Lynn Abbey said:

A dozen years is a long time in the world of publishing. The market is more fragmented and competitive than ever, and overall readership is down. Finding a niche is the first challenge; inserting a book into that niche is the second.

A good editor-and I don't claim to be one-can deduce the ideal elements of a writer's style and story and administer the necessary guidance to trick the writer into revealing it.

A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.

A year or so ago, I considered writing a mainstream novel and, despite several time-consuming efforts, I just couldn't come up with a concept that made my ears wiggle and didn't involve fantasy-genre elements.

All authors are created equal, but, as the editor, I'm somewhat more equal than all the others.

As an author, you're usually responsible for both the creation and evolution of your characters, but in a shared world, the evolution of your character is at least partially determined by what your character does in response to situations you didn't create.

Because I'd been involved in the creation of a successful shared-world it was assumed that I'd know the rules in other shared worlds, so the invitations flowed my way.

Before I was a writer I was a computer programmer.

Compatibility problems are touchier. Sometimes author A does something that sends author B right through the roof and the editor has to scramble to play peacemaker.

Continuity problems are fairly straightforward, with absolute conflicts being the easiest to resolve. If writer A and writer B both lay claim to the same piece of real estate or character, it's usually possible to come up with a chronology that allows both stories to exist.