‘Dear Alex’ will be a regular column where I answer the most interesting publishing, editing, and writing-related questions you ask me. I have permission from everyone involved to publish these discussions.
Dear Alex,
I just received edits back on a story that I sold to a publication.
Some of them make sense, but some of them seem blatantly wrong or go against what I’ve heard from other editors. Some even go against style guides. Help! What does this mean? What do I do? Can I refuse edits? Should I?
-R
Dear R,
Welcome to “Not all editors agree on everything 101”.
You were going to take this class sooner or later, I’m sorry it had to be this soon but I’m glad it’s with something so harmless! Pull up a chair.
Editors disagree, often wildly. Some of it is just the normal human variety in taste and style, and some of it is down to what kind of editor they are. Many magazine/anthology editors are writers or have other jobs and also edit in the sense of purchasing and publishing stories. This isn’t in any way meant as an insult! On the contrary, anyone who takes time after working a regular job to still take on something as painstaking as making room in publishing for our stories? They deserve a statue. At least.
But it’s often the reason why editors will bring their own personal preferences into their publication, and some may do so with more bias than others. The way they write becomes the way the publication publishes. The way they like to be treated as writers becomes the way their publication treats writers. To some extent, that’s true for me and for every other editor, too, it’s only a matter of knowing how far to take it. So, if you were to start a R-Mag of your own, you’d likely have loads of italics and favor detailed, flowing descriptions, for example. Other writers may think “Why is this person asking me to describe everything?! I do not like this.” But it’s your publication, and if that’s the tone you want to go with, you have every right.
It’s important that you realize editors are no different than you, and therefore neither scary nor the Absolute Word of Law in anything.
You will disagree with a lot of their edits and many will seem counter to what the standard practices are or counter to what you were trying to say with that piece of writing.
So what happens next?
I also recently received edits on a story, and didn’t fully agree with some. You know me, I’m a minimalist and any unnecessary formatting, dialogue tags, etc, drive me nuts as a writer. You might encounter, quite literally, anything among your edits, even blatant changes to the spirit of your text.
You have options when something like this happens:
- Do you have a good relationship/feel comfortable with that editor? I did with mine, so I went “yo, I don’t really like this Italics thing because I like to keep things minimalistic, with as little as possible between the reader and the character” and he understood that and went my way. Anthology/magazine editors expect you to push back on some of their edits. It’s a normal part of the process, and you shouldn’t be afraid to make your perspective clear.
- Is the edit massively problematic and misrepresenting you, and the editor also terrifies you? Have they responded negatively to you pushing back? I hate to say this, but it’s likely better for you to withdraw. That is never going to be an easy decision to make, and nobody can help you make it. You know best what your boundaries for being mistreated are—I had to find mine by being hurled over them. If that’s what you feel is happening, though, don’t sacrifice your health and well-being just for a publishing credit. You will have others. I promise.
- Is the edit actually not something that bothers you that much and contesting it feels more uncomfortable than it’s worth? Let them have it. You will be edited in a hundred different ways by a hundred different editors, and you as a writer will never have consistency with yourself, because each publisher needs to have consistency with their own publications. So it doesn’t really matter. You will be published with some things that are technically ‘wrong’. I have been. Doesn’t matter, nobody will care. This is a good time to learn to let go.
It’s important that you keep your source materials—the stuff you submit—clean and consistent and easy to work with, but after that point, expect anything and everything to happen. Because it will!
So keep up your good practices, and don’t worry about what the editors do too much.
However, there is one thing that absolutely should not happen: If you feel uncomfortable and unsafe, deeply defensive of your writing, and do not have a relationship with the editor, you should absolutely not under any circumstances treat the editing process like an ‘argument’ that you need to ‘win’. You should not bring ego into that room. You should not feel the need to ‘beat’ your editor. If that’s what’s happening, it would likely be less harmful to you in the long run to withdraw from the publication than it will be to go have a shouting match.
And I’m not telling you this as an editor who wants to only have easy clients—I’m plenty comfortable dropping anyone who treats me as anything other than a professional. I’m saying it as a writer who also wants to make headway in publishing through her writing.
I know there are loads of successful writers out there who can and do behave like creeps to everyone in their path. Don’t be one. It’s not good for your soul and it’s not good for the craft we love so much.
Follow-up Questions
Q: In their email, the editor said ‘feel free to accept/reject any changes’. Do they really mean that?
A: Yes, and if they don’t, they are wrong. It is standard practice, when published in an anthology or magazine, that you get to have the final say on the aspects that matter most to you. Use your judgment, though. Refusing everything means it’s not likely you’ll get invited back.
Q: What’s a normal number of edits to reject?
A: I expect an author to take anything between 60% and 90% of my suggestions. When I’m the one being edited, I’ll only say no to things I can objectively explain. So, no “I just want it like this because this is how I like it.”
Q: Are you allowed to show the edits to your friends to ask for opinions?
A: Yes, absolutely. And to other editors, if they can spare the time.
Q: How do I send my choices back?
A: Usually editors work with track changes + comments in either a word document or on google docs. So, unless they specify otherwise, you accept the edits you agree with, reject the ones you don’t, make changes based on comments, reply to the comments you still need to discuss, and send the document back. You can use the body of the email to explain why you rejected some of the bigger issues. “I didn’t add those dialogue tags. I felt like an action tag would make that row more dynamic, and then since there are only two speakers, we don’t need the second tag at all. Hope that comes across well!”
Love your spirit, tone, and expertise. I’m so excited to see this space grow <3
Jaime Dill, Co-EIC of Cardigan Press and owner of Polish & Pitch editorial services
<3 Next good question I get, I’m gonna call on you to consult and feature you.
This is good to know – every step of this journey is on a new path and the potholes are terrifying!
Let me know if there’s another step I can help with! I’m here for you.