Editor Interviews

Read all the editors' answers to Duotrope's interview question: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication? Learn more.

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Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?

A: We conduct a two-month editorial process with every publication. Contest winners, however, are edited very lightly in order to uphold the integrity of the judge's decisions.

A: The four manuscripts we accepted for publication in 2023 and 2024 required only the lightest editorial touches. Our authors had seriously shaped their work, and had very clear attentions when it came to their own poetry. We provide copy editing, proof reading, and line edits where needed. Author approves final edits, and all editing is collaborative.

A: The amount of editing depends on our workload and how much we like the piece. We would not accept a work we did not like or have faith in, but sometimes we have to turn down works that would take too much editing when our hands are full as a short staff. That being said, some works we have accepted needed an extra push to be fully realized, and we are willing to take on extensive editing if we have the resources to do it. We always let our authors know whether we plan to do minimal or large-scale edits. We also make sure that the author gets freedom to make their work how they want to, even if it takes some back and forth. We strongly belive in craft and sharing in the dreams of our authors.

A: Many of our contest winning manuscripts are published very lightly if that is the preference of the winning author. We believe that winning the contest is a testament to the manuscript in the form it was submitted and do our best to get out of the way of that power and energy. That said, many authors want more support and many runners-up are developed extensively prior to publication.

A: We do some minor editing with authors before their book goes to print, and the final decisions about what to change always lie with the author.

A: It depends on the work. For prose, we always do a close proofread and sometimes request other sentence-level edits. The majority of the poetry is published as submitted. The few times we have requested edits it's normally for poems that use very long lines or deeply indented formatting, which we sometimes need to edit simply so they'll fit on our issue pages. Any edits we make are sent to the authors for approval before publication.

A: We do basic proof reading to ensure there are no syntactical and grammatical errors. However, if there is any editing done, we make sure to run it by the writer before publishing it.

A: I do substantive edits on all accepted pieces, which authors then approve.

A: Basic proofreading only.

A: We are minimalists re: editing, maybe something only a little more that proofreading. Every once and a while, we may make a suggestion for the sake of clarification, but it's rare, and only if we really like a piece.

A: As per our submission requirements, we'll make small adjustments such as spelling corrections and punctuation edits without asking for author approval. We have, in the past, reached out to authors for permission to make more substantive edits. Those have been mostly related to word choice, more in-depth punctuation issues, and line breaks.

A: It depends! For many pieces, we barely make any edits. For others, we make small edits to grammar and syntax, which will only be implemented with the approval of the writer. Sometimes, we work with the writer through two or three rounds of revisions to ensure that their piece is publication-ready. If your piece is accepted, any details about further edits will be included in your acceptance letter.