So I'm finally returning to that question from a couple weeks ago--when should a writer take advice on his/her manuscript, and when is it better to trust the gut?This is the classic conundrum, and one you will be confronted with again and again and again if you seek and secure publication. You will have an editor, and that editor will have viewpoints that may differ from yours, and the editor is only one of many potential viewpoints that will inflict themselves upon you. Some of them will be professionals, some amateurs; some will be right, some will be wrong. Also, the first half of that sentence doesn't directly correspond to the second. Ultimately, you're going to have to decide when to fight for what you've already got, and when to ask yourself if maybe the critique is correct. There are several stages here, and the opinions you'll half to negotiate will differ at each stage. when you're working on writing a book but have no agent or contractCraft development is tough. No one can do it alone. Literally, no one. Even Shakespeare was heavily edited by peers before the First Folio came out. The thing is, your friends and family know you too well to be good objective guides in many places. They may not know your genre well, and give you bad advice based on the genres they read. Or they may tell you everything is awesome and perfect and provide no helpful reflection at all. It will take some hunting, but the best thing to do is find a really compatible writing partner or group. I personally like groups--although they are rather a lot of work to put together--because you get a variety of opinions (some of which are always crappy and obviously wrong, but the perspective they provide helps you realize that there are GOOD comments in the group). Writing a book is not (and definitely should not be) a democratic process. But public opinion (in small doses) is really great to see how various people react to your writing. Do you take their suggestions or trust your gut? Well, it's your call. You have to trust your gut on whether or not to trust your gut. But. Make yourself be open to the idea that you might need reworking. I can't tell you how hard this is, or how many otherwise reasonable people fail at it. Do you keep hearing the same criticism over and over and over? Because then it might be time to start listening. when you've secured an agent but haven't yet signed with a houseYour agent is going to look at your ms not from a craft point of view (well, some agents are great prose editors, but not all of them). Their primary focus is going to be marketing, on making your book be salable to an editor who acquires in the category that most closely fits your book. You gotta be able to trust your agent. If your agent gives you advice that you can't take or that frustrates you, take some time to reflect and calm down, then see if you can talk about it with your agent. Your agent should be able to clearly explain why these changes have to be made. You HAVE to be able to talk with your agent. Do you always have to take their advice? No. But your agent's a professional. And ultimately the only person who is entirely on your side (or should be, at least). SO if you can't trust your agent, you have to ask you if there's something wrong. when your book has been contracted by a houseThe thing to remember about publishing a book is that although you are the author and you hold the copyright, ultimately someone else is paying to publish that book, and has licensed your intellectual property from you in what is, at least in theory, a business scheme. This means a publishing company has--by default--corporate, political, and ethical interests. If it's publicly traded, one of the chief interests is the stockholder opinion. If it's a private company, god only knows what specific agendas might be. During the in-house editing process, these are the people who will or may ask for changes on your manuscript:-your editor-your publisher-your copy editor-your proofreader-the house's legal department As with any business relationship, there is push and pull during the editing process. If you really, really disagree with a change, you should tell your editor. But remember that no one is making changes willy-nilly; they made them for reasons. So make yourself step back and try to think about it from their perspective. Even editors are fallible (shocking, I know, right?!). If you clearly (and calmly) elucidate the reasons you disagree with a change, your editor will probably listen. If she doesn't--and yes, as much as I hate to admit it, some editors are close-minded and argumentative, too--call your agent, and explain it all to your agent. Your agent can run interference--and also tell you if maybe you're being unreasonable. (That's the agent's job, to know when to push hard in one direction or another. That's why I love agents; please go out and give your agent some love today on my behalf.)The point is, pick your battles, and keep your head no matter what. This is a creative industry, and passions run high, but it's also a subjective industry by the same token. The pros may or may not be right, but you may or may not, either. You know your book a lot better than they do, but they know the business end better. You must meet in the middle. You are in a business contract--don't let things get sour between you and your editor. It will hurt you now and later and forever. If your publisher starts thinking of you as a high maintenance author, you will get avoided by all the teams in house who start to wonder if their energies are better allocated elsewhere. Did this help, or just make it worse?