Between the Lines by Pam Line

 

How we came to publish this one

Pam approached us with her work and we liked what we saw. So, we agreed to publish this collection.  

The title

Obviously there is a little word play going on here. The title is connected to Pam’s name.   

Some notes about the process

As ever the stories went through the three stages of revision. Pam worked with one of our regular editors.

The cover

Our covers usually come about as a result of a conversation between the author and the editor and then the author and our designer. A stock picture from Pixabay was used here.

Some notes about style

As ever flash fiction needs to tell a story succinctly . These do that beautifully and in rich poetic language.  

Who we think the reader is

These stories are ideal for the reader who has only a little time but like to be asked to think deeply as they read.

What else

As ever, we’re pleased to get out another collection of lovely pieces.

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book and give us a review. Just click on the image to be taken to Amazon. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free PDF or mobi-file.      

Reediting some stories – why we edit even stories that have already been published  

Get your copy here.  

Reediting some stories – why we edit even stories that have already been published

A personal story

We edit and edit and edit. In my own personal writing world I always take another look at my work after it’s been rejected and before I send it out again. This is partly to do with me having grown as a writer and partly to do with the world having moved on and in particular what is fashionable in writing has changed. It isn’t even really just a matter of fashion – writing collectively gets sharper and more effective. And when I come to reading my work out in public, I’ll often edit as I go along. Again, we’ve all moved on. Texts anyway need to be a little different when they’re read out loud from the way they appear when they’re read silently from the page. And we all like doing and hearing “voices”.

CafeLit

Stories that are accepted for CafeLit are given a light copy edit before they’re posted. We may miss some things so it’s worth another look if the story is selected for The Best of book. Again even what might have been all right six months ago may no longer seem quite so neat.

Short story collections

We also publish collections of short stories by a single author. These should be by people we’ve published before and they may include stories we or someone else has already published. These are therefore stories that have either had a light touch if they’ve been on CafeLit or gone through more rigorous editing if they’ve been in one of our annual anthologies.

We also accept collections form people we don’t know if about two thirds of the stories they’re presenting have been published elsewhere. Naturally they must have the rights back.

The better the text is to begin with, the better it becomes

This is one of the biggest arguments for careful editing before you even submit. Personally, I edit my short stories at least four times before I submit. Then there are the extra edits between rejections. And novels have fourteen edits.

Editors also become more experienced as they edit so they’ll usually find something even in those texts that have been pre-edited.

It’s never-ending, but worth persevering?