I am a Copy/Manuscript Editor. Was working freelance with a fool who thinks that being a publisher is nothing more than ghostwriting for his rock musician “authors.”
A week ago he “fired” me because the edits I gave him on this last book was two days late and not perfect.
Good riddance. Here's what I dealt with:
~ I told him two weeks before-hand that the edit would be about three days late. Informed him I was dealing with mental health issues because a new doctor decided that my ADHD wasn't “real” and refused to write a prescription for generic Adderall. Bonus: Pretend Publisher is also a psychologist/therapist.
~ Pretend Publisher claims that Google Docs is “just too confusing,” and refuses to update his copy of Microsoft Word, which he still does not know how to use. Thus, when he opens the edited MS Word doc, it loses/alters all formatted copy. This is obviously my fault because I cannot make the software magically save down to his version.
~ He himself cannot write. I certainly don't expect his ghostwriting efforts to be on the level of Strunk & White, but surely he could understand that a sentence has a subject and a predicate. He has no idea how to construct a story (they have a beginning, a middle, and an end). In essense, the simple writing practices taught to all of us in grade school composition classes.
~ No matter what suggestions and tutelage I gave, he refused to understand common publishing practices, such as terminology, basic business practices, and time management of printed material. He thought that traditional publishers are inefficient because they just take too much time to put a book out.
~ He thinks that racism, misogyny, poverty-shaming, and anti-LGBTQI narratives are acceptable; he doesn't “judge” the “politics” of his authors. Too bad. As an Editor, I'm still going to remove all instances of the n-word and other vile slurs he deems “not his problem.”
~ Good luck getting another Editor who'll work for a lower rate and who'll do ALL the research, fact-checking, revisions, and major re-writes he mistakenly thinks all editors do.
Thank you for giving me the space to rant. I am still gobsmacked by his attitude. I tried to help him get his footing in his new business. Now, I will be amazed if he actually keeps this hobby of his afloat.