Thursday, March 04, 2010

The decline of literary editors

By Jean Naggar in The Huffington Post:
...as a literary agent for these past 33 years, I am compelled to express my observation that over the past decades, the editorial role has been profoundly devalued. As corporate structures have gulped down and digested independent publishing houses and imprints, their corporate agendas have brought about a slow steady erosion of reliance on the editor's skill and intuitive vision. In order to release the magnificent sculpture that such an editor may perceive in a stone, the work of editing takes time, focus, sometimes isolation, silence, deep cogitation, and some eureka moments when the objective eye finally perceives the solution to a thorny dilemma. Few editors today are granted the luxury of so much quality time.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:14 pm

    I fully understand what you mean. Writers rely on a good editor. Someone who is not going to slash away at hard well thought through work and will function as a good friend and advisor so death, death, death to corporate structures they appear like a communist regime to me. No personality, no talent, no innovation but rather more the scurge of new ideas. Don't let the worst under value you.

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