Public Masturbation
I never quite know what to do in this situation, so I thought I'd solicit opinions. What do you do when someone intellectually masturbates all over you in public? The other day, I posted a comment to a friend who received word from his publisher that he needed to do a major overhaul of his latest novel. My comment to HIM, was this:
"The relationship of editor to author, is knife to throat."
I used to think that quote was funny.
Pretty straightforward, right? But notice, I failed to site the source of the quote because frankly, I'm lazy. Then, out of the blue, someone I do not know, have never spoken to, and have no idea what she is or does, or even what species she might be, replied thusly:
That's been bandied around in publishing, so the story goes, for a very long time.
"XXII: Learn to win the confidence of your authors before the book is published, during the publication process, and after the book is released. Unless you inspire and enlist such confidence and cooperation, you will find yourself going back to the early days when the booksellers were also publishers, and the relationship between an author and a publisher was a relationship between a knife and a throat."
Mr. M. Lincoln Schuster said that in 1962 - in "An Open Letter to a Would-Be Editor."
_Editors on Editing: What Writers Need To Know About What Editors Do_. Edited by Gerald Gross. Third edition. New York: Grove Press, 1993.
--Sorry, my bibliographic format may be off.
Mr. Schuster founded Simon & Schuster with Mr. Richard Simon in 1924.
Thus the publishing geek strikes again. :>
I was re-reading that essay yesterday. It's a lovely book. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in publishing or writing...
Other SF fans may be as delighted and surprised [!] as I was to see several SF professionals included.
- Chica
Is she telling me that I need to get newer quotes? Read more self-help books? Be more confident because after reading my 18 word response she feels intimately connected to me and can sense my lack of self worth? Who the FUCK reads essays for pleasure? Although, I'm hardly one to talk, being partial to the gossipy little Classical Historians like Tacitus and Suetonius. But essays? Come on, gurrrrrl, puhhhleeeeeeeeeeeeeez. *blink, blink* Now, I never quite know what to do in a situation like this. Is it rude to simply ignore this person? Should I thank her profusely and invite her over for an evening of drooling and chest thumping? Do I reciprocate by giving her some equally inane and long winded diatribe on the mysteries of the intestinal tract of the Peruvian llama? My first inclination is to offer my sympathies, followed by a violent shaking of the lapels as I scream in her face, "THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS!!!!!" I am reluctant to data dump like this, even to friends, because I'm reasonably certain that I am not the vessel of all their knowledge. What kind of tool does this to a perfect stranger, and, might I add, I am perfect!
"The relationship of editor to author, is knife to throat."
I used to think that quote was funny.
Pretty straightforward, right? But notice, I failed to site the source of the quote because frankly, I'm lazy. Then, out of the blue, someone I do not know, have never spoken to, and have no idea what she is or does, or even what species she might be, replied thusly:
That's been bandied around in publishing, so the story goes, for a very long time.
"XXII: Learn to win the confidence of your authors before the book is published, during the publication process, and after the book is released. Unless you inspire and enlist such confidence and cooperation, you will find yourself going back to the early days when the booksellers were also publishers, and the relationship between an author and a publisher was a relationship between a knife and a throat."
Mr. M. Lincoln Schuster said that in 1962 - in "An Open Letter to a Would-Be Editor."
_Editors on Editing: What Writers Need To Know About What Editors Do_. Edited by Gerald Gross. Third edition. New York: Grove Press, 1993.
--Sorry, my bibliographic format may be off.
Mr. Schuster founded Simon & Schuster with Mr. Richard Simon in 1924.
Thus the publishing geek strikes again. :>
I was re-reading that essay yesterday. It's a lovely book. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in publishing or writing...
Other SF fans may be as delighted and surprised [!] as I was to see several SF professionals included.
- Chica
Is she telling me that I need to get newer quotes? Read more self-help books? Be more confident because after reading my 18 word response she feels intimately connected to me and can sense my lack of self worth? Who the FUCK reads essays for pleasure? Although, I'm hardly one to talk, being partial to the gossipy little Classical Historians like Tacitus and Suetonius. But essays? Come on, gurrrrrl, puhhhleeeeeeeeeeeeeez. *blink, blink* Now, I never quite know what to do in a situation like this. Is it rude to simply ignore this person? Should I thank her profusely and invite her over for an evening of drooling and chest thumping? Do I reciprocate by giving her some equally inane and long winded diatribe on the mysteries of the intestinal tract of the Peruvian llama? My first inclination is to offer my sympathies, followed by a violent shaking of the lapels as I scream in her face, "THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS!!!!!" I am reluctant to data dump like this, even to friends, because I'm reasonably certain that I am not the vessel of all their knowledge. What kind of tool does this to a perfect stranger, and, might I add, I am perfect!