What Editors Think

Poets & Writers has a great interview with four editors. What they like. What inspires them to acquire a book. Debunking the myth that editors no longer edit. Their thoughts on paper-made books in a Kindle world. This is something that resonated with me:

GARGAGLIANO: If it comes alive for you, and you can hear it in your head, and it sort of lives inside you, that's when I feel like a writer has a voice. That's when I'll keep going back to something again and again. One of my favorite writers when I was falling in love with literature was Jeanette Winterson. It was just about her voice. I kept loving her books even when the stories themselves started to fall apart. I just wanted to hear that voice in my head. For me, with her, it stopped being about the storytelling, which is unusual. I love story. I want plots in my books.

I love voice. It's what draws me to Stephen King, John Krakauer, Danyel Smith and Tayari Jones.