When Editors Break Bad
What’s a freelance writer to do?
I recently pitched a personal essay to a (non-Medium) outlet and was thrilled when it was accepted. Another byline! Another paycheck!
I spent a solid week writing, tweaking, then writing some more, and finally submitted what I felt was a solid 950 words.
A few weeks later, I received an email from the editor saying it “looks great.” Knowing he had a lot on his plate, I figured it would be awhile before I received his first round of edits. I put a reminder in my calendar to touch base with him at the end of the month and turned my attention to other projects.
Then, out of the blue, I received an email from the publication: “Your story was just published!”
Huh?
But, I never received any edits. I guess maybe there weren’t many to make?
I logged onto the site and there it was. My name. My photo. But…new text. So much new text. An entire paragraph of new text.
My essay — my personal essay, about an aspect of my life — was sliced and diced, so much so that my initial reaction was, “This isn’t right. I need to have this pulled. People can’t see this.”
