Dear writer, this editor can only spoil your work

Editors are not easy to work with. They always have an opinion and will state it clearly. That is not to say they are opinionated. In most cases, they mean well. However, without trying to be ‘holier than thou,’ I would like to talk about an editor you should avoid.

To start with, you should avoid that editor who changes your story without your knowledge. A story is always told in publishing houses about an author who was given the final product of months of work and to the astonishment of the editor, she dropped the book on the table and demanded her manuscript. The bottom line is, the editor had changed the story and the characters completely. Certainly, this is wrong. In the editor-author relationship, the editor is simply a midwife. He or she should not make the baby.