An editor’s tips to writers

This morning, as I was perusing a copy of

Folio Magazine while I made my coffee in the office Keurig, I came across an article called “The 10 Dumbest Things I’ve Heard This Year” by J.C. Suares.

Folio is a magazine for magazine management and insiders. It’s the magazine for the people who make magazines. The article focused on things Suares had heard editor types say about magazines, things like “Cryptic headlines drive sales” and “Make them work” or something I rail against often: “The cover image does not have to connect to anything inside the magazine.” (Yes, it does!)

Thankfully, as an editor, I hadn’t said any of the things Suares listed. (But I’m sure I’ve thought or said some other equally dumb things.)

But the article got me thinking about some of the things an editor wishes a freelance writer wouldn’t do, say or think.

1. “I’ll just let you clean it up.” Unfortunately, some writers think that because we have a staff (small as it may be—we run a monthly magazine with 4 people on the team and only 3 of those work on the day-to-day operations) that they can be lax on grammar, spellcheck, and providing information about their sources. Um, no. No, you can’t. As an editor, when I get a submission from a writer, I want it to be the best work that writer could do on the piece. I want it to be spellchecked and follow the basics of grammar. If they’ve quoted people and cited books, our production editor wants to see those quotes from the books and to be able to check the sources. Easily. Meaning you send us a PDF or copy of those things. Because here’s the deal: yes, we’re going to check the grammar and run spellcheck again. Yes, we do have a staff. But we don’t have a lot of time and we’re paying you to write because as a freelance writer, you should know what you’re doing. It’s unprofessional to turn in a submission full of typos and bad grammar and sources we can’t validate. It’s a good way NOT to get asked to write again.

2. “You really don’t pay enough.” OK, it doesn’t make me angry when writers tell me this. Not at all. Because it’s true. And it’s something I try to point out often to the people who allocate how much money I can spend on manuscript acquisition. But it doesn’t help if a writer continually points it out to me—because in the current organization at my workplace, there’s not much I can do about it.

3. “I’m totally going to be late on this assignment, so I’m just going to go incognito and not respond to calls or emails.” As an editor, this is when I really do get angry. If you and I have entered a contract for a piece and it’s past the due date and I’m calling you or emailing you and asking where the story is, it means it’s important. Maybe something has happened in your life and you just cannot finish the story. Maybe you’ve dropped the ball completely and are embarrassed. Here’s the deal: it really doesn’t matter what’s going on. I just need to know something. Anything. I’m usually not going to get angry with a writer who is going to be late as long as he or she has kept me informed along the way. Ask my writers; rarely if ever do I refuse an extension request. I understand that life happens. But it’s not professional to deal with the problem by ignoring it (and ignoring your editor). If I’m calling you, it means I’m at deadline. And if you don’t talk to me and never tell me what happened. . . well, let’s just say you’re  blackballed from writing for me.

4. “I hate editors.” I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone tell this to me—and I hope my writers don’t think it. But I know that many writers simply assume that there’s an adversarial relationship between the writer and the editor. There doesn’t have to be. If I change something in your article or ask you to rework it, it’s not because I think your work is necessarily bad or that you’re stupid; I don’t. It’s because my job is to make your story the best it could be and I want it to speak to the audience of my magazine.

5. “Those who can’t write, edit.” Actually, I wrote a line very similar to that in a fiction story I’ve worked on off and on for the last few years. And while some people truly think this, I hope it’s not the case, at least on my part. I love to write. I love good writing. I like to stretch my creativity and write articles sometimes. But here’s a hard truth I came to a few years ago: I’m a better editor than I am a writer. I love looking at the big picture of the magazine and how the articles are all the pieces that tell that big-picture story. I like to think of editing as being handed a diamond in the rough or a dirty bunch of jewels. It’s my job to look at what you’ve handed me, see the beautiful parts, make those even better, then shine them up for the world to see. It’s my job to focus, hone, and tighten your work. It’s my job to make sure that your piece fits within the overall message, tone, and purpose of the magazine I edit. You’re looking at one piece of the magazine and thinking I’ve thrown water on your creativity; I’m concerned with the whole and making sure all the pieces are telling a cohesive story. So while I still love to write and hope that I write well, the truth is, editing is what I’m better at and more passionate about. I didn’t get in to it because I couldn’t string a sentence together; I got into it because I loved it.

#editors #freelance #writers