Hey, new freelancers! I am going to tell you a secret near the end of this screed about the writing business. Nobody else will tell you what I’m going to share, or at the very least they won’t be as honest about it as I am. It’s blunt, it is not polite and it’s the whole truth. Read on…

I’ve had to discipline writers (and other creatives), I’ve had to dress them down, I’ve even had to roll their stupid hungover rear ends out of beds on at least one occasion to keep them from getting into a larger world of hurt up the editorial ladder. That last one was a mistake. I should have let that guy twist in the wind, but that was when I was a new editor and still a nice guy.

Hah.

The one thing I truly hate to do is fire people. A few years back, one unlucky gent tried to run game on me, but unfortunately for him, I myself had already run that game myself when I was a young punk. I gave him his shot to try and talk his way out of it without BSing me, but he didn’t take the opportunity. So I dumped him.

As an editor–and manager–you have to be very careful not to overreact when your people screw up, try to push your boundaries, test your limits and see how much they can get away with. It’s human nature to do all that, and a good editor will let somebody go up to a point because we ALL do it.

The day you, dear reader, find yourself in the editing chair, you have to learn your tolerance for all this stuff and decide what it is that you can’t take. Whatever your hot buttons are, learn them and sharpen your knives. You’re going to need them. Continue reading Confessions of an Editor: The Terminator →