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Topic: Working with an Annoying Editor
| Author | Message |
| Night Writer | Posted – 5/11/2008 9:34:45 PM | show profile I recently submitted a query to an editor for a small cultural magazine (not listed on Mediabistro). In my query, I outlined my angle for the magazine with three main ideas. The editor accepted my proposal and didn't add any feedback to my outline, so I assumed that all was good. I had no life for the next two weeks as I interviewed people and put my article together with the main points I mentioned in the query. I sent out my article two weeks ago. Over the weekend, I got an email from the editor saying that the article had no message, no theme, and that the ideas were disconnected, and how I need to fix a bunch of stuff in the next few days before they go to print. It just seems inconsiderate to wait 2 weeks after I submitted my work to spring this on me, esp. days before they go to print. Not to mention that it appears that the editor hadn't read my query carefully because what I had in my article was what I had in my query. Is this kind of a situation unique, or does it happen to other writers as well? I'd appreciate any insights. Thanks. |
| Marie | Posted – 5/11/2008 11:29:52 PM | show profile You can cover every point in your outlilne, and still write a disconnected article, an article with no connective tissue, which is what it seems you've done. The points might be interesting in themselves, but it seems you didn't connect them. Try to fix it the way the editor told you to. Or the piece will likely be killed. |
| Grateful Deadline | Posted – 5/11/2008 11:37:07 PM | show profile If it's a small-enough cultural magazine that it runs only a few articles, and/or if the editor does nothing except edit articles, then yes, it would have been good for the editor to get back to you sooner. But the situation aside, it's really standard operating procedure for writers to consider the reader by giving the article a theme (a point) and for interconnecting the ideas in it. |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/12/2008 7:18:49 AM | show profile Well, there is a pretty big gap between a query and a finished article. Sometimes it's easy to have a strong image in your head of what you plan to do, but the editor doesn't get that from just the query, so he may be expecting something different. It's standard for an editor to respond to a draft like this and ask for changes, that's what editing is. |
| bjoconnorfla | Posted – 5/12/2008 11:59:36 AM | show profile "Annoying editor" seems like a redundancy, don't you think? After all, that's part of what we do -- ask annoying, niggling questions so that the reader doesn't. There can be quite a gap between a query and the finished item, so I don't necessarily think he was neglectful. Now if he was discarding the entire premise of the story, you'd certainly have a point. What your editor is, is inconsiderate. Yeah, he's overworked, blah. blah, freakin' blah. Show me someone who isn't. One reason freelancers are overworked is thanks to editors who take a story filed on time, let it sit for weeks, then slam the writer with a last-minute rewrite right before the close. That's annoying AND incosiderate and unprofessional. The best approach is to be -- well, annoying. Not too annoying, but once you file, you've got to follow up to make sure someone actually has opened the attachment, glanced over the story and tells you it looks mostly OK. You also can use this as a way to manage the process, by letting them know, "I start another project next Thursday and won't be available until after May 29." I had one editor who consistently held my freelance stories at a large national newspaper and without fail suddenly popped up "needing" to run them tomorrow-- with major changes and new reporting that had never been discussed -- while I was on vacation. I took to emailing him and letting him know I was out of pocket at least a week before I left town. If people were more professional, you wouldn?t have to do this, but you're a freelancer. You want to get paid and have some control over your life, and managing your clients is what it takes. Good luck. |
| bjoconnorfla | Posted – 5/12/2008 12:01:05 PM | show profile sorry for the typos. |
| wineaux | Posted – 5/12/2008 12:11:17 PM | show profile Pretty standard stuff, I have to say. I have had articles held for months and then, bam! I'd get a call from the editor with a laundry list of changes that needed to be made. It's the nature of the business as a freelancer. Or any mag writer that I've ever known. |
| JackieRo | Posted – 5/12/2008 1:45:12 PM | show profile Bjconnorfla, just one point to make: Just because it was submitted on time doesn't mean it sat for weeks without edits. It may have gone through several editors in house and the editor's boss demanded something more or different. And often articles are scheduled to come in right at the end of another deadline, which means it won't get 100% attention the second it comes in. Months out, well that's a little different. But 2 weeks is not so unreasonable. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 5/12/2008 1:46:33 PM | show profile Grateful Deadline, that is one great screen name. |
| bjoconnorfla | Posted – 5/12/2008 3:40:09 PM | show profile Good point, Jackie, and if it was just a complaint about being slow getting back to the writer, that's one thing. The big issue here is that the editor left the writer very little time to make what (at least to the writer) seem like major fixes. One reason so many editors are so "over-worked" is the amount of extra work they create for themselves. If Night Writer is out of town, unavailable, or the story sources are unavailable, the editor is stuck with a subpar story and a big hole to fill. Then he's too busy to look at other stories unitl the last minute. Whatever the process is, it shouldn't involve expecting a major rewrite on very short notice. Even if sub editors have been working on the story, the writer doesn't have any warning. There should be a point in the process where someone flags the story early on as needing major work or not, and making sure there is enough time in house and on the writer's part to get that work done. That said, it's also up to the writer to make sure s/he doesn't get sandbagged with having to make big fixes at the last minute. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 5/12/2008 4:01:52 PM | show profile It's pretty standard in the magazine world. The big issue is that magazines are awful at workflow. When I do corporate projects, there is often a time line all set -- I have a deadline to turn in the second draft, the client has a deadline to provide feedback, and I have a deadline to turn in the second draft. Before I begin work, I can schedule every part of the project. Magazines, in contrast, just give you a deadline for the first draft and everything after that is catch-as-catch-can. You don't know if you'll get questions that need a response in one day or six months. In corporate gigs, by the way, clients generally ask if I can fit something into my schedule. With magazines, editors often assume I can accommodate anything they want and assume I will give priority to their request. Personally, it doesn't bother me. I usually can accommodate them. If I can't, I just give them a different deadline than the one they suggested for when I can provide the material they want. --One reason freelancers are overworked is thanks to editors who take a story filed on time, let it sit for weeks, then slam the writer with a last-minute rewrite right before the close. That's annoying AND incosiderate and unprofessional.-- |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/13/2008 3:09:48 AM | show profile | email poster Article due: Feb. 15 Article publishes: May 1 Editor gets back to you and demands rewrite/fix/whatever in a matter of days: April 15 This happens fairly often. You just have to build it in. Also, even if the editor likes your query, he may assume that when it fleshes out in an article (sorry, I know that term makes some people crazy) it falls within a fairly narrow set of article guidelines of what their articles of that nature read and feel like. The key is -- learn to suit your editor. That's the bottom line of who you have to please. If the editor ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. If you don't think you can, move on. But be warned: they're all different, they all have their things, and there's no getting away from that. I had an editor liked my query, took the story, over-reacted with strong, irritated language, I tweaked two small things that WERE NOT EARTH SHAKING, she's happy as a lamb. Which made me think her problem may just have been her manic/depressive meds got out of whack. Whatever. I catered, I kowtowed, I got the check, got the byline -- and got the next assignment. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/13/2008 3:13:19 AM | show profile One of the things that I think I've noticed on one occasion causing and editor to overreact is that she herself shrinks from fixing copy because she doesn't like to write and doesn't have time to figure out what the story is so that she could fix it. Whereas when she explained it to me, who did the research, the fix was simple. So if you have a panicky edit, instead of panicking yourself, just work calmly to fix it to spec. Could be easier than you think, especially if you're experienced. |
