I have no doubt that being a book editor is a difficult job that requires carefully
honed professional skills. Sometimes, however, there's value in the author
having control over precisely what he or she wants to print.
Torrill Mortensen is a Norwegian game researcher whose blog I follow.
In a short post (it appears below in its entirety) titled 58977
she recently reported on a problem she encountered with the editors of a book
she was writing on online games:
They wanted 60000 words. I have been in the unusual, for academics, position of having to bulk up my manuscript. "But I write a compact language" I whined to my editors. "I noticed" Colin replied, laconically, and pointed out that I really could use more adjectives and adverbs if I wanted to.Perhaps the fact that Torrill blogs as often as she does has empowered her, has made her feel that it's actually her book, and not one over which her editors should have too much influence.
But this will have to do. There are pictures, tables, screenshots and pretty drawings. And I am within the parameters of the book I wanted, without having to make up stuff I hadn't planned should be in it. Feels good. Now off to scan images and put everything together the way I want the world to see it.