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SCREECH! Wrong. Was I ever in for a surprise. I got introduced to my editor in August and received my first edits later that month. I opened the file and gasped. There were so many comments and corrections I was sure she had to be talking about someone else's work. But no, it was definitely my story. Tears rimmed my eyes, but I was determined not to let them spill. I was a professional after all.

I closed the document in a special file on my desktop and gave myself a week to get over the shock. It was probably the best thing I could have done. Given some time and distance to recover from what my editor had done to the manuscript I was able to be a touch more objective. But, as I went though those edits, I found myself wondering over and over one thing. If this manuscript needed so much work, why the heck did they contract it?

Then the line proof came back to me, with enough time between those finished edits (which were now happily missing) for a final reading. Wow. I liked that werewolf story before, but now I really, truly loved it. It was the same story only more.

Sentences were stronger. Descriptions were clearer. Motivations were brought out.

Then I found out how my editor was paid and it hit me. My editor wasn't going to make any money if I didn't sell. It was in her vested interest to make the story as good as she possibly could. She's not a writer, told me so herself. But she was an avid reader with a command of story that helped me grow as a writer. She really loved my story, maybe even more than I did at the time I submitted it. She wanted it to sparkle like the gem it was. Every mark on that manuscript made my story better.

When I sent in my next story I tried to apply what she showed me in the first. There were still plenty of comments and corrections but an amazing thing happened. I WELCOMED those corrections because I realized she had her and my best interests at heart.

Editors want those to be the best the can possibly be. Everyone wins when authors want to learn how to hone their craft and don’t hold each word they pen possessively to their chests. It’s rather like letting a child go off to school for the first time. Emotionally it is difficult, but the separation anxiety lessens when we realize that our “baby” has been placed into good hands. Relax, your editor doesn’t hate your story, s/he only wants it to grow past the diamond in the rough to a work that sparkles with all the value it truly has.

Lucynda Storey