Publishing is only somewhat Mysterious

In the milieu of Publishing, One hears of Editors as the Supreme Court of the Publishing Business. One hears of Editors as if they are omniscient about language usage, spelling, capitalization, grammar – and, ridiculously, “correct profanity” in a publication. That’s pretty much true. But every Editor is also the keeper of a particular Stable. Each Editor wades in and shovels considerable manure from stalls occupied by writers who consume the Editor’s time, but never prepare to race by training hard – namely, by self-editing. I just watched an interview of a literary agent at the Curtis Brown Agency, who said that most of what she receives as manuscript submissions from writers read like first drafts! I have also read a lot of writers who assume that they can/should just leave the editing to the publisher. But editing is not free. Editing is no lark. Editing takes time and work. Editing is the fine polishing of what will be sold to consumers. If the writer doesn’t self-edit to the full extent of the writer’s own skill, the minutia of editing must be paid for by the Publisher. Editing is a production cost.