Is it just me?

Do other editors get a large percentage of writers who start with a lot of enthusiasm but then disappear before the project is done? I'd say almost two out of every three writers who contact me gush over how happy they are with the editing, but then they don't complete the project and I never hear from them or see any evidence of their presence on the site.

In a couple of cases, it was obvious that the writer didn't want to do the heavy lifting required to bring the piece up to an acceptable standard, but those relationships only lasted for a single email exchange and didn't surprise me. (I am very encouraging in my feedback, by the way, always looking to catch them doing something right, not subjecting them to some kind of literary drill instructor persona.)

I'm kind of tempted to not take on any projects that aren't already complete from beginning to end.

I'm sure it's not just you. But I've read enough posts from writers who had their editors go AWOL that I'm sure it's a problem that's pretty evenly distributed on both sides.

Personally I think a lot of people start writing a story and think it will be easy and then they realize it actually takes time and work to set the story down, tell it as they want to, and that's before you go back to edit.

As for only wanting completed projects, there's nothing wrong with that. It's your time and you get to decide how to spend it.

I rarely go beyond an initial edit, so I rarely know what the author has done with the piece after I've edited it. I don't take ownership of the story both because it's dangerous when editors do that--they can lose their objectivity and can try to put too much of themselves into someone else's stories--and because the author is the one who has it last and who submits it. The editor has no control over what is submitted.

I also don't take a story for edit until it's completely drafted. The hard part for the author then is over, so they are less likely to abandon it after it was edited (unless, of course, the edit showed them that the story was hopeless, in which case it's best for all that it not be posted).

I've looked twice and was sorry I did--once when the author stopped posting the story to Lit. well short of the chapters I'd edited and put it into the marketplace and when I saw myself credited as editor when I've asked not to be credited--first, because I didn't have it last, so I don't take responsibility for what was submitted, and, second, because my detractors then are going to down rate the story regardless of its own merit.

I'm sorry to say that some of what you see when the author doesn't then post something you've edited here is that they came here for a free edit to only put it in the marketplace for profit solely to them.

Thanks.

I feel better now. It makes sense that some writers realize that they've bitten off more than they can chew or just get busy with their real life.

I suppose my naiveté is showing. I had no idea that a marketplace might exist where someone could actually profit (or at least believe that they might) from a few thousand words of sometimes explicit erotica.

Combat323 said:

I feel better now. It makes sense that some writers realize that they've bitten off more than they can chew or just get busy with their real life.

I suppose my naiveté is showing. I had no idea that a marketplace might exist where someone could actually profit (or at least believe that they might) from a few thousand words of sometimes explicit erotica.

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Have you not heard of 50 Shades of Grey?

There's plenty of erotica out there if you take the time to look, and you don't have to look too hard.

PennLady said:

Have you not heard of 50 Shades of Grey?

There's plenty of erotica out there if you take the time to look, and you don't have to look too hard.

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I've seen the Fifty Shades series and knockoffs in the bookstore, but I figured they were just amped-up versions of those terrible Harlequin Romance books my mom used to read. I do recall something about Fifty Shades being self-published. I'll have to investigate.

One difference though: None of the stuff I've edited has been of novel or even novella (maybe short novella) length.

There's a heap of every erotic twist you can think of from epic down to short short stories being sold at such on-line stores as Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, Allromanceebooks, etc. The markets been there big time for nearly a decade now.

I was accepted recently as a volunteer editor. So far I have edited three stories that were all published on Literotica. What I am finding is that all the authors wanting an editor some will contact you but then they do not follow through by sending the story or telling you your services are no longer needed. It gets boring fast when you spend your time responding to their request for an editor only to be ignored. I could be spending my time polishing my own story and starting another story.