galassi's yin theory of publishing - from The Art of Literary Publishing - the yang theory

(above: chinese illustration of yin and yang relationship)


Galassi's YANG theory of the Author Editor relationship

a. This is the active side of the Editor’s role.

It means to reconcile and work the book to fit the reader’s needs and expectations, but mostly, their perceived needs.

To do this you need to clarify the writer’s intentions and get to the HEART OF THE MATTER , that inner core of the manuscript, the zeitgeist, the jewel of it, you want to give it the spit and polish and this is your job.

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  To do this well, you MUST inspire confidence in your Author – which is but one part of Author relations – your Author must trust you. They must trust you because you are to be their Editor, and in this way, you are essentially taking their ‘baby’ and reworking it. Remember that for each book, each Author, the book is incredibly close to the Author’s very being (usually). The Author is vested in his or her work in a major way. So this confindence in you is key.