How does one get an editor?

[lobito]

If people rarely visit, much less post in the editors forum?

There are less than 50 posts, in the last 30 days, which may NOT mean very much, but it's not a good thought for a "new writer", looking for someone to help him or her out.

Lo

 

[Weird Harold]

If people rarely visit, much less post in the editors forum?

The Editor's Forum is not intended as a place to find editors, it's a place for the volunteer editors to discuss editing isssues.

The list of Volunteer editors is where you find and editor or editors to take a look at your story.

http://www.literotica.com/storyxs/voled_stor.shtml

Selecting ten or twelve names from the list and e-mailing them to see if they're available seems to be the best tactic -- not all of the editors are available or interested in a particular story. By asking ten or so, you should find one or two both avilable and interested in your story.

 

[mug shot]

choosing the right editors

Please remember to read each of the editors notes. Some editors will not read certain stories. Each has his/her own preference as to which stories they would like to read and help with. It is just a nusance to some of the editors to get storiesfor example on incest when they have stated they do not edit incest stories, so please check witht he editor before sending them your story or even part of it. They will most assuredly appreciate it.

 

[lobito]

Re: choosing the right editors

Please remember to read each of the editors notes. Some editors will not read certain stories. Each has his/her own preference as to which stories they would like to read and help with. It is just a nusance to some of the editors to get storiesfor example on incest when they have stated they do not edit incest stories, so please check witht he editor before sending them your story or even part of it. They will most assuredly appreciate it.

Thanks I appreciate your thoughts mugshot. I sent to Editors 12 days ago now, and NOT ONE has bothered to even say one thing yet, I realize they are doing it for free, and I'm NOT ungrateful, but that seems pretty long when they tell you only a "couple of days" turnaround.

My main story that I WANT more than anything posted here, is straight male/female sex. It may not be the best written story, but the person I wrote it for liked it very much, and that matters more than anything, but I was also asked to submit it to Lit, because the person thought more would like to read it as well.

Lo

 

[P. B. Walker]

Lobito,

If you just sent an email asking if they could edit your story and did not enclose the story, then 12 days is long enough to wait. I would select another 10 or 12 editors and send them the same email. If you did enclose the story, then I would wait one more week and then move on to the next set of editors. If you have not used a particular editor before, I would suggest sending the email without the story attached. That seems to be pushy for some reason. Don't ask me why. Once you've had your stories edited by a particular editor once or twice, I would go ahead and enclose the story in the email.

Also, use bcc when sending to the editors. Put all their addresses in the Bcc: field so they don't know you are sending the same email to 10 to 12 other editors. If they see a huge list of editors you are sending it to, they may just decide not to reply since they figure someone else will edit it. Or you can send each of them an individual email with their address in the To: field.

Good luck. It's not as easy as it sounds finding a set of editors that you like.

- PBW

 

[lobito]

P.B.,

I talked to them first, and they suggested that they would look at the story based on what I said to them about the content. After they told me to send it I did.

I talked to and sent to each person seperately, so NO one person knows from my side, who else is editing my story. I sent one story to an editor, and it came back almost unrecognizable, so I won't be using that person anymore.

This is my first story, I got tired of waiting, and posted one 2 part story on Wednesday, and am abandoning the idea as of Thursday of even using an editor for the one I REALLY want posted, and just taking my lumps if I have to.

I want to have something posted before I go on vacation, otherwise it's another month before I can get ti posted, and I'm NOT writing stories to jsut sit on my computer, and certainly NOT writing them for my own enjoyment. I'm writing for others to read.

Thanks again,
Lo

 

[P. B. Walker]

Yeah it's definitely a big waiting game. Sorry to hear you had such problems. I guess I got lucky to find a few editors that I really enjoy working with. But yes, it's still a waiting game. I've just accepted that. The editors do such a good job on my stories, that I don't mind waiting.

Better luck next time,

PBW

 

[bluntforcemama]

I'm an editor, but I only edit the stories of people that I don't have to rewrite the story for. Know what I mean? I'm very picky, unfortunately.

 

[KillerMuffin]

I was an editor. I gave it up because too many people needed me to teach them remedial English, basic story design, and the essentials of how fiction should feel.

We have Strunk and White for these things.

Send a query to your editors asking them if they'd had a chance to look at it yet. If not is there a time frame on it? Would they prefer you took it elsewhere? If they promised a turn around time then you should rightfully expect it by then. If they did not a polite query will often remind them what they've forgotten.

I was notoriously slow. I had over a month turn around time. I gave it up in favor of a critique thread over yonder. I get the same experience, the same exposure to a wide range of authors and stories, and I don't have to deal with line by line edits and authors can see how I'm backed up when they request feedback from me. I vastly prefer it to editing.

Anyway, lo, good luck. If you get no help, then run it through your grammar checker to find misspellings and submit it as is. Worst that'll happen is Laurel will say no.

 

[lobito]

thanks Myst and KM...

Myst, I may look ya up, if you don't mind, because as I said, this one story I really want posted, but I KNOW it needs some suggestions. And I don't want "just anybody" as an editor, I wnat someone who knows what they are doing, not just someone who likes reading stories.

It's a straight male female story, so I didn't think it would be so hard to get feedback from an editor on.

The other story, I did just what KM said, I spell checked it, and submitted it, and this morning my first part was put up, still waiting for the second one to be put up.

Thanks again,
Lo

 

[CHEWEY]

Finding An Editor

I know just how you feel lobido, when I first starting writing, I sent mine to an editor also. Two of them in fact, one was very reputable. I still haven't heard from them and that was 17 stories and poems ago I haven't used one since and I'm doing okay. The way the stories are rated, doesn't make any sense to anyone anyway. Although I did finally get my first H, which I was really striving for. Amazing how little it takes to please us Keep writing and sooner or later someone may notice and If they don't so what! You can see it in print!

 

[lobito]

Thanks CHEWEY, the fact is that the last week or so, I've been telling people exactly what people are tellign me now. I'm just gonna spell check, and submit it. If someone likes it great, fi they don't then at least MAYBE some feedback will tell me if I'm wasting my time.

Some of the stories I haven't touched in 6+ years, and decided that rather than let them sit on a disk, that I was gonna stop writing just to write, because I want people to read what I write. Otherwise, again, I'm wasting my time, by NO ONE seeing or reading them. Good or bad.

I've sent my story out (again), to someone I trust will tell me straight. But without feedback on the first part, I can't or won't start writing the next part.

Lo

 

[Couture]

Lobito, another good thing to do is cultivate authors or readers for this purpose.

If you find an author you like, who does stuff similar to yours, send them feedback on their story. I'm not talking about "Liked it, mean it." But, spend some time on it, like you would like for someone to do for your story. Then ask if they would like to do a swap and edit for one another.

After you've posted a few stories, you may get a reader that really critiques your story. Ask them if they will do it again, if you send it in advance to being posted.

Hope this helps

-Couture

 

[Couture]

Lobito, you gave me an idea for something. I've set up a community for writers to post stories and then other members will proof them. Just keep in mind that the people proofing are other writers, so please return the favor.

Here's a link: http://communities.msn.com/ASSAuthorsResources

Kind of like a pay it forward for writers.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to all who have expressed themselves in this thread. As a new writer about ready to submit his piece, these responses have told me how it is in the real world of writers and editors. I'm ready to get my feet wet. I hope the water isn't too hot!

 

[KillerMuffin]

I've been thinking a lot about this problem. Laurel's got herself so spread out just over the site and the way it's grown without the whole rest of her life. There has got to be a self-policing method of working the editor thing. Huhm.

1. I think the editor's forum should be passcoded for editors and moderators only. That way editors will have it for themselves and they can discuss editing issues without having to worry about the author popping in and having a fit over it. I never used the forum for that because all of the things about editing that I ever wanted to discuss were non-complimentary to the writer.

2. I think that participation in the forum should be mandatory, like a post a month just so the editor can show that she or he is still on board the editing thing.

3. There should be a "form" query for editors that runs through the Lit servers like the anonymous feedback runs through Lit. It will include a space for the author to request the help and a space for an excerpt of the writing. I used to get writers that would get pissed off at me because they dropped a story in my inbox cold and I didn't have time to do it in 48 hours. This makes the whole process feel more professional to both sides.

4. There should be a three-month re-registration process. Every three months the scripts could generate an automatic email to the editors, or some poor lackey could get the job, and they have 10 days to respond. Those who do not get yanked off the lists. If they were on vacation or away from the computer or something, then they can always get re-signed back up. This'll give Lit a way to purge the rolls of uncommunicative editors.

Any other ideas?

 

[P. B. Walker]

My two cents.

Well I know that Laurel asks that you email her if an editor doesn't respond at all in 72 hours (or something like that). I think the major problem for writers searching for a new editor is that they never get any response at all from editors. I mean, I can totally understand if they are busy with their life or maybe are already editing too many stories to keep up. And I'm sure all the other writers understand that. I don't have a problem with that at all. I know my life can be pretty busy from time to time, and guess what? Lit isn't the highest priority. lol. Sad to say, I know. But I think we'd all rather keep our jobs and pay our bills.

Anyhoo, back to my point (it's in here someplace, trust me). When I was first searching for an editor, I tried Weird Harold's method, and suprisingly, only 2 or 3 out of 12 editors responded at all. That's not a great precentage. I notified Laurel of who they were after getting no response. I waited a week and a half before notifying Laurel. I never heard from the editors, nor did I hear from Laurel, so I'm not sure what happened. Luckily, I found a few editors that I really like and who are really awesome.

I think at the very least an editor should respond with *something*. Either a "fuck off", or "I"m too busy", or "I hate your writing", or "I'll get to it, but it'll be a month", or "Here, I edited it". At least *SOMETHING*. Nothing worse than sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting... and waiting. Makes ya feel like you just had a first date and your waiting weeks and weeks for them to call you back. LOL. Not that that has ever happened to me... <wink>.

So, anyway, maybe if Laurel receives so many complaints about a certain editor they are taken off the active list. Similar to KM's suggestion of an editor not re-registering. For example, if Laurel received 10 emails about an editor not replying with a weeks time, then that editor is yanked off the list and they have to re-sign up. I just pulled the number 10 out of my ass... we could make it any number. But I think 10 is pretty reasonable. If they blow off 10 writers then it's pretty obvious they are slacking off.

That's the only suggestion I could think of. I liked all of KM's suggestions. The only other thing I could think of is to group the editors according to the type of edits they do. For example: "quick reads with spell checking", "read for grammar", "in-depth critique and edit". Something along those lines. I had one editor that did an edit for me and all they said was "good story, thanks for letting me read it". That was it. And that was after waiting 3 or 4 weeks for them to get back to me. I was let down, to say the least. I was kinda expecting more. Especially when the other editor I sent it to bled all over it. So the story obviously had mistakes and could use improvement. I even emailed that editor back and made sure they didn't make any modifications to it. And they said "nope, looks great as it is". I'm not really sure why that person is an editor (just my opinion).

Anyhoo... best of luck to everyone on finding an editor.

- PBW

 

[Guest]

Right on, PJ.

The question posed was not of editors rights, but of writers rights.

I asked 6 editors to review a first submission. In each case, I gave the subject matter and asked if they were interested. Each request was respectful and positive.

Two responded and have worked with me. They corrected formatting and grammar and made positive suggestions for story improvements. The help was A-One. The other 4 were non-responders. If you can't play the game fairly, you shouldn't advertise yourself as an editor.. This entire website was developed on the integrity of a trustworthy and friendly webmaster.

Everyone who signs on should play by the rules. I think habitual non-responders ought remove their names from the list.

 

[lobito]

Thanks to everyone who's responded.

I've submitted two parts of a story to Lit, and they've been posted already. Doing great in my mind with views of 4500 & 3400 for the story parts. I'd imagine this is the case for everyone here, that vote totals are low, and feedback of any kind are lower.

Of the 3 feedback emails I got, 2 were from the same person, asking for more, which I guess is a good thing. The 3rd email was positive as well.

The original story that I spoke of above, has since been edited by 3 new people, the first of which made MY story NOT my story anymore. The second told me what they had done as far as edits go, so was very helpful. The third person, never told me what she'd done, just emailed it back to me.

You're only going to learn how to be better by writing, and you need editors (sometimes) to help you with some things when you are writing. You live, you learn.

Lo

 

[Weird Harold]

The third person, never told me what she'd done, just emailed it back to me.

If you use MS Word, check out the Track changes/compare files function.

Comparing the editor's version with your original version will highlight every change the editor made and allow you to confirm or reject them.

It will work on plain text files as well as Word documents, although you can't save the change tracking in text format.

PS: WordPerfect has a similar function to highlight the differences btween two versions of the same story. I think most good word processors have comparable capabilities.

 

[P. B. Walker]

Weird Harold! You really are the man with the answers. Thanks for that tip about comparing documents. I knew about the "track changes" option and I tell all my editors to please try and use that when they edit my documents. However, once or twice they didn't or couldn't. I never knew you could compare your current document to a plain text file. That is so very cool.

Do you know how long it takes to compare two 14 page documents word-for-word, sentence-for-sentence? I seriously thought about tossing the edits out just because it was too much trouble. I can only imagine what someone would do on a long document (20, 30, or 50 pager). That could take days and days.

Anyhoo... thanks for that neat tip WH.

- PBW

 

[Weird Harold]

Do you know how long it takes to compare two 14 page documents word-for-word, sentence-for-sentence?

I've got a P2/ 500 Mhz machine, and it appears to run about 1 second per page or maybe a bit faster.

You do often get some extraneous "changes" depending on the text file format -- ie hard carriage returns interpretted as added paragraph breaks.

It also depends on which file you open and which you compare as to whether you need to accept changes or reject changes to get the desired result. You can always close without saving and reverse the comaprison to make it seem logical if you wish.

You can also compare RTF files or any other file type you have the converter installed for -- it converts all files to Word Format before comparing.

 

[P. B. Walker]

Uhh sorry for the confusion there WH. I meant doing it by hand. Comparing word-for-word, sentence-by-sentence by looking at one and then the other. A long time. LOL.

That's why I was happy to learn of your tip. My puters pretty rockin... 1400 MHz AMD w/ 256 Meg RAM. I tried it with an old story and the edits one editor sent me... happened in the snap of a finger.

- PBW

 

[Weird Harold]

Uhh sorry for the confusion there WH. I meant doing it by hand. Comparing word-for-word, sentence-by-sentence by looking at one and then the other. A long time. LOL.

Ah, So. I did mis understand.

But then my very first computer had a File Compare utility, and I've never even considered comparing two versions of anything by hand since.

I'm not sure if the FC.EXE utility from DOS days is still included with newer versions of Windows or not. If it isn't, then it should be -- it's a very useful tool.

One other useful trick with Word's file comapre, is to start with your original file, and compare to each editor's changes in turn. It shows all of the corrections in one file, color coded by editor (if you've got the change highlighting configured right,) so you can compare not only differences between you and an editor, but differences of opinion between editors.

 

[P. B. Walker]

oh yeah... that would also be very helpful. Especially if you have editors with differing styles.

You are a man of much wisdom WH.

- PBW