Novel Writing on Edge - Development Notes From Algonkian Writer Conferences

Senior editor Charlene Castor of Algonkian Author Connect interviews Michael Neff, the CEO and Chief Production Editor of Algonkian Writer Conferences.   Q: What made you and Algonkian decide to start this novel editing service? NEFF: Manuscripts to Market is a natural outgrowth of our writer events and programs . Writers are always asking for something like this, especially following the New York Write to Pitch . Over the years, I've spent many hours helping alums get published, in one way or another. CC:  That makes sense, of course, but seriously, Michael, does the world need another novel editing service? NEFF: Yes and no. The world does not need another commonplace editorial service. Ours is unique, indefinite in length, customized for each writer, and finally, structured more productively than other novel editing services--the condition we're striving for in terms of method and final results. CC: That's a bold statement. So how does "Manuscripts ...

Yes, that's me in my younger days. But where was this version of Michael Neff? In the AEI Films and Books office in LA? Yes, that's it. I was a development executive then, yes, and holding a workshop there, attempting to talk a few genre writers into analyzing structure in screenplays before rewriting their novels.  So why did I become crazed? Rejecting a bad manuscript, or maybe a terrible pitch? That must have been it. A pitch too far, and I lost it. I tried to be patient, but it didn't work. The writer was a narcissist, a flipping ego maniac, thus escorting me to the brink, to the point where I actually resembled the Cage man himself! Look at the Cage man! What is he saying here? "I'm sorry, Alva, it's just too late. Too late to add a plot line with a cliffhanger. It's all TOO LATE!!!" To which the now terrified writer replies: "I'm sorry, Mr. Neff, I'll search passionately for a plot, and premise first, yes ... a p...

The Golden Years of The Literar y Review In the mid nineties, The Literary Review , edited by Walter Cummins and published online  by Michael Neff of Del Sol Press , held the distinction of being the second traditional literary journal to ever be published on the Internet--the first being  Mississippi Review edited by Frederick Bartheleme. Like Barthelme, TLR editor Cummins was a visionary, and unlike most of his contemporaries at the time, quickly saw the value in making the superb and varied international literature of TLR available to the world via the Internet. As you will see below, we are linking here to as many of these  TLR golden age issues as we can discover, now all web-archived (thank God!). And why the web archive, you ask? Well, the originals, over a dozen issues, suddenly vanished overnight from the mainstream web once Walter Cummins retired from TLR. It was as if they never existed. The former editor, contributors, and w...

ALL THE DARK WE WILL NOT SEE , published by the distinguished Serving House Books, first appeared as "Year of The Rhinoceros," published by a popular and respected literary press in LA known as Red Hen Press. The initial birth of this story, fallen to earth as a big cracked egg, never possessed the proper edits or even a suitable cover. Not only that, but the lamination peeled easily, type was smudged in quarter-sized spots throughout the book, and the presence of it was generally rendered odd by "burn victim" artwork I was forced to swallow in order to prevent an even worse cover from potentially manifesting itself. But my intention here isn't to bitch about the staff of chickens at Red Hen, it's to make sense out of the emergence of a new edition of the novel now entitled ALL THE DARK WE WILL NOT SEE . As time passed, I became more and more determined to get my rights back and land a new publisher, and I was eventually successful. The new edition now ...