Writers Tricks of the Trade Volume 6, Issue 5 | Page 21

WHAT BEING AN EDITOR TAUGHT ME (CONT’D)

was trying to help him.
The thing is I might have been wrong about his story. Perhaps he should have kept it
as it was, but in that case, he should have sent it somewhere else. I was on his side when
he submitted. I would have been on his side if he had told me that I was wrong, and I
should look at it again, and I would have done as he asked.
In any case, I would have reread it and future stories with more care than I’d given
anyone else. I could have been a resource to him, telling him where he should have
submitted it if not to us. I would have given him any help that he asked for, but he had
approached me and treated me as an enemy to be fooled instead of a colleague.
So I guess this is the second thing I learned about the business of writing by being an
editor: unless the editor is a conman in the middle of scam, he or she is almost always
on the writer’s side. So many editors are out there only to help writers if they are asked.


Uh oh--they need an editor...

JOHN BRANTINGHAM
IS THE AUTHOR OF

EAST OF LOS
ANGELES, MANN OF
WAR, LET US ALL
PRAY NOW TO OUR
OWN STRANGE
GODS, THE GREEN OF
SUNSET, AND THE
GIFT OF FORM. HE IS
AN ENGLISH
PROFESSOR AND THE
DIRECTOR OF THE
CREATIVE WRITING
PROGRAM AT MT.

SAN ANTONIO
COLLEGE (WALNUT,
CA), THE WRITER-INRESIDENCE AT THE DA
CENTER FOR
CULTURAL ARTS
(POMONA, CA), AND
THE PRESIDENT OF THE

SA