Illumination Lost An Editor, and It’s Not Her Loss, It’s Ours
Reputations take ages to build, seconds to destroy
There was a recent piece written in Writer’s Blokke, a publication I deeply respect because of its owner Benny Lim and its ethos and simplistic submission rules. The publication essentially hopes for its writers to be kind and nice and play along with Medium guidelines and rules, and they won’t reject stories on any other basis as long as the above basic principles are met.
The piece was about Illumination — another publication very close to my heart — the first home for my work on Medium, and one that I am a senior editor (or so they say) with. Same reasons for respect — a great owner in Dr Mehmet Yildiz and a team and set of principles that work tirelessly (for absolutely free like all other editors in most Medium pubs) to ensure everyone that wants to have a voice has a platform to showcase that voice.
The piece is below — I don’t intend to make this personal to anyone, and I don’t know the author personally, so don’t intend to tag her. I do know Dr. Yildiz well enough given my time with Illumination, and the other person who I can proudly call a friend is former fellow editor Terry L. Cooper, the infamous editor in question in the article.
She hasn’t been named but here you go — I’ll spill the beans for those wondering (she’s been tagged with her due permission).
Here’s how I see what unfolded, and the part of the story that was never told — until now.
First, the unintended (or intended) aftermath — Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s reaction
Dr. Yildiz had to ask Terry to give up her services as an editor at Illumination following the noise that the above article created. Was this fair? I am no one to judge. Was this the right thing to do? There are different viewpoints to it, both of which I get.
Dr. Y started Illumination with an aim to provide a platform for people to voice their opinions, without judging their opinions — in terms of quality of writing, the structure of stories, agreement or disagreement with their views, or any other factor. The only criteria for publication in Illumination are essentially meeting Medium’s guidelines, and an avoidance of certain set of topics we stay away from given the evolving preferences of our audience such as explicit sexual content.
Beyond that, he is one owner who is as inclusive as they ever get, even going against some of his editors who prefer to be stricter on “quality.” But, his publication, his rules — and in my mind fair rules.
What this has meant is that Illumination has thousands of writers that regularly write for us, and tens of thousands of readers that read these voices.
But, this level of diversity also means a large number of viewpoints, some quite naturally conflicting. For the most part, we’re all adults, and we learn to “agree to disagree” and move on. There is however a fair bit of mudslinging that disgruntled writers and readers do every now and then — when they feel like they need to tell the world how Illumination wronged them. Most of these claims are unfounded — some ignored, some proudly defended against.
Dr. Y, as the owner, is the one who has the final call on all of this. And in this case, this article was only one of many “complaints” he had received about Terry, and he felt his duty to let her go to avoid further noise and disgruntled writers. Fair enough — crisis management brings out different responses — this was his.
Would I have done the same? No. But I am not in his position, I’ll know when I am. I’d probably have done what I am doing now — publicly batted for my teammate, knowing that the long-term audience would get it.
Terry L. Cooper’s side of the story — she won’t say it, but I will
The editors and writers of Illumination also share a vibrant Slack workspace. Editors have a dedicated room where all the inner workings go on.
Some of us spend hours every day clearing the Illumination queue, others check in from time to time, while others still are just AWOL. They use Illumination just to publish their own stories and haven’t been nearly as active as they should be.
Dr. Y will know better in terms of exact statistics — but Illumination receives HUNDREDS of stories every day. Despite of and because of our easy submission guidelines, a ton of pieces are in the queue because seldom do we reject pieces.
This means we need workhorse editors. To me, Terry is the quintessential workhorse. She’d do the lion’s share of cleaning up the queue — almost every day. She is a straight shooter and doesn’t shy away from saying it as it is, and that style of communication isn’t for everyone.
She’s left me private notes on my stories spotting an extra space or a typo more often than I’d like to be reminded of, but that’s just who she is.
Yet, the most important factor is that her heart is in the right place. She WANTS to devote hours to this stuff so she can keep things moving and give writers a voice too. Not all pieces we receive are perfect — most are quite bad at following the VERY BASIC rules we’ve laid out. So, some of them need reminding. So, she reminds them.
Yet, in going through dozens of pieces every day, maybe there is a lapse of judgment or rather, a more-extreme-than-needed step. But, hey, do I blame her? Not really.
Because, I am one of those who has a full-time job and a toddler, and I barely find time to check in to Slack and the Illumination queue only once every few days. Yet, I am a “senior editor” and possess certain “judgment” skills where I am valued, and come in to handle sensitive cases, tricky stories, and whatnot. But I don’t do the lion’s share of publishing — far from it.
Terry got her slaps on the wrist enough times from Dr. Y, and I’ll admit that lately, she’d almost NEVER be rude to a writer, rather she’d leave the tricky ones to others like me or Dr. Y. Yet, she’d come in every day like a diligent worker bee and do her job.
Some more on Terry, so you get the idea
Like all of us, Terry’s got a life too. She doesn’t like to advertise this, because that’s how she’s wired, but she’s got an aging dad she takes care of. She’s had her own issues with her health recently — a surgery, pneumonia, and fluid-filled lungs, and through most of this, she’d still find hours in the nights where she was up because she couldn’t sleep, and devote them to the Illumination queue.
Folks like me on the other hand, admittedly, always care to catch up on our own writing first, and then care about “voluntary editing.”
So maybe — just maybe — she has bad days or times when her patience isn’t at its finest, and she says things she shouldn’t.
Reminder: this is a VOLUNTARY job and not something she’s paid for or has a signed code of conduct to live by.
Coming to the case in point — the story with 83 errors
The author points out that this article is about a story she submitted during her “initial days on Medium.”
A quick scroll down her profile tells me her first month on Medium was May 2021. So we’re talking about something written three months ago.
Terry was probably more of a gunslinger back then than she is now. She’s worked on her stringent editing standards, to align with the Illumination standards — when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Yet, one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that she is INSTRUMENTAL in keeping the queue moving. Always getting stuff published, helping writers by going out of her way, and doing so almost EVERY SINGLE DAY — through the thick and thin of her health and her personal situation.
The story in question was apparently “published in a magazine for 240 bucks” so I am not even sure if it met the duplication of the content policy of Medium but that’s beside the point. I am sure the author had reproducing rights for the content, and so that’s a moot point.
A response to Terry’s 83 errors could have been something like below — we NEVER reject stories without leaving a private note first and letting the author respond. So here’s a response:
“Hi Terry — thanks for your review. While your editing app may have suggested multiple errors — I believe that is inaccurate and I’d like to stick with my article. This is a pre-published article in a reputed journal and I own the rights to the images you questioned as well. I can note this in the image footer — as recommended by Illumination guidelines.”
Something like this took me 30 secs to type and addresses ALL the issues Terry had with the story. And often, when I go into the queue after Terry and find a story that has been addressed by the author — I or some other editor just publishes it and move on. Simple. Teamwork.
Yet, that isn’t the approach the author took. Instead, she chose to sling mud at the editor and the Illumination publication — a whole three months later. Great strategy. Not.
There are thousands of publications on Medium, and only humans running them
I’ve been around here for over a year and published over 350 stories across numerous publications.
I’ve been published with the likes of Startup, Ascent, PSILY, Writer’s Cooperative, and yet been rejected by some of the lesser-known pubs.
I’ve had the editor of one of the pubs go cold turkey on all my stories WITHOUT explanation, after the publication being my most successful partnership ever. I dropped her an email with no response. I didn’t go out washing my dirty laundry in public, I just “agreed to disagree” and stopped submitting to the pub.
Yet another publication editor decided to tell me how my “that’s” were redundant, and my “But’s” were unnecessary, and I don’t like nitpicky editors, so I dumped that publication too.
I moved on. No name-calling, no expressing disgust. Neither in the name of the publication nor the individuals.
Medium is for the writers, by the writers — with the eventual goal being good content for the READERS.
People like Terry keep this place running. All we can do is develop a bit of tolerance to things, keep our egos in our back pockets, close to our bottoms, and learn to move on. We’ll all be better for it.
It takes a ton of effort to keep the engine running behind the scenes, but one ill-thought “emergency brake” to stop things in their tracks. Be wise in using that emergency brake, especially just for your own selfish reasons.
P.S. I am publishing this in Illumination using my editor rights but these views are 100% my own and none of the other folks have had a chance to review this. But I am tagging key Illumination folks who may feel free to remove this from Illumination, with my full consent, and guarantee that I shall take no offense, or write a story about it :)
I hate Grammarly and other editing apps too — and I also hate to proofread my own work, so excuse the typos, although am sure Terry L. Cooper will point out a few — the pain in the butt that she is!
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