tell us if you want us to return them to you. / Select the heaviest weight lifted. / Using fingers to touch, / (Box) One hand (Box) Both hands / Using hands to seize, (Box) One hand (Box) Both hands / reduction / refusal / Termination / Penalty / You can give us more facts to add to your file. / You do not meet with the person who decides your case. / Notice of Decision — Unfavorable / Disabled worker’s name / Date given when disability began / Date of death. /end ID] 

The final three lines are from denial of benefits paperwork for workers who died before the end of the mandatory five month waiting period. How many of those deaths are connected to poverty? I don't know, but I can guess.

[edwardseymour]

blah blah blah i don't give a fuck about catherine of aragon actually and i don't give a single solitary shit about jane seymour revering her memory. the idea that she admired - even liked - anne boleyn, and obsessively sought to replace her because being her was the closest she could ever get to being with her, because it's the only way she might compartmentalise the complicated feelings she might have for her........ i think that's a lot sexier, actually. a lot more compelling.

[edwardseymour]

Glennon Doyle, Untamed

[edwardseymour]

don’t even tell ‘em that you know me / i would rather burn forever

but you should know that i died slow / running through the halls of your haunted home

and the toughest part is that we both know / what happened to you

— merry christmas, please don't call

[edwardseymour]

'protestantism wouldn't have reached england without henry viii, england was isolated by being an island'

[edwardseymour]

bad news for the hack ‘historian’ grifter who blocked me on insta bc i kept commenting citations that debunked her sensationalist false claims about history … bc i just found her ass on tiktok