Tag: love

Why I Hate Insta-love: An Editor’s Perspective

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Trusted source Urban Dictionary defines insta-love as “when someone who just meets you thinks that you are their soul mate and they want to spend the rest of their lives with you and have kids with you.” Sound crazy? Sound familiar?

The word started popping up a few years ago to explain a rapidly growing trope in YA literature in which the protagonist meets a boy and instantly falls in love. Insta-love became so reviled on social media and the blogging world that I was certain it would disappear. And yet here I am, blogging about it today because I’m still seeing it in submissions and in published works.  Continue reading →

The Acquisition Decision: How I Pick a Manuscript

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I’ll be the first to admit I HATE sending rejections. I usually save them all up to do every few weeks, blast the Frozen soundtrack, and force myself to type out those emails to agents and authors I admire. In life, I am a yes person. But as an editor, I have to also be a no person. It’s an incredibly hard thing to do, because even the worst book in the world has merit. All the mediocre books are steps toward creating art. And the great books have the ability to change lives.

So how do I choose those handful of titles that will be mine? Dozens of wonderful manuscripts come across my desk every year. And yet I only get to choose a select few to publish.

First and foremost, I have to fall in love. Not “oh, I could keep reading this because I have nothing else to do.” Not “hmm, that’s pretty good.” It has to be L-O-V-E love.  Continue reading →