Top Ten Problems in Submitting Your Work and How to Fix Them with Alan Rinzler

Top Ten Problems in Submitting Your Work and How to Fix Them with Alan Rinzler
Saturday, March 16, 2013 1pm - 4pm
Kepler's Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
As a executive level commercial book editor who acquired books from authors and agents from 1962 to 2011, Alan Rinzler noticed common mistakes in query letters, proposals, and manuscripts that could have been corrected before sending them out into the world.
Some of these errors are superficial, cosmetic, and easy to fix. Others… Show more are deeper and more challenging to resolve, including:
Failure to research the competition, which has led to reinventing the wheel
A lack of three-dimensional, nuanced character development, whether the work be fiction or nonfiction narrative, memoir, biography or history
A lack of structure or discernable narrative arc that achieves some kind of epiphany and emotional satisfaction
Intrusive editorializing or commentary that tries to control the reader's unique experience when reading the book, leading to weak or unsatisfying endings
No research when the topic clearly requires it, i.e. popular science, history, even personal memoir
Not enough or too much dialogue, visual or sensory description, tangents and digressions, too many adjectives and adverbs
A not-so-hidden agenda that prevents the story from being told or the information delivered clearly, i.e. revenge, political or religious crusade
Formulaic self-promotion for a business enterprise or academic advancement
About Alan Rinzler
Alan Rinzler has been a top notch editor for nearly 50 years. He edited and published Toni Morrison, Tom Robbins, Hunter S. Thompson, Jerzy Kosinski, Shirley MacLaine, Andy Warhol, Clive Cussler, Bob Dylan, Robert Ludlum, and others while working as Assistant to the Managing Editor at Simon and Schuster, Director of Trade Publishing at Bantam Books, VP and Associate Publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine, President of Straight Arrow Books and West Coast Editor for the Grove Press.
Alan also taught at Stanford University, NYU, and UC Berkeley, and has conducted trainings and workshops at Elliot Bay, Hugo House, San Francisco Writers Conference, the Grub Street Muse & the Marketplace, Book Passage, Books Inc. Mrs. Dalloway's and elsewhere.

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