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: I do my best to catch typos and punctuation errors, and those I'll correct myself. If I come across continuity errors, awkward sentences, perhaps an omitted or misplaced word, etc., I'll contact the writer and point out those issues and allow them to revise and resubmit. I do have a couple non-native English speaking contributors and a couple creatively talented contributors with reading disabilities, and I will work with them to strengthen their writing, and often they allow me to go in and correct and revise whatever needs to be corrected, trusting I'll keep those rewrites in their voice, their style.

A: We line edit for punctuation, tense consistency, and clarity. We will not accept pieces that require major copyedits or rewrites.

A: We make very few edits to accepted pieces, and also give the authors a chance to submit revised versions after acceptance. I provide basic proofreading in addition to the copyediting by our fiction editor, which usually just catches punctuation mistakes (us writers really love sprinkling semicolons and em dashes!). Anything further than punctuation is approved by the author. If we think we love a piece but it requires much deeper editing, we may ask a writer to re-submit at a later time.

A: Ideally, we edit lightly or not at all. If the piece needs substantive editing, we ask for a revision.

A: I do not edit a piece unless I see something glaring. I will show the author a preview to fix anything before the published version goes live.

A: If there's a typo, I will fix it, but even that I would confirm with the poet before doing so. I do not make any bigger edits than that, though sometimes I do give a conditional acceptance offer, suggesting to the poet to make changes at particular places or rewrite some line or make another choice of word or phrase, and then it is up to the poet to do these changes and resubmit.

A: Once a piece is accepted, our editorial team steps in to work on it. We usually begin with substantive editing, making sure the piece aligns with the overall vision and theme of the issue. We also focus on enhancing clarity, structure, and emotional impact, ensuring the work feels cohesive and polished. After that, we do line editing to refine the flow of the writing, followed by copy editing for grammar, punctuation, and consistency. Finally, we handle basic proofreading to catch any lingering errors. We always make sure the author has the chance to review and approve the final edits before publication.

A: If a story is good but doesn't get some aspect of the Empire quite right, I explain the problem and allow the author to make needed changes. The usual copy edits are also made. The author gets final approval.

A: No editing from my point of view unless it's literally doesn't fit on the website in the intended way, like as in if the poem doesn't fit on the line because the line isn't too long. Then we reach out to the poet to get that, pun intended, straightened out. All of the authors do get to see their poems on the site though in the days leading up to the issue being launched so I can fix any typos that may have occurred in the copy process.

A: It depends on how much it needs editing.

A: We typically accept work as the author has written it. Rarely, we may make some editing recommendations. Typically, however, you should expect your work to be accepted as it is and then to receive a galley copy for proofreading prior to print.

A: Very little edits. Almost 100% of the pieces we accept are very well proofread. If they're not, we usually reject. For poetry, we do almost no editing, unless we find something like a typo or grammatical error. Short stories get more line/copy editing for errors and those are corrected prior to publication.