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On furry editing
9 years ago
On Twitter, Pyrostinger asked whether the furry fandom is facing an editing crisis like the one described in this article: http://www.poynter.org/2016/journal.....out-it/407143/
My answer is no. Furry is facing a small editing crisis, but it’s not this one.
While more editors (and more time for the editors already present) would likely benefit furry publishing, we aren’t facing a shortage. We already have a lot of editors: Alopex, Jeff Eddy, Tim Susman, Jakebe, Ianus J. Wolf, Ashe Valisca, Ocean Tigrox, Tarl Hoch, Rechan, Fuzzwolf, Teiran, and many, many others have all been active in editing in the last few years. This doesn’t count the many writers who have acted as beta-readers, slush readers, proofreaders, and so on. More and more writers seem eager to try out the editing side of the publication business.
A lot of the skills required to edit writing are also skills required for writing in the first place. It requires a critical eye and attention to detail, knowledge of grammar and punctuation, as well as a feel for the highs and lows of a story. As writers, we can get lots of practice with the nitty-gritty of editing either by working as a beta-reader for other writers or by having our own work raked over by another editor (which tells us some things about what is important and what is not). The writing and editing communities in the furry fandom are gregarious. Everyone knows everyone else. So if ever we have a question, we know there is someone out there who can answer it for us.
That’s the ways in which the problems facing furry writers are different from those facing the radio business in the article.
Where I see a concern in the furry editing community is the potential for burnout. Comparing my experiences writing in the fandom with editing in the fandom, I find editing to be far more demanding and stressful and can leave me feeling underappreciated. Working with a writer and turning their story into something amazing is always a great feeling, but the reader doesn’t see all that hard work. Sometimes the writer doesn’t see all that hard work. The editor’s impact, if done right, should be invisible. Many editors don’t get paid very well to compensate for the work and stress either.
A lot of editors, simply put, do what we do because we feel the community needs us to do it. Writers—many of whom are our friends—need a place to share their voices, and so we edit. Readers want more and different stories (and they want it now!), and so we edit.
Because of that, editors can often overwork ourselves and take on more than we should. It’s easy for an editor to rush into a project, complete it in a hurry, and then come out the other side not wanting to touch a slush pile for months.
My answer is no. Furry is facing a small editing crisis, but it’s not this one.
While more editors (and more time for the editors already present) would likely benefit furry publishing, we aren’t facing a shortage. We already have a lot of editors: Alopex, Jeff Eddy, Tim Susman, Jakebe, Ianus J. Wolf, Ashe Valisca, Ocean Tigrox, Tarl Hoch, Rechan, Fuzzwolf, Teiran, and many, many others have all been active in editing in the last few years. This doesn’t count the many writers who have acted as beta-readers, slush readers, proofreaders, and so on. More and more writers seem eager to try out the editing side of the publication business.
A lot of the skills required to edit writing are also skills required for writing in the first place. It requires a critical eye and attention to detail, knowledge of grammar and punctuation, as well as a feel for the highs and lows of a story. As writers, we can get lots of practice with the nitty-gritty of editing either by working as a beta-reader for other writers or by having our own work raked over by another editor (which tells us some things about what is important and what is not). The writing and editing communities in the furry fandom are gregarious. Everyone knows everyone else. So if ever we have a question, we know there is someone out there who can answer it for us.
That’s the ways in which the problems facing furry writers are different from those facing the radio business in the article.
Where I see a concern in the furry editing community is the potential for burnout. Comparing my experiences writing in the fandom with editing in the fandom, I find editing to be far more demanding and stressful and can leave me feeling underappreciated. Working with a writer and turning their story into something amazing is always a great feeling, but the reader doesn’t see all that hard work. Sometimes the writer doesn’t see all that hard work. The editor’s impact, if done right, should be invisible. Many editors don’t get paid very well to compensate for the work and stress either.
A lot of editors, simply put, do what we do because we feel the community needs us to do it. Writers—many of whom are our friends—need a place to share their voices, and so we edit. Readers want more and different stories (and they want it now!), and so we edit.
Because of that, editors can often overwork ourselves and take on more than we should. It’s easy for an editor to rush into a project, complete it in a hurry, and then come out the other side not wanting to touch a slush pile for months.
For publishers, there is also the complication that running a publishing business involves a lot of things that are NOT editing. Many of us got into the publishing business because we enjoy helping furry writers share their works, and a big part of that is helping writers improve their stories through the editing process before they get printed. But running a publishing business involves so many other things like layouts and accounting and marketing that takes away from the time we could spend on the story craft work that initially attracted us to the business. We still try to take on some editing projects so that we still keep in touch with that part of our interests, but that often leads to over-commitment, rushed deadlines, and stress.
I'm especially grateful for all the editing work you do for Sofawolf Press! The work you do, especially your attention to detail, is invaluable.
I did find it interesting, in reading the article, how many duties it attributes to (radio) editors that I would attribute to (writing) publishers. That makes it harder in their case for reporters to become editors and would make it hard for writers or editors to become publishers, but I don't see that as being a major concern right now.
If I followed that advice I'd never touch a book. I'd never edit, proof, or typeset anything. I agree we shouldn't burn ourselves out, but I'll be damned if I set aside every reason I got into publishing in the first place.