Nick Mamatas – Editor

I am an author and editor, working primarily in the field of science fiction/fantasy/horror. I spent ten years at VIZ Media, editing Japanese SF in translation, and have published novels and short fiction anthologies of my own with Tor Books, Skyhorse, Dark Horse, and many other leading publishers. I offer what you would get from an editor at a New York publishing house—a marked-up manuscript and lengthy editorial letter making suggestions for changes, some of which may be substantive (e.g., combining characters, adding or dropping subplots, moving or eliminating chapters and story arcs).Here's a free tip. In virtually any fiction manuscript, the best choice for dialogue tag 90 percent of the time is "said." Just said. Most other verbs are inappropriate and distracting. There's no reason to try to vary dialogue tags or think up inventive ones. The dialogue itself carries most of the information. I will tell you that editors and agents glance at submissions, see a bunch of intoned/shouted/murmured/replied/cried/began/continued etc. and reach for a form rejection slip. There's a reason almost every novelist uses "said" for 90 percent of their speech tags.