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Are you happy to let editors change your work?

edited March 2017 in Writing
I am shortly to have a poem published in Popshot, and the editor would like to slightly change two lines, as well as the very last word so that it ends on a positive note. I don't mind the change of the last word so much, but I prefer my original versions of the other two lines.

Do you think I should just humbly bow to his superiority? After all, I suppose he knows his stuff!

Comments

  • Would you still be happy to have your name on the amended version?

    Which is more important to you – to have it published, or to retain the version you prefer?
  • Agree with what PM says.
  • Yes, that puts it into perspective.

    I have just drafted an email agreeing to the changes, but very politely mentioning that one of the amendments makes the line a little more clunky to me, but that if he feels it needs the extra words for clarification then to go ahead.
  • Tricky this has only happened to me once, John Foster who was apparently renowned for asking for small changes asked me to change something. However, in group critiques, I have often had suggestions for making things clearer, or for changing rhythm slightly, as the trouble is you 'hear' the lines as you expect them to be, and can easily miss where you have forced rhythm. Have you got anyone else to read them out to you - your version, I mean? That sometimes makes it clearer why someone would want a change.

    I let JF change my poem. But if i didn't like a change I might query it, if it changed meaning, particularly, and to me the last word would be more of an issue.
  • (Well done on Popshot, by the way!)
  • Well, I have sent the email now, so what will be will be. I have been very polite (I hope!).
  • I realise I've missed the boat, but for what it's worth, I too, side with PM. We all have pride of ownership in our work and naturally become 'defensive' if someone might suggest change. My view is that if the editor (or whoever) can justify or satisfactorily impress upon us the reason for the change, well, fair enough. If it is a 'commercial' decision: 'I think our readers would prefer it this way', I might be more inclined to refuse publication. The qualifier here, I guess, might be the amount of payment, and/or the potential relationship with that particular publication.
  • A wise man once said - dean Koontz I think - the book you write is not the one that's published. Meaning that by the time the editors have edited and the critiquers have critiqued it's changed beyond all recognition. I know poetry is different but once someone signs a contract losing some control is to be expected.
  • I once won a prize for Letter Of The Month in Q Magazine.but they only kept the first three sentences intact. The rest had been changed without a by-your-leave, no doubt to fit in with their editorial stance. I was huffy at first but let it go.(The prize was four days in Ibiza to see the Arctic Monkeys perform)
  • LizLiz
    edited March 2017
    Letters and editorial is different.

    Poems are unique in that copyright always remains with the poet - not only that, it has been honed to be the best and fewest possible words in the perfect order - therefore changing anything has to be agreed with the author.

    My last book of my own, the editor (IRON Press) didn't like three of the poems I sent and they weren't used - I was fairly happy with this, but very happy when he told everyone at my launch that my book was the least edited poem-wise of any he had published (and he has been an editor for a very long time). That is not that he would have asked for changes to the poems - just which poems were used. I'm in 70 anthologies and only the one poem was changed by John Foster. And in the book just published (Macmillan) not a word was changed of all three poets' poems. The one I sent off earlier this year (Bloomsbury) likewise - nothing changed. It is NOT usual.
  • Yes, prose is a different kettle. My editor sometimes adds a word to a sentence for clarity, and to me it makes too many beats in the sentence. I can't let it go. I have to rewrite the whole thing to avoid the issue. Think I'd be even worse with a poem. It would probably bug me ever after.
  • Never reached the stage of an outside editor, but if i read one of my stories after a time space, my inner editor often finds things to change.
  • I think that with poetry, as Liz says, changing just one word can alter so much. It's not just about the meaning of the word, it's the sound - alliteration, assonance, the weight, the juxtaposition with its neighbouring words, and so on. Adding extra syllables also affects the rhythm.

    I have got another poem in the publishing pipeline where the editor has broken up the density with extra line spaces. That was fine, although that can still make a difference.

    I do feel precious about changes to my poetry. It's as though I've built them, brick by brick, and it's been no mean feat! I'd feel very different about suggested changes to stories, although I don't recall that they have ever been changed.
  • Poetry is so personal - the nuance, a beat, etc. I'm not sure a poet should ever be happy to let something be changed - unless it was after discussion. Poems can't be compared to other forms.

    Sorry. I'll go back to the Jaffa Cakes.
  • I agree that poetry is different from other forms of writing in this respect. For one thing, a couple of lines in a poem is a large percentage of the total.
  • There have been a couple of emails between the editor and me, and we have come to a compromise (my suggestion!) which got rid of the extra words he wanted to add. It all came down to the use of a colon in the end. Oh, and I did let him use 'planet' instead of 'world'!

    I'm glad I didn't just settle for his ideas. I gently fought it out and supported my viewpoint using a bit of practical criticism about how each version would be understood.

    Result!!
  • That's the way to do it, TN. Well done.
  • Well done, brave girl!
  • Well done! Sounds like you reached a good compromise.
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