Tips for working with an editor, please.

Hey, you're the writer, you have final say.

Look at it this way. I'm a film composer, but sometimes the schedule of production is so tight that I can't orchestrate my music myself. ALthough I may write a very detailed sketch, or indeed "mock-up" the exact score on synth (using french horns for this theme and flutes for that) I will have to rely on an orchestrator to put all these note clearly and concisely down on paper.

And orchestrators are, as a whole, incredibly musical, very gifted individuals . . . but they are not the composer.

Perhaps the orchestrator thinks a counterpoint melody is more interesting than the main melody and pushes it in the orchestration, am I going to agree with it? No. But, because I respect him, I will explain why it has to be the way I wrote it.

Most editors do not believe they're the absolute last word on all things writing. That's why they discuss things with the author. Often, they'll say, okay, if you feel strongly, that's fine. Sometimes when you talk to them you realize they're right after all.

An editor who considers disagreement about a point of writing a personal attack and becomes angry isn't going to last very long in publishing. (Nor will a writer, unless you sell a lot of books.)

I agree with all of the above (and Ziljon, what a cool career!). Talk with the editor and find out why she wants the changes you don't like, explain why you don't like them, and see if you can compromise. It happens all the time.

I'm a little obsessive about my prose, but I try to pick my battles. If an editorial suggestion is out-and-out wrong (basic grammar), I'll refuse to change it and cite the authority for the correct grammar. I'll try my best to be diplomatic, though, b/c we can all get brain freezes and be over-tired and the like, and I hope to be forgiven my own lapses.

If a suggestion is a violation of character, though, or just something that makes my skin crawl, I'll see if I can accommodate the problem the editor had, but come up with my own solution that's not a violation of character. For example, a short story editor thought that simply saying my protagonist "gestured" was too vague in the circumstances, and suggested something (I forget what now) that simply wasn't in the character's body-language vocabulary. I counter-proposed some other action that was more specific than "gestured" and that fit the character, and everyone was happy.

The rest of the stuff, well, again, I think it's important to pick your battles. If you've got an editor who wants to cut a few extra adverbs or break up long sentences (I do love me some run-on sentences), and it doesn't destroy your character or your voice, then I'd suggest letting it go. Figure out what really matters to you and to the story, and make sure you win those battles.

JD

When my Putnam editor gave me my first editorial letter she said that generally if an author makes 75% of the changes - the rest don't seem to matter. You go through your story and make the changes that you agree with and set the rest aside then send it back for a second read...

I was just going to say what Patricia said -- editors don't expect you to make all the changes, and they want you to do the changes they DO suggest in your style. For instance, the editor I'm working with now (who's great but I don't want to say specifics in case the acquisitions board turns me down next week!) will suggest that I put in a paragraph where the MC meets a peer and is frosty to them. The rest is up to me. Or he'll say "You'll want to rephrase this, it's clunky." But he won't tell me how.

So if you disagree with an edit, ask why they wanted to change it, because maybe you can fix the why but change the how.

For example, a short story editor thought that simply saying my protagonist "gestured" was too vague in the circumstances, and suggested something (I forget what now) that simply wasn't in the character's body-language vocabulary. I counter-proposed some other action that was more specific than "gestured" and that fit the character, and everyone was happy.

Click to expand...

This is the best way of doing things, IMHO. Make a suggestion to an author and 90% of the time they will come up with something better.