Thoughts On Being The Editor

[mmerriam]

Now that I've put a few weeks between me and selecting stories for Northern Light: 20 MinnSpec Tales and surviving a grilling by various MinnSpec members about why I chose certain stories, I've started to have some thoughts about sitting in the editor's chair.

Besides selecting the stories for the MinnSpec anthology, I have also been reading slush for Fantasy Magazine for nearly a year. I've read a lot of fiction in the last year. Some of it was quite good. Some of it, not so much. Once in awhile you find a gem. Most of it is middle-of-road. Okay, but nothing special.

The thing is, all of these stories are special, at least to the one who wrote them. The writer worked on this story, made it the best they could with the tools they have available. They had the courage to send it out into the world, hopeful that an editor also would find it special.

As an editor, I do not owe the writer anything more than a yes or no. As a writer, I don't expect anything more from an editor than a yes or no. If I can give (or receive) useful advice, great, but it is not owed. Look, the slush pile is a hard place for both the writer trying to break out of it and the editor wading through it looking for that one story that leaps out. I know what this is like from both points of view.

Recently, I figured out why I get tense when I read about (or receive) a rejection full of nastiness designed to encourage the writer to put away their word processor and take a job digging ditches in Alaska with a spork. It is the same reason I dislike certain blogs by agents and editors that take great glee in snarking and poking fun at submissions by would-be authors who are still learning their craft.

I dislike this because it's disrespectful.

And if an editor or agent does things to identify the submission they are being nasty about, it is ten-times worse in my opinion.

Yes, I know writers--especially new writers--are just as bad about going to their blog and pissing and moaning about agents and editors who don't understand their wonderful story. This is disrespectful as well, but right now I'm talking about--and from the point of view of--those on the business end of publishing and how they treat those on (or who aspire to be on) the creative end.

I know the number of sub-par stories you find in the slush. I know that sometimes you get a story that is nothing more than the writer working out their emotional issues, or putting their personal kinks on the page for you to read in mind-numbing detail, or showing you just how badly they need psychological help, but...

But they had the desire to write the story, the drive to finish the story, and courage to submit the story. That deserves respect, no matter the level of skill or flavor of the story. If you are an editor or agent, you are a professional. You can critique and teach without being nasty.

Don't be the editor (or agent) that writes mean-spirited rejections and mocks writers on their blog. Be professional. That writer tried their best. Be respectful of that effort.

Comments

[jennifer-brozek.livejournal.com]

This is why I don't do personal rejections. I have a checklist. If someone really wants to know why I rejected them and emails me about it, I will try to give them an answer.

Also, personalized rejections are subjective. They give the writer something to argue. Not to mention every editor is different and looking for different things in the story for the publication. I look for very different things when it comes to TEoP and Apex.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Well said, sir. Well said indeed.

[b4de1.livejournal.com]

But enter in my situation: I was born and live in a small town in Russia, and I don't know English so good as I want for to write on it well. So I ask your US'writers help just to correct my grammar mistakes, not others - other ones - it's my trouble.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

You might find http://fmwriters.com useful; among other things, if I recall correctly they have a forum specifically for writers who don't have English as a native language.

Are you also writing in Russian?

[b4de1.livejournal.com]

Of course, I think in, I write in and I translate in Russian, for me it's easy. My trouble is in my knowing English.

Thanks for link.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And there's this angle:

In this culture we are really terrible at recognizing when we are the authority figure. We really, really hate it. We don't like to say, "Yes, I am the power in this situation." There was a situation awhile back where White House staffers had to have their asses handed to them by Rahm Emmanuel by referring to "speaking the truth to power." (I imagine Mr. Emmanuel saying something like, "we are the $#@%&*#@ White House. We. Are. Power.") And editors, in particular, when faced with this, will talk about how much power editors don't have. They don't have all the money in the world. They don't have infinite space in their magazine. And so on.

But in the writer-editor dynamic, in the vast majority of cases, the editor is the one with the power. And it's really only classy to recognize that and say, "You know what? I'm not going to use that power to personally humiliate people with less power than me for doing something so criminal or morally reprehensible as...writing a story that was not as good as it could have been. Maybe there are better uses of that little corner of power that I have."

[b4de1.livejournal.com]

I hear it in Russia everyday. I think the same. BUT... I never hear the costructive ideas for changing this sitution, and I think nobody have it now (if even Star Trek had been having a latinum in DS9)

[pjthompson]

Great post, Michael.

Yes. ;-)

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Add this: You never know who will start writing well.

Offhand, I think it's okay to say that the writer hasn't followed the guidelines. Perhaps with some amplification of guidelines if, for example, you ask for "hard science" and you suspect the writer has confused that with military sf.

[cjad.livejournal.com]

Thank you Michael. Very well said.

[mikandra.livejournal.com]

As an editor, I do not owe the writer anything more than a yes or no

Exactly, but at least the author is owed that, in timely fashion, inaccordance with the guidelines advertised on the site. If you do that, you're ahead in the game. Courtesy goes both ways.

Editors who make disparaging comments... like you, I have no words for them.

Then again, what one perceives as a merely observing comment, the other might find rude. The position not to make comments at all is one I understand perfectly, but personally, I always, always make at least a one-line comment.

[glynisj.livejournal.com]

I hope I find someone as sensitive as you are when I finally finish what I am writing. Constructive criticism is always helpful, but the nasties are worthless.