As a stringer, do I have the right to complain about copy editors?

Bubbler, the people who ever bitched about cutting this story to get theirs in never got far with me. That conversation got cut short in seconds.

And yeah, it's a team effort, and an end result.

But I have to say: A writer that doesn't give a shit how what he or she filed ends up in the paper probably isn't a very good writer.

Of course, writers on the Internet don't have this issue.

 

If the checks from the paper aren't bouncing, don't complain.

 

It's not about not caring what goes into the paper, SF, its about accepting the process for what it is and picking battles when they need to be fought.

For example, unless something that is absolutely vital is cut out of a run-of-the-mill gamer, I am never going to complain about how it is played. Very rarely is a game story so important as to pick a battle over it.

On the other hand, if a centerpiece feature, enterprise piece, or "big" gamer is messed with, then that's a battle worth fighting, because you're fighting on behalf of the interest of the section as well as how you presented the story.

No matter how good you are, you're going to get cut. And if you accept that reality, you're better off. I don't see that as a product of not caring.

 

I agree on all counts. Of course, the stringer is kind of in a tough spot, if they care. Because they might only get a couple of bylines a week, if that, all potential clips, and if things get hacked up too badly, that's a loss to them.

 

I honestly don't care if my lede gets chopped up, or any other part of the story, for that matter. If the thing flows and everything makes sense, I'm happy. But when key parts of the story get cut, it makes me look stupid.

For example, I wrote a simple school-reaction story last year for a new coach that was hired. It wasn't anything special, and it certainly wasn't the lead story for that day. It was also filed hours before deadline. However, three paragraphs got cut that night. One of which was after a quote from the university president. The paragraph that was cut set up the next quote from from a player. The final copy had the president's quote running right into the player's quote, which was not even attributed. That combined quote was the final sentence of the story and made no sense whatsoever combined with the president's quote before it.

I don't have a problem if my story is cut two inches or eight. Just as long as it's done in a way that doesn't make me look like a poor writer or uninformed.

All that said, the copy editors have saved my ass many more times than they've pissed me off. And, like I mentioned in my first post, that's why I've never complained about any of it. And I never will.

 

On the rare occasions that my stories are cut (not that my stories are gold, just that page design tends to flow around the stories at my shop), I ask the SE "Was it for length or content." If he says length, I say OK and go about my merry business of finishing the MLB roundup. If it's for content, I want to know why he cut out that information. Not so I can get angry, but so I can not repeat that mistake.

 

I believe most stringers -- and many writers -- believe that assigning story lengths is an exact science in the world of pagination. Not so. At least, not in any pagination system I've worked on.

You eyeball what's left on the page, and you THINK you have four 4 1/2" columns after you put a head in there. Fact is, you might put that head in, and you have four 4 1/4" columns. That's an inch less right there.

The only way you can be precise about inch counts ... and I try to do this when I have time ... is to put a dummy head on there and flow dummy copy into the hole. But even then, that only works if you have the other stories around it already in there. Another story might be dropping a half-inch deeper than you thought. Or the story below might be coming up a half-inch higher.

Just saying, it's a lot like the people who complain to the writers about the headlines on their story. They don't know how the hot dogs are made.

 

I'd keep quiet unless the issue was major (cut lede, not paid for story). You don't want to kill a potential reference/employer, especially over something inconsequential like a gamer.

 

Don't complain, but I don't see anything wrong with asking. If they told you 16 inches and you sent 16 inches, what's wrong with asking why they wanted less? They gave you a precise number, not a range.

If somebody found fault with your lead, maybe you can find out what was wrong and learn from it.

I don't see anything wrong with asking in a very polite way. Otherwise, the SE could just see what was in the paper and wind up thinking, "Man, that guy really did a shitty job on that game."

 

That's cool, smasher, as long as "your space wasn't quite as big as it appeared" is a valid reply. Because sometimes, that's all it is.

 

That's fine. All I'm saying is he should ask, if only for his own peace of mind. Maybe he had the misfortune to have his story fall into the hands of a bitter old hack (TM) who delights in butchering copy that runs under other people's bylines. Sometimes that's what it is, too.