J. K. Rowling #8 The TRAs squalling

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How many episodes are we getting for Ink Black Heart? They may have to cut out some of the less pivotal detail. But I'm looking forward to it. Book-wise, I love the length because you can get lost in it and not finish it too quickly.

I hope we don't have to wait too long now for Book 8.
 
IndominusRex said:
I wouldn’t cut a single thing from the books but I do think they need better editing in terms of picking up mistakes.
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Lack of editing is a big issue with famous authors. The more stratospheric the returns, the lighter the editing (see also Marian Keyes). I think it’s disrespectful. Editors are paid to do this job. They need to be able to say ‘look this bit is tit/you’ve contradicted yourself here/ we could cut out 4 chapters here’. If they’re too awed to do that, they’re not fit for the job
 
VeniVidiVicki said:
Lack of editing is a big issue with famous authors. The more stratospheric the returns, the lighter the editing (see also Marian Keyes). I think it’s disrespectful. Editors are paid to do this job. They need to be able to say ‘look this bit is tit/you’ve contradicted yourself here/ we could cut out 4 chapters here’. If they’re too awed to do that, they’re not fit for the job
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It is indeed the case that many big-name authors aren’t edited, or are only lightly edited, but it tends to be either because they refuse (Ruth Rendell was known for this) or because the publisher is hyper-cautious of offending them and losing the contract for future books, rather than the editor being over-awed. Added to which costs are pared back to the bone in publishing, and so certain rounds of the publishing process either get minimal investment or are skipped altogether (a final round of proofreading often doesn’t happen at all).

Editors really don’t have a huge amount of sway in publishing, especially where household names are concerned, and tend to be paid relatively little (I know this from bitter experience 😫). You’d think that the major publishing houses would offer reasonable renumeration, but they often pay a lot less than smaller publishers, on the basis that having their name on your CV has some inherent kudos.
 
News I like Pat
 

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Is there anyone who doesn't like Pat? The character build-up is incredibly well done. Pat, from the start, had personality, even if we didn't see much of her at first. We knew how she looks with her monkey-ish face (that always makes me laugh), looking "at least ten years older" ( ;)) and her ever present smoking and gravelly voice. I knew Pat would stick around simply from how vivid she was. Take, for example, Hutchins - while he was an investigator for multiple books, we never saw much of him and remained sort of colourless, although we do know about his MS diagnosis. I believe that that is by design and fits in with the theme of the "spare" investigator, similar to Nutley and also, although to a lesser extend, Morris. Barclay and Midge, otoh, are way more fleshed out from the beginning and we see more of them, whereas Shah is an in-between case, whom we don't see too much of, but who has some known characteristics, mostly looks and being able to play a cover convincingly.
I've written about this elsewhere, but the position is a bit like the Defense position at Hogwarts - a bit cursed and always one short, as they keep losing that position repeatedly while building up the agency.
(Morris had more backstory, but out of necessity for character growth for both Robin and Strike. We needed Morris to be a smarmy dick-pic sender for both of them to get a move on and get clearer on their feelings.)
 
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