Excellent post, indeed.

I can really appreciate the point you made about listening with an open mind. As you say, keeping our ego out of the way is key. By taking on board feedback, we demonstrate maturity to the editor and a willingness to do the best job we can.

I like your analogy Cathy. I’ve also had situations where I’ve gotten assignments from an editor’s successor, and then gotten assignments from the editor who left once she arrived at a similar position with another company.

And my relationship with one Marketing VP garnered a new client (her new employer) when she left her old employer, and I maintained her former employer as a client. I call it breeding new clients. 😉

That’s a testament to just how good of a job you are doing for these editors Tom. My longest relationship was about 7 or 8 years, and it ended because my editor left the company and went into a totally different field.

If either of them leave, I’m sure they’d give me a good recommendation, and be open to submissions to their new publications. Thanks for the good stuff.

Very good point Anne. Whenever somebody doesn’t respond the way I want, or act the way I want, I try to remember that we all have many burdens we carry that others don’t see.