Editor Insults

You actually get responses, insults or otherwise, back from editors?????

caw

JennaGlatzer said:

Has your editor ever insulted you? One of mine just did in a funny way. I turned in the first half of my manuscript, and she sent back her comments, which included a sentence something like, "My favorite parts were definitely the quotes you used." In other words... the only words in the book that I didn't actually write. Those were her favorite parts.



(P.S. I like this editor bunches.)

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That's not an editor insult, hon. That's an editor burn. Ouch! Gottcha!

*tilts head, ponders what it would be like to actually hear something other than: great writing, great story, don't know which market this would really work for....snarls for a minute...realizes Jenna is a great and STILL gets stuff sent back....throws out manuscript...goes back to the drawing board...life is good*

One day, as God is my witness, Editors will worship me!

Sorry. Scarlett moment.

But Jenna, as the author you selected those quotes. Take it as a compliment of your good judgment.

There's a pony in here somewhere.

Devil Ledbetter said:

There's a pony in here somewhere.

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This was my favourite part of your post. Just sayin'.

inked09012 said:

Scarlett moment.

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Best porn-star name ever. Er, so I'd imagine.

My editor once sent back my ms with a section crossed out, a sticky attached. On the sticky: "blech."

illiterwrite said:

My editor once sent back my ms with a section crossed out, a sticky attached. On the sticky: "blech."

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Oh God. Ouch.

I'm trying to think of something bad that has happened with an editor. The one thing that comes to mind that I really despised...I don't know if it counts. It happened with a radio producer. I was taping one of my memoir essays for CBC Radio and the producer kept stopping me at a point saying she didn't like a certain word I was using. She insisted that 'wonky' was a better word. We did about 3 takes and she said the other word just didn't sound right. But I knew in my head that I would never in a million years use the word wonky. She won...and I'm still angry at her for editing that one word. I took it as a HUGE insult. Is it okay to hold grudges against editors?

Yes.

To be honest hon, I'm not sure it actually is an insult. It is quite possible your editor really did love the choice of quotes, thought they were perfect for your book. I mean, you know your editor better than we do, but to me it didn't sound like she was implying your writing was bad.

Although, I have to say, I'd probably have thought the same thing! We writers are a sensitive bunch!

JennaGlatzer said:

she sent back her comments, which included a sentence something like, "My favorite parts were definitely the quotes you used." In other words... the only words in the book that I didn't actually write. Those were her favorite parts.

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I'm not sure that is an insult.

It rather depends what the rest of the comments were.

Bmwhtly said:

I'm not sure that is an insult.

It rather depends what the rest of the comments were.

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Oh stop being all warm & fuzzy.

I say OFF WITH HER HEAD!!!
We'll rally the troops...our pens the weapons of mass destruction!!!!

Sorry.
I'm my own marching band too.

Most days all I want is an agent and an editor. Then there are the occasional days like this when I realize that, being unpublished, I'm in the Blissful Ignorance phase of things, scribbling away unaware of the slings/arrows to come should I actually ever GET one or both of those peoples.

hmmm. I read your post over three times - at first it did seem a tad withering. On the third reading I concluded she's lauding your good judgment in quote choices and probably didn't realize how her comment ended up sounding. I might be rationalizing, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

This isn't really an insult, but when I received the preliminary edits for a book, the editor said to take out as many "that"s as possible. So I did, rewriting sentences to fit the changes. Then, when I got the next edits, there were comments to the effect "This would work better if it read blah,blah, that blah blah" So I had to re-rewrite the sentences back to their original form, all the while thinking "You're the one who told me to get rid of the thats in the first place" grrr...

But it's hard to get too annoyed at an editor who puts smiley faces in her corrections to soften the blow a little.

Jenna, I'd have thought, as others had pointed out, that the editor was complimenting your good judgement in choicing the quotes and not the writing quality of the quotes themselves I'd never have thought this was an insult to your writing.

Since you like this editor, I'd ask for clarification. "So do you just like the quotes or do you like the parts around the quotes too?"

Sometimes editors need their own editors.

JennaGlatzer said:

Has your editor ever insulted you? One of mine just did in a funny way. I turned in the first half of my manuscript, and she sent back her comments, which included a sentence something like, "My favorite parts were definitely the quotes you used." In other words... the only words in the book that I didn't actually write. Those were her favorite parts.



(P.S. I like this editor bunches.)

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Huh. I don't know how I'd feel about that, but I'd hope she meant she approved of my choice of quotes. I think you're going to have to ask her. Are you comfortable doing that?

On a side note--It reminds me of that insult attributed (incorrectly, I think?) to Samuel Johnson.

"Sir, your book is both good and original. Unfortunately, the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good." Ouch.

JennaGlatzer said:

"My favorite parts were definitely the quotes you used." In other words... the only words in the book that I didn't actually write. Those were her favorite parts.

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I vote "not an insult" .
My favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry . Doesn't mean I don't like chocolate or pistachio.

From my perspective, your editor was saying it's ALL good, and she is just letting you know you did an especially good job with your selection of quotes.

Here's one more example, if you were at my house on Thanksgiving Day and you told me that your favorite part of the dessert buffet was the cranberry cheesecake, I wouldn't assume that you didn't like the pumpkin pie or carrot cake.

Here's a slice of cherry pie to cheer you up or perhaps chocolate is your feel good food of choice. It's all good

At least it seems like your editor is actually reading the manuscript. I once asked an editor what he thought of my book, a collection of interviews, and he said he loved the table of contents.

I'm pretty sure the assistant editor read the book, though, and liked it. But she left the business and went back to school before I could grill her.

Basically, it's rare for an editor to edit these days; that's what a lot of agents do.

JennaGlatzer said:

Has your editor ever insulted you? One of mine just did in a funny way. I turned in the first half of my manuscript, and she sent back her comments, which included a sentence something like, "My favorite parts were definitely the quotes you used." In other words... the only words in the book that I didn't actually write. Those were her favorite parts.



(P.S. I like this editor bunches.)

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I don't know if it's an insult or not, but...

A couple years ago, I submitted a short piece to an e-zine. The piece was a sort of Mel Brooks-ish piece that was supposed to be a take on the standard dragon-slayer stories from old fairy tales.

The response I got basically said the piece tried too hard, and even gave an example of what was wrong with the work.

I used too many generalized terms. The word 'it' was used too many times, although the editor never gave me any examples of what context the word was in.

So I suppose it was an insult, because the story, as I wrote it, was intended to be stupid.

Oh, well. Ancient history now...




ETA:

Of course, there was the time, quite recently, when an agent wrote in a personalized letter, that the company did not have the resources necessary to get my book published.

This would have been understandable, if I had actually sent the agent a copy of the work. But all I sent was a query.

And it should be pointed out here, that just because Writer's Market has the particular agent you're sending your work to, at a particular company and address, does not mean that information is correct. Both of my recent rejections came from companies that I didn't intend to send the queries to.