In the 2-3 years that I've been working towards getting published professionally, I've heard quite a few writers complaining about being edited. They seem to resent it, which is something I don't quite understand ... unless they've been working with a lousy editor who has been changing things in their work for bad reasons, or for no reason...
A good editor is someone who has years of experience and who can sit back and look at your work, see the problems, and know what to do to put them right and get the work back on track. A good editor doesn't change the spirit of the work, or the direction of the characters, or the mood of scenes. Of course, a lousy editor will probably try to do that -- I acknowledge the possibility that I was totally lucky and met a great editor, and had a positive experience.
I work with Jade from DreamCraft, who has spent about 10 years as Mel Keegan's editor. I believe I'm privileged to be working with this outfit. They're small, and select, and you get to work one-on-one with the people who run the whole show. Other places, you feel like a cog in the mechanism and if your books don't sell in huge numbers, you can get dropped. Gives you shivers.
Not that Jade is an "easy" editor ... in fact, I have heard her called a "tough" editor, but this is nonsense. If "tough" means she won't let you get away with murder ... if it means she won't let a book be printed that is full of mistakes -- suuuuuuure. She's tough. But if "easy" means an editor who can't be bothered to fix mistakes, or doesn't have the experience to recognize the mistakes in the first place ... why would you want to work with an "easy" editor?
When I set out to find a road leading being published professionally, I knew I was going to have to learn a LOT. Writing fanfic can only teach you so much. You can learn a lot in that arena, but you have to face facts. You're mostly writing for your friends, and are they going to tell you when your stuff stinks? Probably not. Also, are they qualified to bring a piece of work up to professional standard? Well, maybe a few fannish editors here and there might be, but mostly ... not.
It's a huge step, when you go from writing for friends to sending your story out to a pro editor. You get butterflies. You get HUGE butterflies when you're sending your stuff to the editor who's been working with Mel Keegan for 10 years. Knees do some knocking.
However, the experience was a big positive for me. I now have several stories "in play," and the first one is about to have its cover panted. It's very thrilling. In my next post, I'll write about the first story that's going to be coming out with the name of Claudia Dante on it. Whooooo!
