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James Chambers
© 2011
Back when I was editing comic books for Tekno*Comics and I was young and still fairly naïve, a writer I worked with once said to me, “I appreciate all you do, man. Editing is a hard, thankless job. People don’t understand how important what you do is. No one likes to remember the editor.” Not an exact quote, but that conveys the gist of it. Our project—a special, double-size, one-shot comic book—had become more challenging than anticipated because we were struggling with issues imposed on us by people who weren’t involved in actually creating the comic. (Shocking, I know.)
At the time, I didn’t take much more from what that writer said than a simple thank you, but his words have stuck with me. For many years now, I’ve edited mostly reference and other non-fiction books, with some fiction and comics along the way, and what that writer said comes back to me often, especially when a project—or an author—turns difficult. At the worst of times, it helps me remember that some writers really appreciate what an editor brings to the table.
Those words come back to me when I’m writing, too.
No doubt, like any writer, I’ve given my editors a few headaches at times, some justified, some maybe not. But as much as possible, I always try to approach a writing project how I would like a writer to approach it if I were editing it. Working the editor’s side of the desk for so long has taught me that an often overlooked part of our job as writers is to make our editor’s life easier.
I know some writers who foster adversarial relationships with their editors. I don’t understand that. The editor isn’t always right, true. Sometimes writers must take a stand for the integrity of their work. But to enter every author-editor relationship looking for an argument makes no sense to me. Authors and editors generally want to the same thing: to produce and publish good work. Not every author and editor will be a good match, of course, but at its best, the author-editor relationship is a partnership.
The fundamentals of making it a productive partnership often come down to the basics. Get them right and it’s easier to focus on the important stuff: telling a great story or making a good book. From my perspective as an editor, I could call these pet peeves, but as a writer I consider them red flags for what not to do. Some of the points I mention may be more relevant to non-fiction than fiction, but at their most basic, I think they’re universal. A few of them might even seem too basic to include here, but because I’ve encountered veteran writers who seem to have forgotten them, I think they’re worth repeating.
1. Meet deadlines. Publishing can be a forgiving business when it comes to deadlines. Most editors won’t grumble too much about a little extra time if it lets a writer deliver better quality work. But that doesn’t mean they like it. Sure, real-life sometimes makes deadlines impossible to meet, and sometimes the dog really does eat your manuscript. But as much as possible make that your problem, not your editor’s. Editors are usually juggling many projects. Delivering your work late doesn’t affect only your project but possibly half a dozen or more others your editor should be working on when your manuscript arrives late. Missed deadlines give editors stress, and even when they’re working with the most reliable authors, most editors won’t relax without a manuscript in hand. So why force an editor to link stress and uncertainty with you? Do that often enough, and a time will come when those are the first things—maybe the only things—they associate with your name.
2. Submit your manuscript in the correct format. In most cases, Times New Roman, 12- or 14-point type, double spaced, with one-inch margins is a safe bet. But if an editor or publisher has specs they want you to follow, get them and make sure you follow them. For expediency’s sake, I sometimes fix basic formatting problems when a manuscript isn’t quite it right rather than kick it back to the author and wait for them to do it. It usually doesn’t take that long but that’s time I really should be spending editing.
3. Style counts. If your editor has a house style guide or if they follow the Chicago Manual of Style, MLA style, or another style guide, learn it and follow it. Make sure special elements, like excerpts or epigraphs, are clear. If your book includes endnotes, figures, a bibliography, a glossary, or other such features, make sure they’re complete and correctly styled. True, in most instances, your editor and/or a copy editor will check your text for style, but the cleaner your manuscript is and the less they have to do in this regard, the more time they can spend helping you polish the text. It also creates a good impression of you as a conscientious, capable author. And you don’t have to be perfect; if you can get things even halfway there, it’s enough to warm the heart of even the snarkiest of copy editors.
4. Be aware of your situation. If you hold up your end of the bargain as an author, it’s reasonable to expect an editor to hold up theirs and you can expect certain, concrete things that editors are generally obligated to do. In other words, if you’ve turned in a clean, properly formatted, and correctly styled manuscript, no one can point the finger at you if things should start to run late. On the other hand, if you drop a manuscript honeycombed with grammatical gaffes on your editor’s desk six months after deadline and then two days later begin badgering them about why your check hasn’t arrived yet, it won’t make the best impression.
5. Proofread your galleys. When you receive your galleys, read them closely and carefully, as if you were the only one responsible for finding errors. It’s worth the time, and editors have a sixth sense for knowing who did their homework and who glossed through it in five minutes while watching Jersey Shore. Also, know the difference between a correction and a change; avoid rewriting in galleys unless something is terribly wrong or suddenly out of date due to current events.
6. Editors do not equal publishers. Most editors are not entirely autonomous. They answer to publishers, or editorial directors, or company presidents, or even marketing and sales executives. They walk a tightrope trying to do their job while also remaining their author’s advocate and protecting his or her vision. A good editor looks for ways to satisfy the author and the publisher, but sometimes it simply isn’t possible to make everyone happy, especially regarding things like cover art and design, list price, and publication date. It’s not personal. Your editor is the guy or gal who believes enough in your work in the first place to buy it and publish it for the whole world to read, so try to understand when they’re caught in the middle between what you want and what the publisher wants.
7. Editors are human beings. Hard to believe, but it’s true. And they like writers who treat them as such. You won’t always agree with your editor, and that’s okay. Keep it civil. Respect their time and their feelings. If you make a habit of calling your editor at 4:55 every Friday to bitch at length about proper use of semicolons or why the copy editor imposed the serial comma rule on your manuscript and keep him at his desk long after he should’ve departed for margaritas with the rest of the editorial department, your editor will stop taking your calls (true story!).
As much as I’ve let my work as an editor inform my work as a writer, though, it comes down to this: As an editor, there are writers for whom I’ve gone to great lengths to buy their book or land them an assignment not only because I believed in their writing, but because I enjoyed working with them. When you’re building a relationship with an editor, you want to be one of these writers.
Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve broken a few of these guidelines myself (as I’m sure Danielle would be happy remind me if I didn’t point it out). But I’ve learned from my mistakes and done better the next time. When I work with an editor, whether it’s the first time or the tenth time, I want to make sure they’re on my side and happy to be working with me. Of course, that isn’t entirely a one way street, but that’s a post for another day.
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(http://www.jameschambersonline.com/blog/
James Chambers’ tales of horror, crime, dark fantasy, and science fiction have been published in the anthologies Bad-Ass Faeries, Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, Bad-Ass Faeries 3: In All Their Glory, Bad Cop No Donut, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, Breach the Hull, By Other Means, Crypto-Critters (Volume 1 and Volume 2), Dark Furies, The Dead Walk, The Dead Walk Again, The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon, Dragon’s Lure, The Green Hornet Chronicles, Hardboiled Cthulhu, Hear Them Roar, Hellfire Lounge, In An Iron Cage, Lost Worlds of Space and Time (Volume 1), New Blood, No Longer Dreams, Sick: An Anthology of Illness, So It Begins, Weird Trails, and Warfear; the chapbook Mooncat Jack; and the magazines Bare Bone, Cthulhu Sex, and Allen K’s Inhuman.
In 2011, Dark Regions Press published The Engines of Sacrifice, a collection of four Lovecraftian-inspired novellas. Ressurection House, a collection of his short fiction was published in 2009 by Dark Regions Press.
His tale “A Wandering Blackness,” one of two published in Lin Carter’s Doctor Anton Zarnak, Occult Detective, received an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Sixteenth Annual Collection.
He has also written numerous comic books including Leonard Nimoy’s Primortals, the critically acclaimed “The Revenant” in Shadow House, and most recently a Midnight Hour story for the comics anthology Negative Burn.
In August 2005 Die Monster Die Books published his first short story collection, The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales, created in collaboration with illustrator Jason Whitley.
He lives in New York.
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So, what have you learned to do--or not do--through your experiences with editors? Share the wisdom...it is teh best way to help someone else avoid making the same mistake!
- Mood:
awake
Comments
Wow...that means a lot to me. Thank you so much for reading and if there is any topic in particular you would like to see us cover, please do let me know.
Best,
Danielle