Yo people. So I’m just a casual(ish?) nerd here. Feel free to shoot me an ask or dm me! I'll always try and keep it open. My Wattpad is @ballet0125 or demigodwitchdw. Feel free to check it out! I will also take writing requests/commissions. DM me!

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Things To Consider When Writing About Royalty

Things to Consider When Writing About Royalty

How is the throne inherited? How strict are the traditions concerning transfers of power? How is the order of succession determined? Can commoners become royalty?

How are heirs trained?

How much, if at all, are marriages for power/political ties favored over marriages for love? How common are arranged marriages

What are the biggest threats to their position?

How good is there relationship with their subjects? 

What is their preferred method of interacting with their subjects? Do they prefer to interact with them directly or indirectly?

How long has the monarchy been in power? How did it originally gain that power?

What special etiquette is required when dealing with royalty? How strict is it?

How are princes and/or princesses that aren’t first in line for the throne handled? Are they given special responsibilities in the hopes of discouraging resentment?

How do they deal with assassination attempts?

How do they spend their wealth? Why do they prioritize certain aspects of their kingdom’s well being over others?

Would they rather inspire love or fear in their subjects?

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What happens after you get accepted by a publisher?

As some of you may know, I’m a professional editor who used to work as an in-house editor. I see many posts about how to query and stuff, but very little describing what happens after you sign the contract. Of course, this varies between publishing houses, but I’ve worked as an in-house editor in three publishing houses, and I will relate my experience with them.

I’m your primary contact person. I will send you the contract, signed by the publisher (my boss), and answer any questions you have before signing it and sending it back to me.

Then you probably won’t hear from me for a few weeks. I’m thoroughly reading through your manuscript, and usually simultaneously a few others as well. When I’m done, I will get back at you, to let you know if there’s any rewriting work to be done on your book. There usually is. In fact, over the years, I’ve only had one author whose book could be sent to the text editor straight away. So don’t take it as a bad sign.

Major rewritings can also happen before you sign your contract. This means we see your potential, and it’s big enough for me to invest my time in you (my salary costs money too), but you have to prove that you can rewrite it. See my other post on “What if your publisher asks for a complete rewrite” and some nuance and other nuance for more information on, well, complete rewrites.

I will never put you to work without helping you, and you can always call or email me if you’re stuck or if you don’t know what I want. In fact, I’d rather have you contact me than you trying to hide the fact that you will most probably miss your deadline.

After the rewrites have been done, what happens then? In the bigger publishing houses I worked at, a freelance editor corrects your grammar and spelling and stuff. They work on a sentence and word level. In the small publishing house, that was also done by me. That doesn’t change anything for you.

I will send you the manuscript with the corrections for you to approve. Usually, authors agree. If you don’t understand or don’t agree, just let me know and I can either explain it to you or see if you have a point.

Meanwhile, I will put the cover designer to work. I will tell them what kind of a book it is, which genre, which target audience. If I have ideas for similar covers they can use, I tell them as well, but usually I trust the designer to do their work. I think in words, they think in images. To each their strenght. If you have ideas for a cover, we will look at them. (But usually cover ideas by the author are not commercially interesting, and they end up liking the cover we designed better.)

I will send you some unfinished cover ideas, or sometimes the one cover we all agreed on. You usually have veto power, but authors rarely veto a cover (”It looks so real now!”) because our cover designers know their job ^-^ The cover needs to be approved by a lot of people: you, me, the publisher, the people from marketing, the salespeople… Negotiation about 14 conflicting opinions is part my job.

By now, you’re probably done with approving the corrections in your manuscript. I check it one last time and send it to the lay-out people.

The publisher decides on the format of your book (softcover/hardcover/fancy edition…), based on what is financially possible and commercially interesting.

The lay-out person sends me a sample, usually the first five pages. I print it to see if the font, margins, interline, readability… are okay. They usually are, and I give the lay-out person a “go!” to lay-out the entire book. A few hours later they send me your book in pdf.

I will now send it to a second freelance editor, whose job it is to check for typos and weird line breaks etc. They will send me their corrections and the lay-out person will take care of it.

I will send you your final, clean manuscript and you will beam with pride to see your book as a “real book”! ^-^ (Similar feelings as when I send you the first cover.)

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The cover designer now makes a back and spine cover.

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We usually don’t organize and pay for a launch party, but if you want to have one, go ahead. For debutants, a launch party doesn’t help selling copies that wouldn’t have been sold anyway. Journalists don’t scour book launch parties, it’s usually the author’s friends and family who attend, and they were going to buy a copy anyway.

And then it’s time to keep your fingers crossed, hope for good sales, and start writing on your next book!

***

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing advice here. New topics to write advice about are also always welcome.

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Keep reading

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Your first draft is not terrible.

It is not any sort of insulting name you call it.

It is a baby.  A young, inexperienced baby that might throw up on your shirt and cause you to lose sleep at night but you love it all the same and will patiently feed it and tuck it into bed at night with a kiss no matter what happens.

You do not call a baby stupid or awful because they are new to the world and do not have the ability or knowledge to function on their own.  Instead, you nurture and teach them so they grow up smart and strong and capable.

Such it is with a first draft.  A first draft is not bad because it needs care and attention. Don’t insult it because it is newly written down with ideas that are not yet fully formed.  In fact, that is the reason why it is AMAZING.  It’s a DRAFT!  The FIRST one for the story!  LOOK at it!  It exists!  It is ALIVE!  And it is YOURS, this story you made.  

So be proud of your first draft baby and, most importantly, be proud of yourself.