Understanding authority in the author–editor relationship will help both parties in its navigation. This research argues that the perspectives through which this partnership has been viewed to date have not been helpful to understanding its most productive form. While valuable in articulating some of the editing relationship’s functions, these perspectives have limited its role and scope, doing both author and editor a disservice. Prevailing descriptors of editors are no longer useful prisms through which to view the relationship. These characterisations of editing as background, supporting roles impede the development of a relationship in which the editor’s professionalism, their expertise and ability to impart knowledge effectively leads to trust and opportunities for growth. In an ideal, balanced relationship, forged to create the best book possible, the editor and the author will acknowledge the process and engage with it throughout the edit. It is time to move beyond the question of who has more authority in the relationship, which perpetuates an infantilising culture and a unproductive dichotomy. A more apt term for the editing process is partnership in which authors, recognising and using the collaborative opportunity to go further, see the relationship as an equal one.
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