Dealing with Editors
As a writer, you’ve probably had the experience of looking at a manuscript returned from an editor and wondering: What happens if I reject this change?
The answer is simple: IF YOU REJECT ONE OF OUR CHANGES, WE PLACE AN ETERNAL CURSE ON YOU THAT WILL KEEP YOU FROM EVER GETTING AN ACCEPTANCE AGAIN! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I kid, of course. In most cases, we just roll our eyes and let you get away with whatever you want to keep (life’s too short to argue pedantic trifles). If you reject all of our changes, there may be a politely worded email suggesting it may be best if you withdraw your work from our publication, but you wouldn’t do that, would you?
Here’s the thing about editorial suggestions: we aren’t trying to destroy your brilliantly crafted prose.
The role of the editor in a story’s development is to advocate for the reader.
Something doesn’t make sense? Something needs to be clearer? There’s going to be a comment on that.
Your prose could be more concise? There’s a big chunk of exposition you don’t need? We’re going to strike it.
Grammar and punctuation problems? We fix those, too.
Our goal is to put a story in front of the reader that they will love, without being distracted by little gaps, errors, or inconsistencies. Sometimes, believe it or not, it means you get back a draft with a lot more corrections and comments than we'd hoped. We’re writers too. We know what it’s like, and we want to avoid that as much as possible.
But we also know you want to publish the best story you possibly can, so when we need to send you a heavily corrected draft, we do.
So, back to our original premise: What should you do when you don’t agree with an edit or suggestion?
Tell us!
Editor’s note: For the love of Pete, if you want to explain yourself, please make a comment in the document, not in the email where we have to decipher which page and paragraph you’re referring to!
We are human and we’re not always right (except our EIC, Rebecca. She is always right). Sometimes our suggestions fall flat. At times, we make grammar goofs. As long as you’re polite and reasonable, we’ll probably understand.
And if you aren’t polite and reasonable, there may be some cursing… I mean, cussing. Yeah, cussing…