I have a question about editors.

[LustiRusti]

Recently I contacted four editors about a story I wanted edited. I read the profiles of several people who are volunteering their time and I made sure I only contacted people who were willing to edit Celeb stories (since that's the theme of the story). I also made sure that the people I contacted were willing to read a story in the format I planned to send to them.

I wrote to them first asking if they had the time/desire to read and edit my story. All four said they would, so I then mailed the story to them.

Now, here's my question. Is it common for an editor to agree and commit to a story and then "vanish"? Three out of the four editors stopped contacting me after only a couple of e-mails. (And, this has been several weeks now.) The one editor who has followed through was responsive to my mails and sent my story back to me rather quickly.


~Kenzie

 

[hiddenself]

I've heard...

that the system was buggy for a while (the messages were not being delivered until days later etc). Have you tried PMing these editors (PMs tend to be more reliable than email perhaps). If nothing else, PM Laurel with a brief description of details (usernames of editors and dates) for an answer from the horse's mouth.

 

[KillerMuffin]

I had to quit volunteer editing because I just didn't have the time. Authors got very tired of hearing "I'm still working on it. I've gotten three more pages into it!"

I finally finished one four months after he'd gotten someone else to help and posted it. He did mention that he'd wished I'd been able to get my comments to him in a timely fashion as they helped immensely. Once he said that, I had a ding-ding inspiration and took myself from the list.

Unfortunately, that's common.

 

[LustiRusti]

Thank you both for the information.

I haven't contacted Laurel yet because I thought maybe I was being too quick in my assumptions. But, when each editor responded to my first mail fast, and we sent a couple more mails back and forth, I thought the sudden silence was a bit odd.


~Kenzie

 

[snooper]

I have laid down an absolute rule for myself. One story at a time.

If you send me a story and I accept it, I don't edit anything else until it is done. If I am in the middle of one when asked to do another I give an estimated date of acceptance, and the author pleases her(him)self whether to leave it with me, or to take it elsewhere. The "pending" queue has only one slot; if I am editing one and have one waiting, I am by definition too busy to do any others.

The only things that delay editing are the day job and the weekends. The day job takes priority, as it is very intermittent, but when it calls it is urgent. The weekends are for sport, and editing is not a sport any more than shopping is.

 

[LustiRusti]

Thanks for the input Snooper! It's nice getting inside the heads of some editors.


~Kenzie

 

[HawaiiBill]

VERY disappointed to learn here that shopping is not a sport.

But the idea of only having one story inhouse at a time is good and I'm going to adopt that -- and resume shopping as competition.

HawaiiBill

 

[snooper]

VERY disappointed to learn here that shopping is not a sport. ...

Shopping is a penance.

 

[yaspis]

I recently I recieved a mail from an author, asking me to edit her story. At the time I was on my short holidays and my e-mail account was automaticly sending vacation responses to all received mails. Once back from my vacation, I answered the author in more lenght and sat tightly to wait her response. None came. I wrote her back one more time, but again, no response. I think it would be polite from both authors and editors to mail the other half back if they for some reason, don't feel like working with the other half anymore. Anyone else got "dumped" by an author?