Help, My Editor's Gone Literary

One of my recent submissions to a publisher was a sexy short story, my third and last of this type for me. It's not literary fiction by any standards, that was not my attempt when I wrote it. No, it's the type of story you buy when you want a sexy little pick up for less than a dollar. You know the kind, flirty, steamy, and a little titillating. Something you read in one sitting for fun. My sister introduced me to them a couple of years ago and I decided to try my hand at one. The first one I wrote, Turned On, was tons of fun and, according to my editor, sexy hot. It took me a few hours to write, a couple more to revise and submit. The editor gave me some edits that took a few hours and bango, it got published.

That was last summer and since then, I’ve written two more. A few months ago, I decided to focus writing full-length New Adult novels, not exactly literary fiction, but a far cry from erotica. The problem is with the last sexy story I wrote about a fun romp in Dubrovnik. The story is now in danger of being edited out of existence. Ya’ll, this isn’t literary fiction it’s erotica.

The edit I just finished took me more hours than I will admit to doing. The first go around, I was given lists of words to get rid of (how to write without ever using the word ‘so’? I don’t use it all that much, however, there are times when it’s the only word that works.) I made the changes and sent it off, assuming I was done. I was wrong.

I am clueless as to what transpired, but whatever it was, the editor apologized for the first edit and included a long list of completely different edits as well as a mild threat (that I did not take seriously) about missing my contracted publishing date. Huh? I don’t know if the person was apologizing for my bad writing or her messing up my first edit (hopefully it was the editing, because my writing would have to be beyond awful to mess up a sexy short story). These new edit comments make be ponder just what it is I’m writing, I mean how can I explore into the character POV, her innermost thoughts, and other such things in a forty page story that is basically, well you know.

Anyway, I’ve sent it off, hope it will suffice, and wash my hands of this kind of writing forever. I'm glad to get that off my chest and am happy once again. And, in fairness, this newly revised short story is much better.