Freelance Writer? Assume Your Editor is a Demanding Jerk

The professional endures adversity. He lets the bullshit splash down his slicker, remembering that it comes clean with a heavy-duty hosing. He himself, his creative center, cannot be buried, even beneath a mountain of guano. His core is bulletproof. Nothing can touch it unless he lets it.

- The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield

If you ever write for someone else, go into every gig assuming your editor is going to be demanding, relentless, and uncompromising. He or she might be an outright jerk.

But you can take it, right?

If not, you should probably choose a career that doesn't involve pitching your ideas and then submitting finished work to a busy editor. Freelance writing is not a good path for you.

As an editor, most of the feedback I get from people who write for me is positive. More than once I've been called "The nicest travel writer I know." At least by people who haven't met Don George yet, that is. Just today I got a note thanking me for being a good editor who accepted their stories for Perceptive Travel.

Two or three times a year though, I'll get an e-mail from some writer starting with, "Don't take this the wrong way, but..." The writer then calls me a meanie and says I should be more kind in my e-mails. I've hurt their feelings, made them feel unappreciated, and they're miffed enough to tell me it's been bothering them. I didn't give them any praise after they submitted that article they toiled away on.

I play along and say I'll keep that in mind, but really if I went back in time my e-mail would be exactly the same. After having this role at three publications since 2006, I know the great writers don't need constant pats on the back. They would rather get paid on time and hired again later.

Positive Feedback is Not an Editor's Job

If you want to succeed as a freelance travel writer, or one in any subject area really, you should probably get used to a lack of positive feedback. If you get a "nice job" message from an editor who bought your story, frame it.

Some publications I've contributed to for years and there hasn't been a single piece of positive feedback. I can't actually remember the last time an editor said they loved my article. But why should they? The person paid to purchase a service for their publication that they could sell advertising next to and I delivered that service.

The positive feedback is that they keep hiring me. It's positive that they're answering my e-mails instead of ignoring them. Should you tell the lawn care guy every week what an awesome frickin' job he did edging the grass along your sidewalk? Let him go win "Lawn Care Professional of the Year" if he needs that kind of ego-boosting. The feedback is your weekly payment.

Editors are busy and the last thing they're thinking about is whether they're making you feel good about yourself. Granted, there are exceptions now and then. If there's a writer I feel like I can take from good to mind-blowingly great with just a little targeted encouragement, I'll take the time to put my criticism between two tasty "way to go" buns in order to make a nice sandwich. If I'm leading a workshop I've been paid to lead or someone has covered my expenses for a conference, it's my job to be Mr. Positive for three days instead of Mr. Tough Love.

But if you're a regular freelancer or independent blogger selling me your contracted content? Sorry, no. That's a transaction. Service rendered, fee paid. Next!

I'm telling you all this not to rationalize my gruff e-mail exterior, but to point out an important reality: I'm the norm, not the exception. Some editors at publications that pay $2 a word will actually talk to you on the phone and make your 3,000-word feature story better, occasionally, and there might even be a few words of encouragement. Because that's a big investment for them and their publication. More often though, the communication will be by e-mail and will use as few words as possible. The base word for "editor" is "edit," after all.

Editors Don't Have Time to Be Coaches

I'm a freelancer too and for 25+ years, I've been on the receiving end of that correspondence from magazine editors. First in letter form then in faster but even less civil electronic form. Even when editors didn't have social media, the internet, e-mail, or constantly buzzing smart phones, they were crazy busy. I once visited one in an office in New York and watched in awe as she talked on the phone, wrote notes on documents in her in-box, interviewed me, and chewed out her assistant for double-booking her at 5:00. All while stuffing things in her briefcase to take home that night. I can only imagine how frazzled she would be now, aided by technology.

I can easily point to my favorite editor of all time, one of the first ones who hired me for multiple assignments. He was warm, charming, witty, and encouraging, no matter what. The thing is, eventually he got laid off after a buyout and it took him more than five years to find another full-time job.

Meanwhile, every jerk editor I've ever worked with has gone on a path of getting bigger and better jobs each transition. Sorry to say, the correlation between writer coddling and career trajectory is probably an inverse one. The ones that climb the ladder have learned how to deliver what their bosses want and to deliver it efficiently, on time, as expected. "Being nice to contributing freelancers" is not in their job description anywhere. Sure, they may need those writers someday when their publication folds and they decide to go freelance themselves, but unless they were a true a-hole, they'll get their calls and e-mails returned.

How an Editor Processes 250 E-mails a Day

You see, almost anyone you can point to as successful in any field has become that way by prioritizing their time and getting the maximum amount of work done with the minimum amount of time required. Nearly all top-level entrepreneurs and executives view their e-mail box as something to process, deal with, and whittle down. Short and effective moves the business forward. Chit-chatty and meandering is for amateurs and starving artists.

I commonly get asked, "When do you sleep?" even though I get 8 hours a night on average. People say they have trouble running one blog, so how in the world can I run five sites with multiple e-mail addresses and social media accounts? I have help, first of all, and I try to be far more encouraging and patient with those assistants because they are part of my team, not just delivering a one-off service. Besides them though, I just have good systems in place and employ lots of productivity for writers strategies. Follow that link if you are truly open to help in that area.

One of the key strategies is, you don't spend more than a few minutes replying to an e-mail, especially if you're getting hundreds of them a day. Do you want a reply that is short and to the point and do you want your e-mail to be deleted? "Send me a long one with smilies and exclamation points" is not one of the choices when you're corresponding with a busy editor.

So call me a jerk, call me insensitive, and deride me for not being more of a people person in my e-mails. Hopefully someday we'll hang out together in person and I'll change your mind. But if you miss your deadline, the e-mail from me will be very short and to the point. If you do that twice it might even sound downright mean. Because it'll say I don't want to buy what you're selling anymore.

If you do everything you're supposed to do, on time, that's called "fulfilling your commitment" and usually doesn't deserve an emotional pat on the back. Call me up or corner me at a conference and ask how you're doing if you want honest feedback. Or go enter your stories in writing contests and win some awards. Don't just wait for praise from the people paying you and get miffed if it doesn't appear.

If you believe in your art and you know you're good at it, you don't need anyone's opinion anyway. That gives you the fortitude to start a blog, where maybe one in 20,000 readers will tell you they appreciate what you're doing.

When you think of your editor, picture the late Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, or the old model in my music biz days: Clive Davis. If you go in with the assumption you'll get grudging respect for a job well done and unfiltered (but valid) criticism when you screw up, it'll be all upside and no downside. You'll forge onward and grow your back account. Meanwhile the fragile amateurs will spend more and more time on Facebook and Instagram, getting their required injection of daily affirmations and encouragement through likes and hearts.

If you receive an e-mail that's all criticism and no praise, consider that a gift, not a snub. Even the most successful veteran writers are trying to improve their craft all the time. Being a freelance writer involves a lot of negative feedback on a regular basis. If you’re not getting that, you’re not pushing yourself very hard.

Take what's valid in that criticism and ignore what's not. Like I said, if you're good at what you do, you know whether you were on your A-game or not with what you turned in.

Reply with one sentence or less back---maybe "Thanks." "Appreciate the feedback," or "OK"---and get back to creating great work.

Tim Leffel is the author of five books in multiple editions, including Travel Writing 2.0, and is editor of the frequently awarded Perceptive Travel online magazine. He also edits two other publications that use freelancers on a monthly basis.