I haven't read The Burning Tower - it isn't out in paperback yet, and I wouldn't even contemplate it in hardcover. I didn't much care for The Burning City that precedes it, so I suspect that I may be able to resist this one - but I have said that before :-(
Regarding editing, I am sure you are right with respect to Niven. There were a number of editors at Conflux and this issue got raised a lot with them. It is clear that established authors pretty much go through untouched - they might get a copy edit for spelling etc but sometimes even then I wonder. New authors are still actively edited - well some of them are. In house polocy at the publishers seems to vary and there are also mentoring type programmes that some publishers use rather than the slush submission process which complicates the notion of what an editor does. The overall effect is that books appear bigger and less well structured.
As for Building Harlequin's Moon, it appears that in this case the collaboration process was a long one with a lot of back and forth between Niven & Cooper. This may be why the book seems a little tighter than other recent efforts - the back and forth may have resulted in some self editing.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-07-18 10:12 pm (UTC)Regarding editing, I am sure you are right with respect to Niven. There were a number of editors at Conflux and this issue got raised a lot with them. It is clear that established authors pretty much go through untouched - they might get a copy edit for spelling etc but sometimes even then I wonder. New authors are still actively edited - well some of them are. In house polocy at the publishers seems to vary and there are also mentoring type programmes that some publishers use rather than the slush submission process which complicates the notion of what an editor does. The overall effect is that books appear bigger and less well structured.
As for Building Harlequin's Moon, it appears that in this case the collaboration process was a long one with a lot of back and forth between Niven & Cooper. This may be why the book seems a little tighter than other recent efforts - the back and forth may have resulted in some self editing.