Comments on: Top Five Things Editors Hate–And What Do YOU Hate

By: Notes from the Other Side of the World » VanderMeer, Errata, Penguins and What You Hate…

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:24:44 +0000

[...] then you’ve read those books, which maybe you never otherwise would), he has posted about the Top Five Things Editors Hate – And What Do You Hate? and the Top Five Things This Writer Hates–Writers Out There, What Do YOU Hate?. I love, love, [...]

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:05:03 +0000

Yeah. Ah well.

UPRIVER, “WAR OF ALL AGAINST ALL”: http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2009/01/21/war-of-all-against-all-writers-vs-editors-vs-publicists-vs-reviewers-vs-readers-vs-evil-monkey/

Join in.

By: Alex Carnegie

Alex Carnegie — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:51:04 +0000

“Writers who blast me on their blog for rejecting their story or who send threatening emails because of rejection.”

Wow! The first is petty, the second is frankly awful behaviour! A good way to go about ensuring you’re never published in Weird Tales that’s for sure.

I think perhaps Ann should tell them to go find out about a guy called Farnsworth Wright if they think they’re hard done by. He turned down Clark Ashton Smith’s “Seven Geases” saying it was “just one geas after another” (which sounds like an incident from Aylett’s ‘Lint’), rejected “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” for goodness sake… It should be suitably humbling.

By: Steve Berman

Steve Berman — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:56:17 +0000

Well, I suppose I dislike authors who recommend their editors commit suicide and take their cat with them.

By: Ennis Drake

Ennis Drake — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:08:56 +0000

Jeff: Please define cranks and curmudgeons.

I’m dying to hear this (mostly because I know it will amuse the shit out of me).

By: Links for 20th January 2009 | Velcro City Tourist Board

Links for 20th January 2009 | Velcro City Tourist Board — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:01:00 +0000

[...] Top Five Things Editors Hate–And What Do YOU Hate [...]

By: Specmysticon

Specmysticon — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:26:35 +0000

Number 1 on Ann’s list always surprizes me. I mean, in this day and age, don’t writers know that editors google their names and the names of their publications obsessively (in an every-hour-on-the-hour-like manner)?

That reminds me, I’ve haven’t googled myself for two hours now…

By: John Klima

John Klima — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:52:07 +0000

Writers who send submissions as e-mail attachments and include NOTHING in their attached document to indicate a way in which to contact them. (i.e., the attached document only contains their story text)

I have a polite animosity towards mailed submissions. At this point I’m not open to subs so it doesn’t matter, but when I re-open, I will STRONGLY suggest that people use e-mail.

By: Jonathan Strahan

Jonathan Strahan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:34:16 +0000

Oh, oh, I forgot: writers who send you unsolicited work for ‘any project that you might be working on’ just on the ‘off chance it might be useful’. It’s well intentioned, but there’s then an abusive follow-up if you don’t respond promptly because they need to know if you want their work (even though you didn’t ask and don’t have a project). Argh. I do hate that one.

By: Jonathan Strahan

Jonathan Strahan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:32:28 +0000

I think between you and Ann you cover most of the big ones. I think my two are writers who promise, promise, promise they’ll deliver something on time and then come up with nothing, but only after the actual deadline is upon you so it’s too late to do much about it, and writers who get involved in areas that are not their purview (ie anything much except the story, it’s editing and copyediting, proofs, contracts etc).

I should add most writers I’ve dealt with over the years have been fantastic, but inevitably there are a few moments that, shall we say, stick in the memory.