Writing for Money? When to Say No to Editors & When to Say Yes

Recently, three short stories of mine, "Darkness Road", "Asphalt Oceans by Midnight", and "Brianna May and the Wonderful, Horrible Water Sprite" were accepted for publication in NewGen Pulp Magazine and 21 Magazine, respectively. No cash for these stories, only contributor copies and exposure, and the first story will be in a magazine - not an anthology, (I'd like to get into a few more of those, honestly), and the second two will be on an ezine everyone can see for free.

Anyway, I learned some more important lessons for me regarding rejected stories, and what we should do with them. I think this is something writers need to develop over time, but after several drafts of a story, we (or at least, I do), get an idea either that a particular story has something "good" to offer and can be pitched elsewhere, it needs some major changes, or it's just as good as it's going to get, and either should be shelved away for that big "collection" that will be published someday when we're famous, or submitted to the smallest, thinnest, yet still "legitimate" place that can be found.

The hard part is accepting that a story needs changes, or that we need to listen to an editor's suggestions. I received a reply from 21: The Magazine of Ultimate Creativity about "Asphalt" and "Brianna May", saying he (the editor) liked them, but not as they were, and they needed changing. He hoped his comments weren't too "harsh", and said if I was willing to resubmit, he'd accept them.

A year ago, my reaction would've been this:

"Are you nuts? This is genius! How can you change genius!??!"

Now, it's this:

"Oh powerful and great editor, show me the folly of my poor unedited ways, and thine glorious editing Will be done."

Okay, so maybe I didn't grovel that much. The point is, it seems like I'm learning just as much about professionalism and etiquette as I am writing these days. For the most part, I'm really starting to understand how things work in the writing world:

I = writer. I write stuff. It's what I do.

Them = editor. They edit stuff. It's what they do.

When an editor says "We need this changed...." you say, "No problem."