The Official Unofficial Editor of Substack

I came to Substack with big plans. After a friend told me it was the future and every writer needed one, I hopped on board. I’m the editor of the group experimental collaborative project the Nine Story Hotel presented by Will Christopher Baer (Kiss Me Judas, Penny Dreadful, Hell’s Half Acre.) We’re still working the kinks out of the Hotel but in the by and by I started posting works in progress for the hotel and short stories of my own that had been languishing in my files to notes.

Somewhere between here and there my life turned into trauma porn.

Every week I do an Editorial Autopsy of up to 2500 words or five pages. I’ve been a line and developmental editor for most of my career, because no matter who says what, I think my writing sucks. I do these because I believe it’s important to share what the real editing process is like, what professional criticism looks like, and because I like reading and doing this. I like sharing my knowledge. And wow, do I have a lot of it.

If you want to see if you get an editorial autopsy just subscribe.

Mondays between 6AM CST US and 6PM CST US, I will take emails at emilottoman@gmail.com. Include AUTOPSY in the subject line, and your Substack handle, and you’re in. The least you’ll get is a short email that’s still got some notes and well wishes. (I’m really not this nice. I’m kind, but I’m not nice.)

-The Editor

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Fiction is Culture. No gods, just authors. Underground lit. Ritual crit. The gospel of the broken sentence, dissected by the "Official Unofficial Editor" of the Fiction tab.

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Emil Ottoman

@emilxottoman

Fiction is Culture. Writer, author, editor, publisher, artist, criminal, & unrepentant. This is all just performance art. The Editor: an autopsy artist here pushing authors to rise to the level of their actual abilities. I write panic attacks.