Re: Accuracy

[dunn1@IDT.NET]

> From:          John Foust <jfoust@threedee.com>

> *kel wrote:
> >But let me tell you something about writers and co-writers and editors.
> >You can submit a lovely piece of well researched nonfiction and see it
> >transformed before your eyes.  Once you take the check, as a writer, the
> >editor can call blue yellow if he or she so desires. 
> 
> "An editor doesn't like the taste of a story until he's pissed in it"
> - Mark Twain

My wife is a senior editor of children's books at Scholastic Press.  
She's had years of contact with writers, and is very "in the know" in 
publishing generally.  A few points from a discussion of this 
issue with her for those of you who submit writings:

1) every writer/publisher relationship is or should be evidenced by 
some kind of written agreement, generally a contract or at least 
a letter.  Require that final approval by you of any changes  be 
put into the contract.  That way you get to veto changes which you 
feel have an adverse effect on the piece.  If you don't get this, and 
accuracy is important to you, don't enter into the relationship.  If 
you don't want to jeapardize your relationship with the publisher and 
you don't push for final approval, you're then not in a great 
position to complain if such changes are subsequently made.

2)  My wife's most critically acclaimed and financially successful 
writers are the ones who gladly accept and even seek out an editor's 
critique. Constructive criticism is a good thing. 

Larry