So far, my experiences working with editors are great. Cobblestone Press, eXtasy Books, and Red Rose Publishing editors have taught me valuable lessons, tricks, tools, and knowledge that I only learned from them. What are those? Dead scenes, eliminating passive voice, and adding emotions are just a few. Yes, I wrote and finished a story. Cool thing. But I must admit, through working with editors I not only polished my stories, but my skills as well. From tenses to punctuation to grammar, they all helped me improve. It is amazing how they could see things that we and our critique partners often missed. And I liked the way they pointed our what needs to be improved without the crushing remarks.
In my mind, I’ve worked with good editors, the ones every writer wants to meet.
But what about the “bad” editors?
I’ve heard a few writers say they didn’t like the way the editor chopped up their “babies.” That he or she didn’t get the story. That the editor is lousy and must have never known any positive piece of constructive criticism in his life, and insisted she write the sentences this way or that. I’ve never experienced that with the awesome editors I’ve had the opportunity to work with. But have you? How do you handle editors who seems to want you to write your stories the way they want them written? Did you ever feel that your editor is not helping you polish your story, instead punishing you with put down comments?
Before I end my blog, I would like to express my gratitude to those who bought my latest book, Wicked Proposal. Your support and comments, serve as my inspiration and energy to pen another story. Thank you so much. Wicked Proposal is available in Kindle, PDF, Mobipocket and other formats.
Talk to you soon,
Tierney O’Malley
3 comments:
Well, I am an eXtasy author and very, very happy indeed.
*hugs*
Mark.
I can't say anything bad about my editorial experience through Noble either. I learned a ton and I chalk it up to one of the best writing experiences I had.
Great post, Tierney!
Personally, I've had great experiences with my editors. I consider them collaborators and friends. I've been very lucky in that my editors have all let me pretty much have my head. When they wanted major changes we were able to hammer out compromises where we both walked away with what we wanted and felt good about the changes. You can't ask for more than that.
I have listened to confidences from other authors who have had rocky or horrible experiences with certain editors, but chalked it all up to a personality clash. Sometimes that happens. It's unfortunate, but it does happen.
I think the most important thing an editor needs to remember is that the book might be something they've purchased to make money for their house, but it isn't their book. It's the author's baby and you wouldn't tell a parent you wanted to change everything about their kids, right down to the name and hair color.
-Kate
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