Grub Street Interview With Harrison Demchick

By Author: Donny Jenkins
Total Articles: 202
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Carl Sagan adored books. Flat objects, he said, “made from a tree.” A book has bendable parts stamped with funny dark squiggles. Open it and you’re inside the mind of another woman or man, “maybe somebody dead for thousands of years,” such as Homer. Across time, authors speak to readers, silently, mind to mind. Books, said Sagan, confirm humans make magic.
Harrison Demchick is a artist of the sort Sagan pictures. A developmental editor, at Bancroft Press, in Baltimore, Maryland, Demchick works on many books. He edits for A-list authors, such Ron Cooper, Elizabeth Leiknes and Eden Unger Bowditch.
Demchick is also an author. His first novel, “The Listeners,” is a post-apocalyptic story of loss, rescue and persistence; the story causes a chill to run the length of your spine. In “The Listeners,” Demchick sets a discomforting tone, a sense of deep despair: “The traffic light flips from green to yellow to red. The world does not react.”
The literary world is puzzling. “It surprised me,” says Demchick, “how writers of sci-fi ...
... fantasy accept me as their editor. They see me as a colleague, not as competition.”
Developmental editors have the most harrowing job in publishing. “I work on a manuscript, with the author,” says Demchick, “from first draft to published book. Layout, cover design and such aren’t part of my job, although I help with marketing.
“My focus is on deeper parts of a novel, such as character and plot development. After I read a manuscript, once, I write the author, outlining the strengths and weaknesses of her or his submission draft. The first letter can be daunting.”
Last October, Jeffery Schilling received a first letter from Harrison Demchick, his editor at Bancroft Press. Despite good-wind warnings, Schilling dreaded opening that e-mail . “I discovered Demchick is a talented, versatile and fastidious editor. He was genuinely investment in my work,” says Schilling. “His passion for words became a passion for my words. He added the right amount of encouragement, criticism and motivation to elicit my best work.”
Demchick knows what it takes to edit a great novel. “Not to toot my own horn,” he says, “but you can always tell when a book doesn’t have a developmental editor.” The cord, pulling together characters and plot, isn’t tight enough. The reader knows something is missing, but can’t put his or her finger on it; they may stop reading.
enthusiastic book marketing is essential, says Demchick. “Social media are especially important, today. I’m a reluctant promoter of my own book, not only those written by others.
“Yet, if a book is to create news and reviews, find readers and sell, the author must go out behind his or her book.” Nothing sells a book as well as seeing the author, in person. Some authors are gung ho marketers, others aren’t. “The key is to discover what you can do and do it.”
In this interview, Harrison Demchick talks of editing books, adapting books to film and writing his first novel, “The Listeners.” Click to read more.

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