January Meeting

Betsy Thorpe, a successful Charlotte editor and author, joins award-winning local author Lisa Williams Kline in discussing best practices, what to expect from a critique group, and revisions our group has suggested to each other for our last few published novels. We've changed from third person to first, from dual time frames to single time frames, from three voices to four voices, and more. We’ll incorporate stories about major revisions we’ve been asked to do by editors and agents, how we reacted, and how those revisions worked out. Not to mention the books we started, stopped, and put in a drawer. Q and A to follow. 

Betsy Thorpe has been a book editor for over thirty years, starting her career at some of the Big Five houses in New York as an acquisitions and developmental/line editor, and then moving on to open up her own business as an independent editor. She works with authors on everything from how to even start writing a book, to full manuscripts, sometimes conducting “forensic edits,” and occasionally ghost-writing. She also consults with authors over the pros and cons of traditional publishing versus indie publishing, agents, and contracts. Her co-written books have appeared in The New York Times, The Today Show, and Oprah, and she’s written a trilogy under a pseudonym, Hope Carolle, published by Dragonblade, a boutique publisher. She is the proud mom of two young adult women, and a dyspeptic ninety-seven pound rescue dog, Charlie.