Fighting With Editors

One of the biggest benefits to being an indie author is that I have total control over my own work.  I get to decide the cover, the content, and when to publish.  That doesn’t, however, mean there is no conflict, and a lot of that conflict comes in the form of an editor.

Now when I say editor, I more mean someone who proofs my works and makes sure it makes sense.  I don’t believe in a dedicated content editor – I use beta-readers to see what works and what doesn’t.  Like I said, it’s my work, so I’ll do what I think is best for the work.  That doesn’t mean I’m not prone to human pride and wouldn’t simply like my editor to return my work untouched, telling me it was flawless and ready to go.

So it’s hard not to revert back to student-mode when someone critiques what I’ve written.  Homecoming was full of red ink marks and notations when I got it back.  I looked through it with a touch of wounded pride, and I even found myself arguing with my (not present) editor as I went over what she said.  Conversations would go something like this:

“I capitalized that on purpose!  It’s a proper title, and I want the audience to know the person is important!”
No response from person who isn’t in the room.

“Yes, I know there’s a difference between ‘man’ and ‘men,’ and I was using it to talk about humanity as a whole rather than the plural form!”
Again, no response from person not in the room.

“Of course it’s passive voice, but that works better there and is in line with that person’s personality!”
Still nothing from the walls at whom I am yelling while the editor is 500 miles away.

This went on and on as I wore myself into exhaustion arguing with a person who isn’t there.  Then I remembered that it’s my work, and I can accept or ignore the edits as I see fit.  I also remembered that I asked the person to edit my work, and everything was done out of a) a desire to be helpful, and b) from the perspective of an objective reader who isn’t as intimately familiar with my work as I am.  Once I realized that – or kept realizing, as it happened more than once – I was able to take the edits in stride.

That doesn’t, of course, mean I accepted every edit(again – my work).  What it gave me was the perspective to see what might require revision and what I wanted to keep in there intentionally.  With the knowledge of an outside and objective look, I could decide more consciously whether or not the piece needed adjustment(and a lot did, believe me).  I accepted some edits and I discarded some edits.  Sometimes I revised in accordance with the suggested edit.  And although sometimes a correction was warranted, it was different than what either of us saw, so I created something new.

Still, it reiterated that every bit of my work requires someone to look it over, and that someone needs to be a person who isn’t me.  I tend to think my work is just fine, but an outside look finds things I miss, and even if I don’t take every suggested edit, having the choice versus being ignorant helps make anything written better.  Despite the acrimony, isn’t that the point?