Of all the editors I have worked with, I love them all equally, and appreciate them all equally.

It was an editor, Phil Athans, that discovered my work in a slush pile, and went through seven meticulous rounds of revisions to polish my first novel, LAST DRAGON, for publication, and with whom I continue to work on the shared world project TALES FROM THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS available wherever fine eBooks are sold, including work by Mel Odom, Cat Rambo, Mike Resnick, and Jay Lake. He wrote a recommendation for me to get into graduate school. I consider him one of the wisest, calmest, and most valuable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting in the business. I worked with Jason Sizemore of Apex Publications on the reprint of LAST DRAGON, as well as the short story collection that’s coming out next month called DISINTEGRATION VISIONS. I consider Jason one of the wisest, calmest, and most valuable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting in the business. Working with Jason, I also had editorial help from Janet Harriet who provided a necessary second set of eyes on the reprint of the stories. I consider her to be one of the wisest, calmest, and most valuable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting in the business. When NEVER KNEW ANOTHER was running behind schedule, I worked with Juliet Ulman, who should have won a Hugo for the epic, two-and-a-half week editorial cram session that happened. I consider her to be one of the wisest, calmest, and most valuable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting in the business. With WHEN WE WERE EXECUTIONERS, Ross Lockheart handled the editorial efforts, and I believe the book came to his desk with only eight or nine quirks to adjust, and he was wise and calm enough to see that a heavy edit was not necessary, and I consider him one of the most valuable people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in the business.

Also, Ross sends me free books and eBooks. I’m reading HITCHERS right now by Will McIntosh, and after enjoying SOFT APOCALYPSE last year, I was happy to see that he sent me HITCHERS. Also, he recently slipped me eBooks of YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION (yay!) and Stina Leicht’s OF BLUE SKIES AND PAIN! Editors who send me free books and eBooks are the best editors.

Anyone can work with an editor, whether you publish books or just read them. Here’s how you do it. You find out who edits the books and magazines  you like the most, and you follow their career to keep track of the books they edit. This is easy to do in short fiction. For instance, LADY CHURCHILL’S ROSEBUD WRISTLET is a testament to the wonderful editorial efforts of Gavin Grant and Kelly Link (who also run the amazing Small Beer Press) and John Klima edits the amazing ELECTRIC VELOCIPEDE that is always full of interesting things. What is ASIMOV’S without Sheila Williams? Not the same. Just not the same.

An editor is the intermediary between readers and writers. They are calm, wise, and valuable. They are a blessing to readers who get to see work in a highly-polished state, and a blessing to writers who get to present themselves to readers in a highly-polished state. Working with editors, when they are calm, wise, and valuable, is a very good thing, indeed.

For I am often none of these things when I am editing.