Avi

word craft

blog

The Keeper of the Keys

keysYears ago, Fabio Cohen, my first impor­tant edi­tor (a bril­liant edi­tor) and a won­der­ful per­son, once said to me, “I don’t know why writ­ers pay so much atten­tion to their edi­tors.  There are, after all, a lot of us.” Per­haps I recall the remark because it was the only time I can recall him say­ing any­thing that was obtuse. Yet I have heard oth­er edi­tors say much the same. It is an obtuse remark because the edi­tor is the life­line for writ­ers wish­ing, want­i­ng, and wait­ing to be pub­lished. For those of us who are for­tu­nate to make a liv­ing by being pub­lished, the edi­tor is often the keep­er of the keys, the bank keys. The point is, while the rela­tion­ship between writer and edi­tor is often very close, very per­son­al (some­times a major life­long friend­ship), as well as aes­thet­ic, it is also a busi­ness rela­tion­ship. It is that busi­ness side, which often becomes ignored, denied, and/or for­got­ten. Ulti­mate­ly, (unless you are a very big-name) the writer is depen­dent on the edi­tor. Where­as in most cas­es the edi­tor is on a reg­u­lar salary, the writer lives on advances and/or roy­al­ties, a much more frag­ile exis­tence. All too often how­ev­er, the edi­tor does not accept the respon­si­bil­i­ty of that role, and pays no atten­tion to it. When that happens—and it hap­pens a lot—the whole work­ing con­nec­tion is undermined—the more so since it won’t be talked about. It is the unspo­ken side of publishing.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.