I have to say that I did need to edit a nonfiction piece for a magazine once, and the author got irate; he was irate because he felt it “ruined his work.” That wasn’t the case (for instance, there were several factual errors, and a couple of serious omissions, in addition to some minor copy edits). Since then, we have not communicated, but I feel certain this individual is not at all pleased with what had to be done. On the other hand, I have to take it with a grain of salt and just be OK with it. If this person wanted to work together again, I would. It was never personal. Editing is about letting the AUTHOR be the best that they can: Allowing errors, etc, would have been to their (and my) detriment.

Writing is a personal thing, however, so one must always (try) to remain mindful of that.

If writers can’t take “rejection” they should be doing something else.

Even if I loved every story ever submitted to me I can’t buy them all. Part of the job of any editor is to “reject stories”-for whatever reason.

– I wear both editor and author hats and enjoy them equally. I definitely feel that editing two anthologies in the past six years has helped inform my work as an author. I might be a bit of an odd bird, but I read slush and give a story a page or two. If it makes it past that, I jump down in the trench with the author and try to fix the bugs. It’s enjoyable, I get a lot of appreciation from the authors I’ve worked with, and have built more than one good friendship from this approach. Not to mention, it helps me avoid similar mistakes in my own fiction.

– I have had a few people “give me a piece of their minds,” over rejections, but have also had some responses that were more humorous (unintentionally) than angry. One author actually sent me a survey with multiple choice answers as to why I rejected his piece.

What I’d like to ask is how often does the editing relationship end up derailing a friendship or professional relationship? I know I’ve rejected work by more than one friend, and a few respected authors–sometimes because the work isn’t a good fit, but sometimes because the piece just isn’t up to par. So far, I haven’t caused any serious damage that I’m aware of. ;D

For the Best of the Year, every writer has an equal chance. I’ve only taken one Stephen King story in the four years (so far) of the Best Horror). I published more new or unknown writers in Best Horror #4 than ever before.

Once I read a terrific stories by a writer I’ll start asking them to submit new stories to me for original projects. I may not buy them, but they have as much of a chance at that point as any other writer I solicit.

No, not by me. I HAVE to really like it. Now, not everyone has the same tastes, so that’s fair, but I won’t put a name in something just to do it, and I’ve published MANY non-name authors, some to great responses.