Reporters love to kvetch about atttention deficit syndrome when it comes to their editors: either they get too much or too little.
They may see things through a different lens after reading this dispiriting tale in Columbia Journalism Review about author Stacy Sullivan's experience with the book industry. Going public apparently hasn't made things any easier for Sullivan, according to an update by Gabriel Sherman in the New York Observer.
“Because Stacy has such inner editorial talent as well as the journalistic gift, she self-edited much of the book without needing my guidance,” Diane Higgins, Sullivan's editor at St. Martin's Press, told Gal Beckerman, who wrote the CJR piece.
For some writers that expression of faith might sound like eternal bliss. But most writers know they need editors, whether they admit it or not. Writing is lonely enough without having a sounding board, coach, critic, first reader, last line of defense and all the other vital roles editors play in the process of producing a piece of good writing. The few times an editor screwed up a story of mine are far outnumbered by the myriad times they saved my literary butt. And I'm not alone.
After you read about Stacy Sullivan's experience as a first-time author, you may want to take your editor to lunch. Just to say thanks for being there.
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