I don’t remember where I read it but I do remember it was in the comments section of some blog.  I think it had something to do with self publishing or something like that.  It’s fuzzy in the brain right now.  But what the commenter said was that the only reason published books were good was because of the editors on them, not the authors.  Now, I’m not someone that gets offended easily but that felt like a punch below the belt.

Of course it shows the commenter’s total ignorance on the writing process and there’s really no use in explaining it but what the hell?  Then why don’t we leave the writing to the editors, then?  If they make the book, let them work it up from start to finish!  What do we need authors for?

Just in case anyone reading this didn’t know (if you’re reading this and didn’t know, please come out from under that rock, the sun is nice and warm), editors fine tune an already heavily edited manuscript.  It starts with the author who writes it, edits the shit out of it, rewrites it, edits more shit in and out of it, rewrites it again ad nauseum until they feel it’s finally ready for query.  Agents will not take on manuscripts that need to be heavily edited.  It’s too much work and, quite frankly, a waste of resources.  If they feel there’s huge potential there, they’ll offer editing information and ask the author to resubmit AFTER the edits are made.  With or without that step, an agent takes on a manuscript and may or may not make a few more tweaking edits prior to subbing it out to publishers.  Once it’s taken up by the publisher, the editors give it one more once over, make whatever suggestions they deem necessary and hand it over to the author to correct.  After all of that, a final, publishable copy is born.

Now, who did all the actual editing in that scenario?  Most of it was self-edited by the author.  Minor bits and pieces were RECOMMENDED by the agent and, eventually, editor.  Editors do not make changes.  They suggest them.  The author then has to take his or her talent and transfer it to those recommendations.  And they are minor suggestions.  Changing a chapter is minor.  Rewriting an ending is relatively minor.  Doing a major overhaul on a manuscript at publisher level is unheard of.

So let’s get this straight, okay?  Editors do not make the writers.  They do not create the book you hold in your hand after purchasing it from the store.  They sand the hard edges of a nearly finished product.  They put that extra layer of laquer on it to make it shine that much more but they didn’t create the table.  They didn’t bevel it.  They didn’t inlay the wainscoting.  They just put the cherry on the sundae.

Got that?    Yes, editors make an author’s work look better (in theory, anyway) but an author has to create the work and build up the pyramid on their own before an editor can put that final pointed piece on top.  So let’s not kid ourselves here and let’s never say that editors make the books.  The book needs to exist first and that lies squarely with the author.