Brian Farrey at TKB in October

If you missed us in October, you really missed out! Brian Farrey, Aquiring Editor at Flux Books, dropped by for a visit at our monthly meeting to talk about the exciting world of editing and publishing. Brian shared some great advice as our aspiring authors and future book editors were on the edge of their seats.

According to Brian, “research is the key to everything!” If you’re trying to get your book published, take a moment to go online and find the publisher’s submission guidelines before spending money on sending out a manuscript. If you’re looking for an agent, Brian says to look at the acknowledgements in a book similar to yours and you’ll usually find the name of that author’s agent (again, research). What is Brian looking for as he’s reading submissions?? Since Flux is a smaller imprint, they publish about 24 books in a year, so Brian is more interested in themes than the trends—in other words, “I don’t care that mermaids are the next werewolves,” lol.

Brian was almost giddy about a new book he recently acquired, called Skyship Academy, The Pearl Wars. He says he read it cover to cover in one sitting, because “it constantly surprised me!” All we know is that there may be some strategically placed explosions that will catch you by surprise. The book will be published next fall by Flux, thanks to Brian’s immediate offer “sprinkled with sparkly dust.” It’s no wonder Flux has gotten so much attention lately, with Brian’s good taste working for them.

TKB was also very interested in Brian’s new experience: switching gears from editing to being edited! Simon and Schuster picked up the new book he wrote, called Chasers, which will be hitting shelves July 12th, 2011—and we can’t wait! Brian let us read a few pages and even showed us some of the many edits. He admits that he was surprised that, being an editor, he missed so many things in his own writing. “As a writer, you get too close to the book.” Easy to see why though—it sounds like a story you’d get wrapped up it. Congratulations on the huge accomplishment, Brian! And congrats on your new marriage as well! Brian actually got married a few days before our meeting. He must have wanted to come to TKB so much that he postponed the honeymoon getaway—just kidding.

By the way TKB members, Brian says they have internships for high school students at Flux! If you’re interested, you can email the HR director at erikac@llewellyn.com.

(posted by JuliAnn Betker)