I felt somewhat the same way as an editor. Of course, most of the material I received was Me'n'Joe stories, the type used in GRAY'S SPORTING JOURNAL, though some technical stuff was also purchased, especially when I edited GAME JOURNAL.
But I always opened an envelope full of new submissions with hope rather than trepidation. One of the great things about editing is the pleasant surprise possible with every slitting of an envelope.
I often saw potential in pieces that were not professional, but could be fixed. In fact, one of the pieces I published in GRAY'S was a fine story about the death of an old hunting dog. Now, these are usually cliches and too personal and sentimental, but this one was great--until the last page. Trouble was, the author didn't end it where he should have, but pounded on the point too long. I insisted on cutting the last page, back to the real ending. He was not happy, saying how hard he'd worked on it. But I was the editor, and he finally gave in, grumbling.
One of my greatest editing pleasures came a year or two ago, when that same author had a collection of his bird-hunting stories published, including the dead dog story. He sent me an inscribed copy, with a note saying, "You were right, John. It appears here as you edited it, and a much better story for it too." Of course, he had also since gone through nearly a decade of evolution as a writer.
But a great many editors simply don't have the time to spend fixing pieces. If they have the budget, they compensate by hiring writers who are pretty good self-editors--but in the process they lose good, new writers, and the world never has enough of those.
