{"id":175,"date":"2013-08-13T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/08\/13\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_13\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:17","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_13\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nSo an
\nauthor has signed a contract for his work with a publisher and thus begins the
\nediting process of the book he holds most dear. The author is excited to get
\nthe edits and to begin making the changes. Then\u2026oh, no\u2026the editor can\u2019t really
\nwant to take that out of the author\u2019s story. Wait a minute, the author has a
\nreason for not including that information at that very moment. Really? The
\neditor thinks this scenario can\u2019t happen in real life? Why, the author was abducted by
\naliens just last week.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nYes,
\nthe editing process does <\/i>begin. There\u2019s
\na lot of give and take in edits. The author gives and the editor takes out.
\nOkay. I\u2019m only kidding, and I\u2019m exaggerating above, but just a bit. Editors do
\nsometimes ask authors to make tough decisions about their prose.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf that\u2019s
\nthe case, how does an author approach an editor about suggested changes? First
\nof all, I want to point out that editors are not infallible, but neither are
\nwriters. Also, editors aren\u2019t changing an author\u2019s prose simply because they
\ncan. Editors work hard to provide the author with a finished product he can
\ntake pride in. If the author gives a valid reason, most editors will cave.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFor
\nthat reason, an author should look unemotionally and objectively at the edit
\nand explain why he wants to leave it as is (STET), or why he feels there might
\nbe an alternate edit. After an author takes an unbiased look at the suggested
\nchange, and he feels that he has a very good reason for leaving it alone or
\nmaking a change, he should then approach the editor.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nNicola
\nMartinez, Pelican Book Group\u2019s Editor-in-Chief says, \u201cAn author should always
\nbe professional and respectful, and when communicating via e-mail, err on the
\nside of being almost \u2018too nice\u2019 in tone even when explaining a reason for
\ndisagreement.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOpen
\ncommunication is the key, and, as noted above, sometimes the author may find that his reasoning
\nis met with agreement. On other occasions, the answer will be no. At that time,
\nan author will need to decide his next course of action, but that action should
\nbe taken with care and attention to the contract he entered into with the
\npublisher. Again, Ms. Martinez says, \u201cBut remaining respectful and professional
\nis the key because getting a reputation for having a bad attitude, being rude,
\nor difficult to work with, or backing out of deals, can have lasting ramifications.\u201d
\nShe also pointed out that the publishing world is small. Editors move from
\npublishing house to publishing house, and an author may be quite surprised when
\nhe runs into an editor he once treated without respect.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n*I feel
\nit is very important to note that this post was not<\/u> written to address
\nany actions by any of Pelican Book Groups wonderful authors. The post is for
\ninformational purposes only.*<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nHappy
\nediting.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So an author has signed a contract for his work with a publisher and thus begins the editing process of the book he holds most dear. The author is excited to get the edits and to begin making the changes. Then\u2026oh, no\u2026the editor can\u2019t really want to take that out of the author\u2019s story. Wait […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[67,18,136,154,70,62],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing","tag-editing-tips","tag-editors","tag-rewriting-advice","tag-self-editing","tag-tips-for-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}