When I got my first edits back on both books they were really slash and burns. I think I lost 8,000 words from the SF epic, and about 4,000 from the paranormal. It was all fat, junk, and verbosity. At first I thought "They're castrating me--my voice is being cut out!" But when I went over it, the prose ran much faster, smoother, and with a snappier pace. I found that I repeated myself at the end of just about every paragraph, trying to slam a point home. What I thought was elegant and wistful prose, was actually purple, bloated, reader eaters.
They took no prisoners, and had to remind me that they hoped they weren't coming across too strong. Hell, I egged 'em on. "Is that all ya got?" They obliged. Thank gawd they obliged.
Tri