What does it mean to be a good editor?

To be honest, I’m not someone who cares for traditional publishing. Maybe it’s a fear of rejection, maybe it’s my anti-authoritarian streak. Regardless, I’m not somebody proudly within the CanLit landscape or on any CBCReads list.

## The First Time Someone Said Yes

One of the only times I was published by others was in a chapbook nobody read. Grainy photocopied pages with a saddle-stitched binding, a stapler that left rust marks on the cover. I don’t have any links to a copy, I don’t even remember the names of the people involved. I imagine the publication was printed in a basement that smelled like mildew and burnt espresso.

Instead, I choose to independently publish through distribution channels like [Kindle Direct Publishing](https://kdp.amazon.com) and [Lulu Press](https://www.lulu.com/) for softcovers and hardbacks, and [Gumroad](https://brennanbrown.gumroad.com) for digital ebooks. During my tenure at [Write Club](https://writeclub.ca), I was president with two anthologies being published this way: [*A Collection of Filth*](https://www.amazon.com/Fringe-Collection-Filth-Dana%C3%AB-Webb/dp/B0CYQ1NRY9?crid=ABRCLL8U0Z47) and [*A Collection of Community*](https://www.amazon.com/Fringe-Collection-Felix-Costa-Gomez/dp/B0F4PKFRZQ).

[Getting your first work published is the hardest threshold to cross](https://www.writersrelief.com/writing-submission-advice-i-wish-id-known-sooner-writers-relief/). Seeing your name in print, even in a publication with a circulation of twelve copies, changes something fundamental about how you see yourself. You stop being someone who writes. You become a writer. An author.

The piece I submitted to that first chapbook was bad. I know that now. Overwrought imagery and borrowed metaphors. Emotional exhibitionism that a fifteen-year-old could mistake for depth. I was accepted anyways.

I’m not one to revise, either. I usually move on as soon as I finish the first draft. But this? I rewrote it. Published the revision. And in doing so, I began showing up. Met other writers. Learned from their work. Got better because I was given the chance to be worse first, in public, with people who cared enough to help me improve.

### The Art of Rejection

Let’s talk about the ivory elephant in the room. [Publishers would have room in their schedule to explain rejection if they wanted to make room](https://www.booksandsuch.com/blog/the-meanings-behind-different-types-of-rejection-letters/). Most of the time, when you submit writing you end up with a phrase of polite fiction, a way of saying no without saying *why* you were rejected. Vague dismissals offer no learning opportunity, no path forward, just the sting of rejection without understanding. Commercial magazines use it because they receive thousands of submissions—they can’t possi