Recently I was asked by a student in a summer writing program if publishers demanded many changes once a manuscript was accepted for publication. Good question, and my answer was that the editors I’ve worked with at Flux have asked for only minor changes. I added that the editors are highly skilled and I’ve almost always agreed to the changes they’ve suggested – almost. A notable exception was in A Mighty Wall, when an editor wanted to change a word in the following passage, which takes place at Camp Muir, a rustic hut at 10,000 feet on Mount Rainier:
The guides encouraged us to eat and use the outhouse. “We stay roped up the whole time,” Candice said, “so there’s zero privacy. We haul down EVERYTHING with us, including excrement.” She held up a blue bag for emphasis. I went straight to the outhouse and shit like my life depended on it.
The editor read that paragraph and we had a conversation along these lines:
Editor: John, I want to change shit to shat.
Me: You’re shitting me.
Editor: No, shat is grammatically correct. I think Juana (the protagonist’s wanna-be English teacher girlfriend) would change it to shat.
Me: Even the most articulate high school kid would not say, “I shat.” He’d say, “I shit.”
Editor: But he’s speaking of a bowel movement in the past. Hence, shat is correct.
Me: Shit is ever present.
Editor: Please consider shat.
Me: You gotta give me shit.
Editor: No, I think shat is best.
Me: Shit.
Editor: Shat.
Me: I have to insist.
Editor: Well…okay, I can live with shit.