Great post, Sean. Your comment that some editors choose to concentrate on buying something good and publishing it rather than spending time trying to make incremental improvements that the general reading audience is unlikely to notice reminds me of a story I heard Matt Damon tell about the making of Saving Private Ryan. He said at one point they had done a serviceable take late in the day, and Spielberg moved on. Damon asked him, "What do you think about trying a couple more takes?" and he said Speilberg turned on a dime and said, "I could spend another hour on that scene and maybe make it 10% better, or I could go over there and do another great shot. I'm gonna go do the great shot." As an economist you know about the 80/20 rule. This sounds like a recognition of that axiom's basis
Fabulous post, Sean! I loved seeing the behind the scenes and imagining my editor (your colleague), Lara Jones, keeping all her pie plates on the air (she does it with such grace, as I’m sure you do). I just subscribed and can’t wait to read more of your lovely writing!
I love this essay, and the almost impossibility of creating a checklist. Having been a magazine editor, an NPR station interview show showrunner, and a podcast producer, the constant overlapping deadlines and the need to work toward the “distant” future, which in news might be a couple of weeks and in magazines several months, while also juggling work for the immediate future and the past, and handling requests from other departments, is enormously similar. The rewards are, too: if you’re good at it, you get to do more. So too the reason to keep going: “You gotta love it.” 😊
This was really fascinating. I interned at FSG years ago, so I got a glimpse of the editor's job. Although I was mostly working with the assistants. That was back in the time when manuscripts were still printed and sent around the city by insane bike messengers.
For the last 13 years, I've been on the author side. Which means I only see a tiny slice of what an editor does. It's too bad that there are so many plates to spin, but at least you enjoy the job. Thanks for sharing your insight.
I’m exhausted for you!!! At the risk of making you want to hit me over the head with a hammer… have you read A WORLD WITHOUT EMAIL by Cal Newport? I gave it to my old editor and it helped with some of the overwhelm and process driven projects. It of course takes a village to change the systems in place but it can make the workflows and communications on each project more streamlined for all.
Great article. All of this validates how absolutely lucky I am to NOT have a full-time, in-house editing job and to instead be an as-busy-as-I-want-to-be freelance editor (and ghostwriter). I edit about 20 books a year, definitely do some project management, blurb writing, and mentoring, as well as meetings with potential new clients, but I have a flexible schedule.
Fortunately, because I am a pro at Reedsy.com, I don’t really have to do any marketing of my services anywhere else, so that easily saves me several hours a week of all that marketing, networking, and hustling that freelancers usually have to do. Whew!
I’m so glad you put in an encouraging word about self-care and life balance, because speaking as someone who used to work 60 hours a week with a life coaching business prior to shifting my focus entirely to being a word wizard, there was NO life balance. I completely burned out, and I’m still paying the price healthwise as a result of that.
I recently enjoyed watching the TV series Younger, and the main character is an acquisitions editor in Manhattan. Have you seen the show? Do you think the writers did a reasonably good job presenting what that type of work consists of?
Great post, Sean. Your comment that some editors choose to concentrate on buying something good and publishing it rather than spending time trying to make incremental improvements that the general reading audience is unlikely to notice reminds me of a story I heard Matt Damon tell about the making of Saving Private Ryan. He said at one point they had done a serviceable take late in the day, and Spielberg moved on. Damon asked him, "What do you think about trying a couple more takes?" and he said Speilberg turned on a dime and said, "I could spend another hour on that scene and maybe make it 10% better, or I could go over there and do another great shot. I'm gonna go do the great shot." As an economist you know about the 80/20 rule. This sounds like a recognition of that axiom's basis
Fabulous post, Sean! I loved seeing the behind the scenes and imagining my editor (your colleague), Lara Jones, keeping all her pie plates on the air (she does it with such grace, as I’m sure you do). I just subscribed and can’t wait to read more of your lovely writing!
Though this is written for editors, the same is true for agents!
I love this essay, and the almost impossibility of creating a checklist. Having been a magazine editor, an NPR station interview show showrunner, and a podcast producer, the constant overlapping deadlines and the need to work toward the “distant” future, which in news might be a couple of weeks and in magazines several months, while also juggling work for the immediate future and the past, and handling requests from other departments, is enormously similar. The rewards are, too: if you’re good at it, you get to do more. So too the reason to keep going: “You gotta love it.” 😊
A great read, absolutely believable, and makes me really glad I am the writer, not the editor. I will stop complaining
This was really fascinating. I interned at FSG years ago, so I got a glimpse of the editor's job. Although I was mostly working with the assistants. That was back in the time when manuscripts were still printed and sent around the city by insane bike messengers.
For the last 13 years, I've been on the author side. Which means I only see a tiny slice of what an editor does. It's too bad that there are so many plates to spin, but at least you enjoy the job. Thanks for sharing your insight.
Thanks for this, very enlightening, appreciate you taking the time to share it with us.
I’m exhausted for you!!! At the risk of making you want to hit me over the head with a hammer… have you read A WORLD WITHOUT EMAIL by Cal Newport? I gave it to my old editor and it helped with some of the overwhelm and process driven projects. It of course takes a village to change the systems in place but it can make the workflows and communications on each project more streamlined for all.
I enjoyed reading this post. Thank you for sharing your perspective!
So helpful to see this perspective, man! And spot on. Thank you!
I'm late to this, but I'm glad I finally arrived. That was a good read. Thanks.
Great article. All of this validates how absolutely lucky I am to NOT have a full-time, in-house editing job and to instead be an as-busy-as-I-want-to-be freelance editor (and ghostwriter). I edit about 20 books a year, definitely do some project management, blurb writing, and mentoring, as well as meetings with potential new clients, but I have a flexible schedule.
Fortunately, because I am a pro at Reedsy.com, I don’t really have to do any marketing of my services anywhere else, so that easily saves me several hours a week of all that marketing, networking, and hustling that freelancers usually have to do. Whew!
I’m so glad you put in an encouraging word about self-care and life balance, because speaking as someone who used to work 60 hours a week with a life coaching business prior to shifting my focus entirely to being a word wizard, there was NO life balance. I completely burned out, and I’m still paying the price healthwise as a result of that.
I recently enjoyed watching the TV series Younger, and the main character is an acquisitions editor in Manhattan. Have you seen the show? Do you think the writers did a reasonably good job presenting what that type of work consists of?