Re: just the two of us on the Fourth
J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Tue, 07 Jul 1998 12:12:13 -0400 (EDT)
>Well I live with a vaguely famous editor and I can tell you that a
>editor's real job is to:
>1. massage the ego of writers who seem to believe that every word they
>write is sacred, can never be altered or rephrased
>2. correct punctuation
>3. Cut, cut, cut and cut the voluminous outpourings to readable
>chunks.
>
>Now before I get howled down let me add that this applies only to
>those
>writers who want to publish commercially, want to sell books and make
>money.
>A good editor is a very good reader. And a very good therapist.
>Lesley
>
I'm an infamous...eh...not famous....editor myself, and I agree. I
wasn't blasting editors or their jobs by my comments.
With my creative work, if I can't live with the suggested changes then I
apologize and inform the people with whom I've been working that perhaps
my work isn't suitable for their publication.
When I act as editor, I tell my writers, "this is what I need to do to
this piece to be able to live with it, can you?" If not, it doesn't go
in.
I have some luxuries because I'm not working on a big money scale here :)
Jim
_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]