Etiquette Question

You haven't said much about the full situation. It sounds like you gave them comments?

If this is a professional editor, they should be giving you comments on your writing, and you usually have to pay them for their critique, unless this is an editor at a publishing house where the work has been accepted. Can you be more specific?

I used a professional editor who helped me with my writing for some short stories and I had to sign a contract for payment for her services. An additional critique after making changes would have cost more, but she was kind enough to do it free of charge. I've been very happy with her advice and she always kept in touch and gave me approximate time frames. Oh, and I'm not afraid to say that I highly recommend the services of Candy Davis of Inkdance.

Melanie

You are paying this person, right? Then you are the client. Did you set up a schedule for this project? If so, what were the deadlines? If you didn't, then it sounds like you need to. Either way, you can call, email, or send smoke signals as often as you like. It's not like this editor is doing you a favor: he or she has been hired by you and should not only be responding to your queries, he or she should be incredibly aplogetic for taking months and months to do the job.

Since you're paying the editor, it shouldn't be an issue to say to him/her, "I'd like to complete this next round of revisions within the next few <weeks, months, whatever> so please send me your comments by <enter date>. Please respond and confirm that you'll be able to meet this date."

If the date is a problem, the editor should let you know, as it's unprofessional not to. Don't hesitate to start establishing and enforcing some boundaries now, even if you didn't have them at the start. Remember: It's your work. Your contract with this editor. You can set up any old schedule you like!

Ditto what the others said. You have a contract and you will be paying them their fee, so you are the client. As a client, you have a right to know what to expect and they should be responding to your inquiries. Yes, editing takes time, but they should figure out a schedule and keep you up to date on it. They should be able to give you an idea of about how long it will take them. At least that's my experience. That's how we agreed to a price in the contract--her estimate of time.

I hope you hear from the editor soon.

Melanie

There are definitely times when editors get caught up in life and they take longer on projects than they should, but dragging it out for months and months and months without apologizing is far beyond the normal delays of "stuff happens." I'm with everyone else. I hope you'll keep us posted on how this is resolved! Good luck!

Kristen