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| SFReader Forums > SFReader > Ask The Expert > What makes a great editor? | Forum Quick Jump
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Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary
      
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1785
| Posted 7/6/2007 1:47 PM (GMT -5) |   | | Sorry. Didn't know I was dancing on any toes but my own.
On the critic thing:
I think we're talking ducks and geese here, Mr. Chaos Magick. When I say critic, I mean critic. It looks to me like you're talking about reviewers, and I refuse to give most reviewers their critic stripes. Reviewers have their place in the industry as marketing support. Critics are far more, and more likely to show up in academic pubs as opposed to industry pubs. And I believe that's the way it should be. I realize they call themselves critics and they're labeled in major media that way, but those are the same low-brainers who speak of bickering as rhetoric and say "that begs the question" when they mean "it RAISES the question," etc. Not that reviewers can't be critics, but reviews and critical analyses are usually separate species. Great critics can be great editors as often as great editors can be great critics, especially in terms of acquisitions. It is the skills of criticism that give an editor the judiciousness to recognize good work, great work, and great potential. Having said that though, I'd like to point out that many editors would never recognize themselves as having that skillset merely because theirs is unconscious competence to some degree. This makes it seem like it comes from intuition because the details have been relegated to the greater capacity of the subconscious mind. As with so many things, though, folks who think they can't do a thing find ways to seem incompetent at it. And thank the powers that be! Gives some of us a leg up. 
Exile of my own dull vice. . . | | Back to Top | | |
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Daniel
Carl Jung's Waterboy
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 4515
| Posted 7/6/2007 3:23 PM (GMT -5) | | | I think we're talking ducks and geese
***
"Deese" are used in the dark and bloody esoteric sacrificial rites of Chaos Magick, whereas "Gucks" are used as demonic familiars.
These highly inportant disctinctions are, of course, drawn from "The Menagerie of Magick" by a certain Frater Ertenalus Babalus.
LOL
Daniel | | Back to Top | | |
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Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1785
| Posted 7/6/2007 4:22 PM (GMT -5) | |
Daniel said...
I think we're talking ducks and geese
***
"Deese" are used in the dark and bloody esoteric sacrificial rites of Chaos Magick, whereas "Gucks" are used as demonic familiars.
These highly inportant disctinctions are, of course, drawn from "The Menagerie of Magick" by a certain Frater Ertenalus Babalus.
LOL
At least we quit using boiled babies!  -  So hard to find unbaptized babies in a Puritan country!
Exile of my own dull vice. . . | | Back to Top | | |
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Dru
Bemused Bystander
Date Joined Jul 2007
Total Posts : 33
| Posted 7/7/2007 12:26 AM (GMT -5) | | See, now, here's why I'm notoriously bad about posting to forums. By the time I read through a topic, the thread of conversation has already moved far away...
For what it's worth, I think that an editor ought to say something more about a submission than the old "doesn't suit our needs" standby. I value editorial feedback and there's nothing I'd appreciate more than an editor willing to work with me to improve a promising but not-quite-there piece.
The hardest rejects I've had to write are the ones that say either 1. doesn't suit my tastes -- which is fairly rare, but has happened -- or 2. I've seen this plot too often before, which is much harder for a writer to receive, I think, as it offers less hope of story placement elsewhere. Usually, though, I can provide more substantial feedback. I admit that it would be difficult to take the time to write a few sentences of personal feedback if one received hundreds of subs a day, but most zines and publishing houses don't enjoy that level of activity.
Besides, as a professor in my paying life, the idea of not trying to help a writer with some word of advice or another just feels wrong to me. I wouldn't give a student an F without explaining why!
The Harrow
The Mark of Ashen Wings
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Clockwork Heart
Coming from Juno Books
February 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | Back to Top | | |
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erazmus
Master
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4557
| Posted 7/7/2007 8:41 AM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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