[whswhs]

Are you sure your Diplomacy is at default? I have to say that a nontrivial part of my work as an editor involves persuading authors to accept my proposed changes to their manuscripts. There are easy sells for this: it's journal house style, it's spelled this way in the dictionary, it's consistent with what you did on page X. But I also need to propose fixes that take explanation of why it's a good idea, and I do at least moderately well at persuading authors to accept these. Certainly I've had a lot of practice by now . . .

Of course, as the line editor, you have more actual authority than I have. But I expect you do have some occasion for reasoned persuasion.