Red Adept Editing

CD Reiss Headshot Meet USA Today Bestselling Author CD Reiss

What made you choose Red Adept Editing?

I was a total newbie on Kboards, and I whined that there had been some complaints about editing in my first book (may it die a peaceful death). So a lot of writers came in recommending Lynn (back when she was the only editor at Red Adept). I scheduled her to do my first mystery, Dead Is the New Black.

You’ve worked most with Cassie on the RAE staff. What do you like best about her editing style?

She fixes my style, but she doesn’t change it. She doesn’t tell me I’m “wrong” when I break certain rules that aren’t really rules. Last word’s a preposition? No problem. Sentence fragments? Fine in moderation. She only fixes what’s outrageously wrong, breaks the flow, or creates confusion.

She also adds really helpful comments when there’s a break in logic that happened when I moved stuff around. This is stuff I’d never catch on my own, but she has an eagle eye.

Tell us a little about your series and what we can expect for them in the future.

Kinky billionaire meets struggling musician. A story as old as the hills, but there’s always a new way to tell it. I’m currently working on Book Nine, Coda, with Cassie for a March 18, 2015 release.

You write cozy mysteries under another name. Which genre is your favorite to write, mystery or romance?

I prefer romance with a touch of mystery to mystery with a touch of romance. For now. That could change at any minute.

What part of self-publishing do you enjoy the most?

C O N T R O L
No publisher would have published Sing because it broke too many genre rules. But I could. No publisher would have let me. No publisher would have continued to support eighteen-month-old books, but I could still promote the first in the series because I knew that was what would sell the second in the series and all the spinoff series connected to it.

You have some awesome covers. Who does your cover work?

I do. But Coda will be my last cover. I’m hiring them out from now on. One, it’s too much time, and two, I’m just running out of inspiration. So I’m done with it.

What do you do when you’re not writing?CD Reiss - Wine

Yell at my kids. 🙂

Name a few of your favorite authors and tell us what you like about them.

David Foster Wallace. He is my ultimate. He has beautiful rhythm and flow to his words, and his sentences run like the purest forms of thought. He treats even his worst characters with compassion and kindness. I really wish I could have gotten to know him.

What advice would you give to a new author?

Making a living at this job is half writing and half marketing, and some days it’s more one than the other. If you’re in it just to write, don’t expect to make any money. Period. And don’t spend any time complaining about marketing.

CD Reiss’s Books:

Songs of Submission

Songs of Corruption

Songs of Perdition