I write YA and MG novels, because I can't help it. My day job is scientific editing.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
In praise of editors
Gary Kamiya has written a fabulous piece in today's Salon called "Let us now praise editors". Fellow editors, go get a day pass and read it, and revel in the unusual appreciation.
I am as-yet unpublished, so perhaps my opinion will change, but I think generally editors are lovely, intelligent, useful people. You can almost always tell when a book hasn't been edited (usually because the writer has reached such a stature that their word vomit is considered pure gold).
The way I see it, the editorial part of the process is just as important as the writer's, and writers whine too much about editors "ruining" their work.
Would all authors thought so. Though mostly I edit geologists now, I appreciate the magic that fiction editors do...and look forward to handing my own stuff over to one of them. :)
I am as-yet unpublished, so perhaps my opinion will change, but I think generally editors are lovely, intelligent, useful people. You can almost always tell when a book hasn't been edited (usually because the writer has reached such a stature that their word vomit is considered pure gold).
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it, the editorial part of the process is just as important as the writer's, and writers whine too much about editors "ruining" their work.
"lovely, intelligent, useful people"?
ReplyDelete{basking}
Would all authors thought so. Though mostly I edit geologists now, I appreciate the magic that fiction editors do...and look forward to handing my own stuff over to one of them. :)
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you plan to stay with this color combination, but I like it.
Thanks, Carol! I think I'm done playing for now. (which is probably way different from when you saw it!)
ReplyDelete