On Editors

I wasn’t going to write any more till late January at least, but it’s past midnight and I can’t sleep. It isn’t late in the scheme of things if you’re an insomniac or if you are young but I don’t fit into either category. I find myself up and about tonight when everyone else is sensibly refreshing those little grey cells.

I’m sure that I’ll pay for it tomorrow because it’s going to be hectic, but I thought that a quick session between my computer and myself might help settle me down.

Even though I’ve said in my previous post that you need to have an angle for a piece or else you’re wasting your time and your words, I’ve decided to indulge myself this once and see where it takes me. Possibly not far, but the beauty of it is that as I’m both writer and editor of this journal I can please myself; at least for the time being, till my compulsive need to revisit and revise takes over.

When I have a piece professionally published and paid for, it’s usually the end of that particular journey. Once I’ve worked and reworked a piece it’s out of my hands. I have to hope that the person who reads my peace will be sensitive to it. If you have published in the same place more than once, you get to know the editor and at least get to know what to expect.

The thing is, if you want to be published you have to accept that once someone has bought your baby, you lose control. Someone else gets to edit it and decide what to keep and what to leave out. That’s not always a negative thing. Sometimes I’m too close to be objective and what ends up in print makes it better not only for the publication but for me. A good editor takes away what’s necessary without disturbing the essence of the piece.

The thing is, that if it turns out badly, then the reader usually blames the writer for it. As in any other profession, editors will come in all shapes and sizes. There are the good ones, the bad ones and the ‘what the hell have you done to my piece’ types. Sometimes they will cut your precious words down so they can fit it in an advertisement or another piece on the page. I had an awful experience (just once) where every reference that would have made my piece meaningful was cut out, as evidenced by the fact that the illustrator understood what I meant when he read the piece and the editor did not when he cut things down. (They had obviously not consulted one another.) You can decide to complain, in which case you might not have a chance again at that particular market, or you might decide to never submit there again which limits your choices, or you might hope that that editor moves on to some other publication and butcher somebody else’s work.

A good editor needs to know a lot more than just about tone and grammar and structure; a good editor is like a good GP and knows a little bit about a lot of topics.
Even though I get paid for it, once that piece is in print I will happily forget it and move on to writing something else.

I hope people have liked the child I’ve produced and put on display but strangely it’s not the child but the audience that’s my main consideration. Here I am, my own electronic market, and enjoying pleasing myself, but I do often wonder what sort of people they are who drop in (some of them regulars) from different parts of the globe, and read my work. And what is it that they find they like that makes them regulars.

I find the thought fascinating that they must relate to some of the things I’ve had to say here; because even though the French say vive le difference and I’m all about celebrating our differences, at the core of things and where it counts, I’m sure we’re the same.