Sometimes it takes four....not necessarily a village

One of my favorite cartoons shows a dog sitting at a table between a human and another dog. The caption reads: I always wanted my adopted mother to meet my birth mother. Those of us who count animals as part of our family know the feeling of being a parent to a four legged creature. I certainly feel that way about Kitty O. Kitty has two birth parents and two parents who do the job of raising him. In other words, it takes four, not necessarily a village.....
And so too a book. A writer writes the book, and sends it to an agent. Said agent reads it, and, in the best of worlds, sells it to a house where an editor will, in the very best of worlds, not make too many changes. Once it is published, the pr people and reviewers take over and in the bestest of all worlds, the reviews will be positive.
Thus when I see a book on a shelf, I think about the writer/birth parent and the agenteditor/adopted parent. It certainly took more than one to get that book on that shelf!
It reminds me of TS Eliot and "The Wasteland." Eliot sent his ms to Ezra Pound who edited it to the form we now read. But if you get the original version, you will see that Pound took out lots of wonderful bits. So much so that I once wondered who should get the real credit: Eliot or Pound?
As for Kitty, I get all the credit....unless he's been naughty.