Editor Time: Author & Editor: The Working Relationship

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It’s all about the teamwork to bring your manuscript to the shine it deserves. No matter how many people have read it, opinioned it, praised it, or even edited it. Your in-house editor will (should) fight harder, give more, push you, because they are invested in their reputation, the company they work for, and you.

I’m not saying Aunt Millie or Mama-Bernice or Grandpa Jones are fibbing cause you’re family. I’m not saying your spouse is smiling and nodding cause they don’t want a fight before bed. Yes, the outside editor you paid has their own reputation to keep bright, too.

But the in-house editor is part and parcel of the company as are you. If one fails chances are that failure is going to hit everyone.

For me, an in-house editor, sales mean money which means royalties which means money in my pocket. You don’t think we work for free, do you? Our industry of small publishing homes are not financed by any sugar-daddy or mama. If run correctly they came in with a stable start up and a long-range plan. Every one of us looks to add to the wallet – personal and business-wise.

As your editor, I’m linked to your success. I’m not on the prowl to destroy your manuscript. I want it to shine. I want it to soar above every other book and book type out there.

How?

By being pushy. By nick-picking every detail. By remarking on every teeny question that finds its way to my mind…if I see it, reviewers and readers will too. By making you question yourself. I’m not a yes person. I’m not an ego builder. I’m as blunt as you need me to be…and then some.

What I won’t do, have never done, is rewrite your story to my voice and style. Rewrite it to how I would have written it.

I do not hold a gun to my authors’ heads or a blade to their throats. The decisions on edits – barring in-house style requirements and out and out mistakes – are the complete and final decisions and choices of the authors.

I don’t want to write your story.

You don’t want me to write your story.

(Side note…don’t ask me how many reviews I’ve read where it was more on how the reviewer would have written it versus a review of what the author wrote – see future Reviewer Time post)

Yes, we’re going to get frustrated. Yes, we’re even going to get angry. I won’t ever lie to my authors and I expect their complete honesty with me.

Trust in each other is the cornerstone of the editor/author relationship.

Trust me when I’m pushing you. Believe it or not, I do know how far to push and that’s as far as I will ever go.

I’m perfect?????

Uhm, do we really even need to answer that.

What happens if we just don’t mix? Well, if I’m working on my own out-of-pub-house (I’m not typing out-house) we’ll talk and reach some agreement.

If we’re working in-house and I’m finding you to be a _________. Most likely you would really have to be a MEGA ________ for me to ever walk away. Or have done something drastic to undermine my trust in you. At that worse case moment, I finish the job with the same dedication and look to the future.

If you’re finding me lacking. Tell me. I won’t bite. At the base of most problems is a cross-communication. Sometimes all it takes is a reconnecting of what is being misunderstood.

Goes beyond that?

We talk with the publisher, together. We are all part of the bigger picture in a publishing house and as such need to keep the trust to continue to work and support each other and everyone else. Will we pair up again for a future manuscript, maybe, maybe not.

All this is exactly what I expect from MY editor. I won’t give anything less to you.