The course of your career

As an obscure – one might say “unknown in every sense of the word” – writer, I get a lot of requests. Like these: “Want to write a paper for me?” or “Hey, write me a press release;” or, “Stop sending me things to read;” or “Stop writing me these messages, you are freaking me out;” or “This is a cease and desist order.” Sometimes, the requests are directly related to my experiences as a four-time Published Author, and most of those queries are stuff like “Should I abandon all hope of making money off of writing?” The answer to that, of course, is a resounding, fatigued, “Yes.” Sometimes, though, the questions are about how to write, or, similarly, how to go about the writing process.

While I’m not going to give you a thorough answer here – there are an absurd amount of blogs trying to do that already, and most of them give the same advice – I will give you valuable advice about your relationship with your editor, because I’m not cool enough to have an agent – yet. You see, your relationship with your editor (or agent, but for the sake of keeping it close to me, we’re going with editor) is one of the most important ones you’ll have. The editor is the person who sees all those first drafts, all those manuscripts covered in blood and coffee stains. The person who gets frantic e-mails that read something like one I sent recently:

Dear Hypothetical Editor,

I’m worthless. Everything I write is drivel. I’m going to resign myself to the knowledge that being an office cog is the only worthwhile thing I’ll contribute to society. The only thing I can write well is a note on a check that says, “Thanks for your business.” This writer’s block will never end, and I’ll never deserve an advance on a book. Please burn all of my manuscripts.

Sincerely,

Aaron Simon

And then they’ll get frantic e-mails that read like this (generally right after the preceding one):

Dear Hypothetical Editor,

I am the BEST. WRITER. EVER. Check this idea out, if you can handle it: A Jewish secret agent is pitted against an evil anti-Semitic organization bent on destroying EVERY SYNAGOGUE IN AMERICA. He’s on the case and on their trail, but when he meets a beautiful Iranian girl associated with the organization, who will bend in their beliefs first? Also: he owns a talking parakeet that houses the soul of Samson.

I smell a trilogy and MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

Signed The Best-Sellingest-Author-Ever,

Aaron Simon

So, all that in mind, I present: How to Ruin Your Writer-Editor Relationship

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