An Editor With Conscience?

[inksplotter]

Should I feel guilty about this?

I was hired to edit a book, I ran out of time and I've dropped five thousand words or so, but I haven't improved the plots or the characters.

[douglas9401]

Those who can do, those who can't, edit.

Or rather attempt to edit, if they can be arsed.

[inksplotter]

20K for three week's work? What world are you living in?

It's probably not worth it, anyhow. Even if you paid 20K for an editor it doesn't guarantee publication.

Oh, you got confused-the number of words is 20K.

[inksplotter]

"An editor should not remove bits"

Don't film editors do this all the time? And if your were to write an overlong letter to the newspaper an editor will shorten it. (More likely they'll chose a shorter entry).

[inksplotter]

"Were they fairy stories?"

If I wanted to make stuff up, I could better than this!

[boxtops]

well, you asked us, we replied. What did you want us to say, yes of course it's OK? we don't think it is!

[Baldric]

I doubt it!

[askyourgran]

So the next time you pick up a book and you are left with a cliff hanger, you'll know who had hold of it first. Inksplotter you owe them......

[sherrardk]

Write you're own bloody book then.

[inksplotter]

Only don't expect it to be some thriller writer you've heard of. ;-)

[Mosaic]

I thought editing meant collating pieces produced by other writer(s). eg 'The Letters of Samuel Pepys', edited by Guy de la Bedoyere.
...and that the process Inksplodge describes was called 'ghost writing', eg anything with Katie Price's name on the cover.

[inksplotter]

No, I think I would have to follow my client's plot and location.

[DTCwordfan]

I hope that it isn't my book that you are chopping up.....

[inksplotter]

No, it's a female client.

[naomi24]

Inksplotter, an editor’s job is not to re-write, simply to edit, the definition of which is 'to prepare material for publication by correcting, condensing, or otherwise modifying it.’ Trust me on this one.

[DTCwordfan]

I may write under a female pseudonym.......

If it was well-written porn, you'd cut out all the juicy bits, so to speak....

[royfromaus]

I was hired to edit a book, I ran out of time and I've dropped five thousand words or so



5000?
It's a good job you ran out of time.


Once upon a time, the end

[DTCwordfan]

And naomi is correct on this.......you are supposed to be a coach, you know.

[naomi24]

roy, ha ha! Very good. :o)

[kvalidir]

//20K for three week's work? What world are you living in? //
Apparently a more affluent one that you?
How is anyone expected to know how much you earn? You seem confused about what an editor actually IS, you've hacked 5k words from something only 20,000 words long and haven't finished a commission. We didn't know whether you were freelancing your 'above average' talents out or working for a major publishing house on a 'foreigner'. Either way I'd find a different profession.

[DTCwordfan]

I edit a lot and I don't shorten unless it is absolutely necessary or requested. It's more grammatical, structure and, my major coaching point that I was taught by one of the Beeb's scriptwriters who has edited my work, to get more emotion and thinking into scripts, particularly when it comes to novel writing.

A lot of my editorial is scientific or engineering based though.