Advice on co-editing query please

[paintingisover]

I'm an independent academic - not affiliated to any organisation, did my PhD some years ago and now work quite happily in the margins of academia and art practice. (Have nc-ed as this is very outing!)

I am co-authoring a book at the moment with a very high up Prof in our field. The series editors originally approached me to edit the book but then the publishers said it should be someone with an academic post as there is no fee attached. Eventually we reached a compromise where I and this other academic are co-editing, and I am receiving a small fee (£1.5k) for my work.

We're coming to the end of the editing process and most of the chapters are over word count. We now need to cut quite heavily and the other academic has told me that we are going to cut my chapter. In return, she says I can write the introduction on my own instead of co-authoring it with her (she will still be writing her solo chapter). I haven't finished my chapter yet so she is saying that this will save me work that I'm not being paid for.

My initial reaction is: wtf? Writing that chapter was the reason that justified doing so much other work for free! Also, I know she's the senior academic but I'm not part of an institution so I don't have to play by any hierarchy, and I don't understand why I'm just being 'told' that my chapter is cut. There are other chapters which duplicate or which haven't been submitted yet, but they're written by colleagues/ friends of the other editor, so I feel like she's just taking the easy route by shitting on someone lower down than her.

BUT am I being paranoid? One of the reasons I don't work in academia is that I am dreadful at the politics (I work in a field that is about deconstructing hierarchies, and yet in academia the hierarchies are very powerful), and am well aware that I'm over sensitive to it.

Will a good introduction be any worse for my career than a good chapter (assuming I can do a good job at all?!)

What is a rational response to this, and what should I do next?

No, of course you should not have to cut your own chapter! There should be a word limit for each chapter solicited and each author should have kept to it. As an editor I would not accept a chapter over the word limit, nor would I be expected to cut the words, it’s up to authors to submit a chapter to the expected word count.

Did you send out the cake for chapters with a strict upper word limit? Why are so many authors ignoring the word limit? Or is the problem that you have solicited more chapters than you need? Is there a deadline for submission? If you have more chapters than you need and are past the deadline, it’s entirely fair to refuse to accept other submissions.

As for the value of the chapter vs the introduction, it depends on what you need it for. In the U.K. REF an introduction to a volume would not count as much as a chapter contribution, but if you don’t have an academic post perhaps that is not a consideration for you.

Thanks -as I feared!

The problem is that other people have all submitted over their word count. I agree that I think they should be cut.

Right. I am going to email back to push back against this unilateral decision.

Thanks for the advice booboo! I pushed back and my chapter is back in ...!

And now don’t take on the work of editing other people down to their word limit! Send the over long chapters back to the authors with a reminder of the word limit and a request that they cut to fit.

Well done!

Yes, don’t take on jobs that are not part of editing. Editing is a hard and thankless job, job need to make it harder.

Well done, I was just about to say no chapter, no more editing! Chapters are what you are editing the book for - to have the chance to put forward your own ideas and work, and pull together than of others. Intro indeed.