Betting on the right horse

 



Lately I've been writing book proposals for other people, and when one went out, two publishers responded right away. One offered a decent advance; the other wanted the book, but didn't want to pay for it.

 "I've never sold a book for nothing," the agent wrote.

 The editor was indignant; wanted the book and whined about uncertainty. The agent said that acquiring mss. ought not to be going for certainty (buying mss. that are like other best-selling books etc.) but "betting on the right horse."

 I love that idea! And not just because it reminds me of John Steinbeck saying,

"Publishing makes horse-racing look like a stable, secure business."

Betting on the right horse is a good way to think about my own books, too -- though for me it's like owning a horse as well as betting on one. If you muck out the stalls etc. yourself, owning a horse is a lot of work. And so is writing a book. You have to really love the creature to make all that work worthwhile, whether it wins the race or not.

Differences between published and unpublished mss.

     




Lately I've been coaching people writing fiction, and have noticed some big differences between published and unpublished manuscripts.  The first 4 can all be corrected if the writer wants to take the trouble to correct them; the next 3 three I think depend upon having some talent......

The list helped me fix my OWN writing and I sent it along to one of the people I coach, too. He also found it helpful -- maybe some of you will.

If you disagree with some or can think of others I haven't mentioned, PLEASE comment.

1. Published writers use dialog to move the story along or develop character. Unpublished writers use it to take up space or give the reader information that could be more economically given in some other way.

UPWs almost always let their dialog go on way too long. Conversations in books (unlike conversations in real life!) should end as soon as their dramatic purpose has been achieved.

2. PWs give readers just the right amount of back story/information about the characters and situation -- not too much, not too little. UPWs tend to either give WAY too much -- telling us all much more about the characters' pasts or the present situation than we need to know -- or so little that we are completely confused.

3. Simiarly, UPWs often spend more time describing a scene/setting it up than letting it play out. PWs concentrate their energies and our attention on what happens -- and in every scene, something does.

4. UPWs introduce characters, facts, situations and then abandon them without developing them or bringing them to a conclusion. PWs make sure that if there is a gun lying on the table, it goes off, or fails to go off, or gets confused for the murder weapon or plays some other role in the story. Otherwise, why mention it? Similarly, if they describe a character in Chapter 4, that character has a role in what happens. He doesn't just get introduced in a paragraph of backstory, stroll in to ask about the weather, and then disappear.


5. It is amazing HOW MUCH HAPPENS in a well-constructed novel. Many amateurish attempts simply contain too little -- they're too slight to be interesting.

6. PWs write about people who come to life in the readers' minds -- their characters seem real, we care what happens to them. UPWs' characters are hard to tell apart or remember, or they're unconvincing -- they seem made-up/flat/fake and we don't care what happens to them (and often,  not much does -- see #5). Conveying what a person is like with a few well-chosen details IS an art, but being interested in other people and noticing things about them is a really good start!

I remember an amateur writer -- a doctor -- who was incredibly good at this, even though he had no writing experience. For example, he described a character as dressed in a cowboy hat and boots, and adding the comment that on anyone else, it would have looked silly or affected; but on him, it looked natural and stylish. Later in the scene, when this character replied to something another character had said, the narrator commented that he couldn't tell what he was thinking:
"His was a poker face."
When, later, this same character saved the day with a really brilliant move, it all fit, we believed it -- because the author had chosen the right details to describe him/let us know what he was like.

7. Some writers (both published and unpublished, IMHO) simply have nothing to say -- and these people shouldn't be writing at all, or should wait until they've thought of something.

8. PWs
"Use the right word, not its second cousin." -- Mark Twain

Some UPWs just plain can't write: they misuse words, make grammatical mistakes, are incredibly wordy, use way too many adjectives, always embellish the word "said" or avoid it in favor of words they consider more interesting -- which is like avoiding the word "the".....

This (#8) can be corrected by a little work on the part of the writer: using a dictionary (not a Thesaurus, a dictionary), mastering the concepts in a book like The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, simply paying attention!

Of course, #8 can also be fixed by a good editor, but it's been my experience that those who commit #8 also do so many of the others that I don't think any editor is likely to bother. So the ms. will never get that far.

____

Lastly, I hope this doesn't sound snobbish: I did begin by admitting that MY writing, especially in the earlier drafts, contains some of these things ...and maybe that brings me to one more:

9. PWs usually rewrite -- many, many times. UPWs seem to think one draft is enough, and when it isn't, they give up.

One of the hardest things about writing is that YOU JUST DON'T KNOW -- maybe those who give up are saving themselves a lot of wasted time and energy (if writing something that never sells is a waste of both). Or maybe they're missing the chance to find out, or get something great out into the world.

There are no guarantees, and until you've done your very, very best work I don't think anyone can tell you.

Back from NCTE/ALAN

         




Happy Thanksgiving, all! I'm still technically on vacation until tomorrow, and I must say, I'm still recovering from being in Las Vegas for the NCTE conference and ALAN workshop for almost a week. It was a bit surreal to be in Vegas and working--I'll just say that I hadn't left the MGM Grand where the conference was held the whole time--I tried to venture out for a run, but must have gone out the wrong exit, because I kept running into construction and dead-ends, so turned around and ran back to the fitness center. Indoors. Ah, well.

Despite the surreal nature of Vegas, it was a great conference as usual, mainly because it was a nice opportunity to hang out with authors, teachers, and fellow publishing folk. I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do, but here are some random moments:

Sara Zarr signing

Stacking the booth with giveaways

Most awesome poster ever: NIGHTTIME NINJA by Barbara DaCosta and Ed Young

panel with Cat Patrick (Forgotten, Revived, and the upcoming The Originals)

Awesome pins for Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Our fearless leader, School & Library Marketing Director Victoria Stapleton (who wears sunglasses at night) with author Matthew Quick (Sorta Like a Rock Star; Boy21; and the upcoming Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock)

Books for our ALAN dinner: I HUNT KILLERS by Barry Lyga and ADAPTATION by Malinda Lo

Barry Lyga was a trouper and came to Vegas despite breaking his foot in four places. We rented him this smooth ride.

We hosted at various times authors Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Jewell Parker Rhodes (Ninth Ward and the upcoming Sugar), Julie Anne Peters (This is Our Prom [now deal with it]), Libba Bray (The Diviners), Gail Carriger (Etiquette & Espionage), Cat Patrick (The Originals), Matthew Quick (Boy21), Sara Zarr (The Lucy Variations), Barry Lyga (I Hunt Killers), Malinda Lo (Adaptation), and Sherman Alexie (who was sponsored at the show by his adult publisher, Grove, to promote Blasphemy).

Lots of good food and conversation was had by all.

***

And just for fun, in case you missed it:

The Dudes of YA: A "Lit-Erotic" Photo Spread by Sean Beaudoin. Pure genius and hilarity.

Sean is brilliant (and yes, I work with him--Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue, You Killed Wesley Payne, and the upcoming Wise Young Fool), and was inspired to put this piece together by a rather innocent blog post by Cat Patrick highlighting (some of the) dudes of YA. 

Questions about the editing process

     



As an author who submits to editors and a professional editor myself, I have questions for people on both sides of the editing process.

My first question is mainly  for editors but thoughts from others aare more than welcome: what do you do when you write an editorial letter and the author argues and refuses to make the changes?

Not that editors are always right, and I don't claim to be!

Authors: what do you do when an editor makes a suggestion that is just plain wrong? And what happens? How do you work it out?

And what do you do when an editor, instead of suggesting, just goes ahead and writes new material? (This happened to me recently with a publisher when *I* was the author and I will leave how furious and frustrated I was to your imaginations.)

"Agents and publishers aren't knocking on my door"

I spoke at the SCBWI Michigan Fall conference in Detroit this past Friday and Saturday--it was a wonderfully-organized and attended conference, and as I got to attend with my fellow speakers Libba Bray and Barry Goldblatt, it was a lot of fun. Libba and I both ran workshops on Friday afternoon while Barry did critiques, and then on Saturday we talked separately on various topics (mine was about what defines a good children's book). Then we did a few panels together, including a 1st-pages panel, and a Q&A.
 
For another panel, we talked about the history of The Diviners, "from concept to cover" and it was a trip relieving the whole process. Libba talked about her inspiration for the books, Barry spoke about choosing which editors and publishers to submit it to, and I talked about how as a publisher we rallied together to get the project. We talked about the editing process, too--and I laughed remembering a misunderstanding Libba and I had early on. I had wanted to make sure she was okay with our new policy of copyediting electronically, and she looked at me dismayed, and then said very hesitantly: "But...how will nuance be taken into account?" There was a pause, and some more back-and-forth, and I finally realized she thought we had computers (or robots, perhaps?) copyedit our manuscript. I had to assure her that we still had live people who were talented copyeditors--but that now, instead of copyediting on paper, they did the copyedits using Track Changes in a Word document.

The attendees were passionate, friendly, and engaged, and a lot of great questions were asked, and stimulating discussions were had. However, I do want to discuss one encounter I had with an attendee that has left me feeling a bit perplexed. I hate to pick on one slightly negative encounter, when the whole conference was wonderful, but it's been sticking in my brain, so I thought I'd blog about it. My memory of the exact exchange and the order of what was said is a little fuzzy, but it went something like this.

It was after the conference had finished Saturday evening. I had just fetched my suitcase from the hotel storage and was heading to the bathroom to change into travel clothes, when I woman stopped me to ask a question. I wasn't in too much of a rush, so was happy to chat for a minute. She told me that the question she had submitted for our Q&A panel hadn't been read, so I told her to go ahead and ask me.

"With most publishing houses not accepting unagented manuscripts, what are authors supposed to do?"

"Well, you need to get an agent first." I told her that even authors who had "made it" without an agent generally went back to get agents in recent years, because in today's market, it's generally considered important/a necessity. "The problem is, it's not that easy to get an agent." I said it's still possible to get published without an agent--and by attending conferences and meeting editors, that was one way to do it. We chatted a little more about how the industry had changed with eBooks and self publishing, and then she said something like, "I guess there are more agents now, with editors losing their jobs and becoming agents." and I said, "Yes, for whatever reason, there are more agents now than there used to be." At this point, I realized I needed to get going in order to meet the woman giving me a ride to the airport, and I think she realized this, so we started saying our niceties (thank you and goodbye), but then she said something to the effect of: "Well, I guess I just won't get published."

I was a little surprised by her defeatist tone, and I wanted to be as encouraging as possible, so I said, "Oh, don't say that, don't give up."

"The problem is, agents and publishers aren't knocking on my door."

I didn't have a response for this, and we were already walking away from each other, so I just continued on my way. But later I replayed the conversation and marveled at the woman's attitude. It was as if she felt she was somehow entitled to be published, that it shouldn't be so hard.

I don't know the woman's background--perhaps she'd been coming to conferences for years and was just speaking from extreme frustration. Or maybe it was her first conference, and she was disappointed by what she had learned. But I'm really not sure what that woman wanted me to say. That it should be easy? Did she want me to somehow feel guilted into publishing her? That I'd say, without having read anything she'd written, that I'd publish her book?

It's a tough, competitive business, for sure. It's not easy to get published, nor do I think it should be. It can be heart-breaking, frustrating, and soul sucking, and not everyone is going to make it--in fact, very few people are going to be successful in this industry. But this business can also be joyful, inspiring, and full of supportive, collaborative people. And generally, that's the type of people who attend these conferences. So, give up if you want, if it's not worth it to you, but if you want it enough, then work hard, learn all you can, and try to enjoy the journey. Write from your heart, and surround yourself with supportive, positive people. You may make it, or you may not. It takes a lot of luck and timing to be published, a lot of things that aren't in your control. But it most certainly takes not giving up.

I'll leave you all with the same way I ended my talk at the conference. This is from Stephen King's On Writing: 

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy….you can, you will, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink.
             Drink and be filled up.”

the elusive work-life balance

          



Earlier this summer, I read this article in the Atlantic and it really struck a nerve. It was written by a Princeton professor who served a two-year stint in a high government job with the State Department, and was about how women still couldn't truly "have it all" in terms of achieving both professional success and success as a mother raising kids. It's an excellent, thought-provoking piece about how far we've come, and yet how much farther we need to go. Here's one section that really struck me:

After the speech I gave in New York, I went to dinner with a group of 30-somethings. I sat across from two vibrant women, one of whom worked at the UN and the other at a big New York law firm. As nearly always happens in these situations, they soon began asking me about work-life balance. When I told them I was writing this article, the lawyer said, “I look for role models and can’t find any.” She said the women in her firm who had become partners and taken on management positions had made tremendous sacrifices, “many of which they don’t even seem to realize … They take two years off when their kids are young but then work like crazy to get back on track professionally, which means that they see their kids when they are toddlers but not teenagers, or really barely at all.” Her friend nodded, mentioning the top professional women she knew, all of whom essentially relied on round-the-clock nannies. Both were very clear that they did not want that life, but could not figure out how to combine professional success and satisfaction with a real commitment to family.

The timing of this article coincided with one of my colleagues announcing that she was leaving her job to spend more time with her family. It especially hit home because, like the author of the article, this colleague has older children--for whatever reason, I always associated a parent needing to be at home more with having younger children, but duh, older kids need their parents around, too, sometimes more than babies do--and they can actually articulate that need.

I don't have kids, but I do want to eventually. And as I was preparing to get married this summer, I've also been trying to reevaluate my work-life balance (something that I seem to ALWAYS be doing). I think I'm better at drawing lines now--in fact, when an agent asked if an author could deliver a manuscript the day before my wedding, I told him "that's fine, but I won't be editing it!" and life went on (and instead the author delivered early and I edited it two weeks before my wedding). I also managed to not check work email while away at my wedding and honeymoon (well, except once...). I'm working on not checking work emails when I'm not in the office. Sometimes it's the small things that matter.

This elusive "work-life balance" is a constant theme--I know we've all talked about it several times on this blog already over the years. We all struggle with it, from entry-level assistants to directors, from writers and illustrators who also have day jobs, to full-time freelancers, whether we have kids or families or not.

Publishing is a great industry to be in, and children's books especially is dominated by women, including many working mothers. Many are able to work at home a day or two a week, and many companies (including mine) offer flex time if you need to adjust your work hours for reasons, including child care. As someone who does want to raise a family, I feel lucky to be in this industry, but it still isn't easy.

I work long hours in the office (on average, I work from 9 am till 8 pm unless I have plans after work) and there's still plenty more to do--there's always more to do. I've gotten better about not feeling guilty about not working more, mainly because I know I can't work more than I do and stay sane, and I know the people I work with need me to stay sane. But the thing is, this is a business built on passion, and we want to honor that. I know that each book means any or all of the following to the authors and illustrators: it's your livelihood. It's your art. It's how you want to be remembered after you're gone. It's your heart and soul poured out on paper. It's your life's work. It's your name on the cover. (is it something else? Let me know!)


I know for freelancers the work/life lines can be even harder to draw--when you don't have a physical office to leave, how do you end the work day? Do you refrain from working weekends? Do you force yourself to take vacations? Do you only work in the mornings/afternoons/evenings?

One editor I know told me that she's willing to work late at the office during the week, but refuses to work on the weekends. An agent recently told me that she starts work late, gives herself a break for a few hours around dinnertime, and then works again at night. Saturdays are her days off, but she works on Sunday. Last year I decided that I wouldn't work at the office past 9 pm. Lately, I've been trying to draw the line at 7:30 or 8. And I give myself at least one weekend day off.

I do think it's important for us to keep drawing lines. So, what lines do you all draw? I'd love to hear any techniques that work for you.

Interpreting editorial letters

As an author, I get editorial letters; as an editor, I write them.
How do you handle them when you're the author? How do you want the author to handle them if you're the editor?

As the author, I usually ask for clarification if I don't understand something. If an editor suggests a change, I feel that I have to do something -- that I can't just leave whatever it was as it is. But even if the editor has made a suggestion, I usually feel that I can solve the problem my own way. If I really like the editor's solution, I'll use it; if I don't, I'll think of my own. I always do something.

But I've heard of authors who just leave things as they are!

As an editor, do you think the author has to fix what you've commented on, or is that optional? And what about how the author fixes it? Are you annoyed if she doesn't do what you suggest, but solves the problem her own way? And what would you do if an author (this happens to me as an editor sometimes) interpreted everything you said as praise and didn't want to change anything?

Not to be sexist, but this does happen to me more with male authors: I'll send a letter saying what I liked, and then suggesting changes, and the author responds,

"Oh, you liked it! Great!"

When I'm the editor, I'm in a different situation from most people reading these pages, I think -- I'm being paid by the author to get the ms. into publishable condition. So what I do in that case ("that case" being when I've sent a long letter and the author responds only to the praise) is get blunter -- painfully blunt, sometimes.

So you'd think I'd be good at reading editorial letters, but not always! When I'm the author, letters from an editor I don't know can be really hard to interpret, and I've gotten it wrong more than once. So, anything anyone has to say would be helpful....

Lastly, I'm talking here about books that are under contract. Alvina's post (was it called Rejection Letters 101) on submissions was hugely helpful. It's easy to misinterpret those letters, too.

Waiting and letting go or just timing?

Some of you may have noticed that I've had the same book on the right for the whole history of this blog (and for quite a few years before that, too). I've written books for other people, and some of them have done quite well; but despite 6 mss. out there, no published books of my own.

At first, this bothered me a lot, and even affected my confidence -- I didn't think I was a bad writer, but I did think I hadn't found my niche and never would. And then, I just let it go. I wrote what I wanted, when I wanted to, and -- aside from an occasional pang about a novel that never sold -- I came to refer to it as "poor ______" (heroine's name) -- poor Camm. She was a neglected child in the book and now is in real life too -- I really and truly stopped minding, even about her.

This was all I am sure helped by having had freelance work -- enough to live on. I feel grateful and lucky and (last week) finally felt financially secure enough to give some money to causes I believe in. One was CASA, a group that recruits and trains people to be court-appointed advocates for abused or neglected children. Children who have such an advocate, statistically, are much more likely to finish high school, stay out of jail, and stay with the same foster family. The site doesn't say they are also less likely to be abused again: maybe this is assumed? If anyone knows of other good groups that help abused children, and homeless children, please tell about them in the comments....I'm trying to find a group that just gives money to homeless families so they can get apartments or move into hotels. AS someone said and it makes sense to me:
"What poor people need is money."

The other group I found that seems really great is in the UK. They're called SOS and what they do is gather groups of 6 or 7 orphans, build them a house, and hire someone to be their mother. The ideas is that they will stay together as a family unit for life. This group was recommended by the Dali Lama and that's good enough for me!

The day after I made the donations, I got a call saying someone was going to publish one of my manuscripts.

It may be just timing (friends have said, and truly, I think, that getting published is a lot about that -- the right editor at the right time). I believe that these events (the letting go and even the giving and then getting the call) could be causally related, too -- that the shift in attitude helped it happen. Whether it was or not, I am going to keep trying to let go of things, keep giving, and (when I have something to say, not otherwise) keep writing.

Too many books? or too few?

I have too many books, I know it, I'm trying to get rid of some. But even after filling 2 boxes, my shelves still look almost the same.



It's discouraging to think of how many more I'll have to give away or sell to make a difference.



And it's so hard to get rid of them! I'm not sure why. It's not because I love my books -- I'm not even trying to part with the ones I love. But even when I don't love a book, it's still hard -- maybe because I'm admitting that I'll never read it again (or in some cases, read it at all!),

or ever go back to the places (travel books) or finish the project (books on King Arthur -- I was once going to write a book about him; make my own clothes -- books on how to that; and even, for some bizarre reason, books on learning Gnu emacs and, less bizarre, Swahili).

Maybe that's always why getting rid of things is hard: you admit that you're never going to wear the great shoes that cost $100 on sale but never fit; or that the beloved cashmere sweater, while flattering and the perfect color, has so many holes that it looks weird-- or as an English friend more kindly put it, "as though you don't care what you look like." But by getting rid of the things you're not going to do or use or wear, you make it easier to do or get the things you really want -- in this case, go to Scotland for six months!

When my resolve to get rid of something weakens, I say:
"Every box of books I get rid of now is one less to move, pack, and store later."
(will be true of kitchen stuff as well when I move on to that category.)

Okay, that's the end of one essay....another was that one thing I find myself saying as I put books in the "to sell" pile is: "Well, if I ever want to read this again, I can read it online." This, I know from experience, though, is only true for some things -- classics, say.

The books that used to form the bulk of my reading (and the publishing industry!) are those well-written books that aren't quite classics and aren't bestsellers, either. This by the way is the category Jane Austen's books were in when they first came out "People are more likely to borrow than buy my books" she said. Now, I'm thinking of the novels of people like Angela Thirkell or Patrick O'Brien -- and many others, too many to list here. Their books don't exist as ebooks -- I know, because I tried to buy them when I was loading up my ipad for my last trip to Scotland.

What's going to happen to books like this when no one (even libraries) has hard copies of anything anymore? Will they just disappear if they didn't get made into ebooks? Maybe there are both too many and too few books -- too few of the kind I really like to read.

It's the end of the world as we know it (soon)

I was looking for an article I read recently about how the mass market format is dying, and instead I came across this rather depressing article, "Are books dead, and can authors survive?"

The author claims, due to the digital revolution, that the paper book will most definitely disappear in 25 years time, and he also claims that this will mean that "writing, as a profession, will cease to exist."

Eek.

As rather damning evidence, he outlines the demise of many other industries, including porn, music, home videos, photography, newspapers, and more, mainly due to technological changes, free content, and piracy.

He also talked about the "long tail", a term I hadn't heard before, although the description is familiar. (The article links to this lecture for an explanation of what long tail means.):

In simple terms, the long tail derives its name from graphs of sales against number of products. Whereas throughout the 20th century publishers concentrated on selling only a few heavily promoted "hits" or "bestsellers" in bulk, digital shopping has meant that what was originally a tail-off in sales, has now become increasingly profitable. Rather than selling, say, 13m copies of one Harry Potter book, a long tail provider can make the same profits by selling 13m different "obscure", "failed'" and "niche" books.

The long tail is Amazon and iTunes, Netflix, LoveFilm and eBay. It is, arguably, between 40% to 60% of the market, which was hidden and/or simply unavailable before the advent of online shopping.

As more consumers come online and chose to select content for themselves, the long tail gets longer. It also starts to demolish the old mainstream system of pre-selection, mass marketing and limited shelf space for "bestsellers". Amazon is a successful long-tail industry: it has forced publishers into selling their books at 60% discount and driven bookshops out of business. As the long tail grows, the mainstream mass market shrinks and becomes more conservative. The long tail has created this effect in all of the other industries that have gone digital.

 
What this means is that even if the book publishing market is increasing, the money that each individual author makes is probably decreasing. Although, with books having the ability to stay in print indefinitely via Print on Demand and eBooks, maybe this means that authors (and publishers) with deep backlists will continue to be successful. The article does end on a more hopeful note, saying:

There is no simple solution. All that is clear is that for authors and publishers to abandon each other only accelerates the race towards free content.

Authors must respect and demand the work of good editors and support the publishing industry, precisely by resisting the temptation to "go it alone" in the long tail. In return, publishing houses must take the risk on the long term; supporting writers over years and books, it is only then that books of the standard we have seen in the last half-century can continue to come into being.

In a way, this gives me hope for children's publishing in general, because I do feel that we tend to commit to authors in the long term more than our adult counterparts, and children's publishing also relies on backlist sales more than adult publishing.

At any rate, sorry to be such a downer on a Monday.

By the way, here's also that mass market article I mentioned at the beginning: "The Dog-Eared Paperback, Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age."

***

On a more upbeat note, I leave you with Reese Witherspoon's acceptance of the "Generation Award" at the MTV Movie Awards.

"I just want to say to all the girls out there. I know it's cool to be bad. I get it, but it's also possible to make it in Hollywood without a reality show...it's possible to be a good girl. I'm gonna try to make it cool."

Movie News - Reese Witherspoon Accepts the Generation Award - 2011 MTV Movie Awards

Yes! Let's hear it for the good girls!

Happy Labor Day, all.

What to expect your first few years in editorial

It's summer intern season at work. Hachette Book Group has a great summer internship program (and yes, it's paid. If you're interested for next year, I would suggest checking the job listing website next February) for current college students and recent grads. As part of our interns' education, each week a different department gives a presentation about what they're all about. The presentation is open to the whole company, but we do focus on the type of things we think interns in particular will be interested in knowing. A few weeks ago, I gave the presentation for the Young Readers division, along with our Senior Art Director, Marketing Manager, and Publicist. One of the things we each talked about is what to expect in the first couple of years working in our respective departments.

I basically compared being an editorial assistant with the movie The Devil Wears Prada. Okay, it's not really like that. At least, I hope not.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, publishing, and editorial specifically is an apprenticeship. 99% of editors started as an editorial assistant, learned from their managers, and worked their way up.

The first couple of years are heavily administrative. You'll be answering phones, scheduling meetings, filling out forms, doing paperwork, photocopying, filing (although the latter two happen less and less as the job becomes more digital), mailing packages, doing expense reports, taking meeting minutes, ordering books, and basically doing any task your manager asks you to do. This can range from researching the perfect gift in the theme of an author's book, to tracking down a contract, to hand-delivering art to an agent's office, and more. Personally, I don't ask my assistant to do things like get me coffee or pick up lunch, etc, but other managers do.

In addition to all the administrative work, there's also a lot of editorial work to be done. You'll be writing jacket copy, catalog copy, researching competitive titles, and reading a ton of submissions and giving your recommendation as to whether your manager should acquire or decline something. You'll be drafting letters and other correspondences. You'll be attending our editorial meeting and reading books that other editors want to acquire and giving your thoughts. And yes, you'll be editing--first alongside your manager, and then (perhaps after a year or so of mastering all the admin stuff) more independently. After a year, you may be handling projects on your own--perhaps a paperback edition to start, or a buy in from the UK or Australia. Or maybe you'll take over editing a series once the first book has been edited. How much editorial work you take on, and how quickly, will depend mostly on how quickly you're able to master the other duties. There will be some editorial work right away, but much of it will wait until you've become more efficient with the other aspects of the job.

I think it's pretty safe to say that it will take you about six months before you feel comfortable in the job, and a year before you really master everything, mainly because it takes a minimum of year to follow the path of one book from start to finish.

Some administrative duties will get tiresome quickly, others you may never tire of. In general, though, the hope is that because you're working in an industry that you're passionate about, and working on books and project you love, you'll appreciate the value in the work you do, whether it's photocopying or editing. I know that I loved many of the administrative duties I had. For example, I loved answering the phone for my boss, getting to know the authors, illustrators, and agents she worked with. I still generally answer my own phone. I also loved making photocopies of original art, because I loved the opportunity to see it up close.

On average, expect to spend at least two years as an editorial assistant. The next step up is assistant editor, and for many people, this still means assisting your manager, while at the same time taking on some projects independently. At Little, Brown, our editorial assistants are allowed to acquire under the sponsorship of their managers, but it's not a focus of the job at all, and in fact is not really encouraged until you've been promoted to an assistant editor.

So, that's the first couple of years in children's editorial in a nutshell. Any questions?

Editorial Director

As Grace reported a few weeks ago, I was promoted to the position of Fiction Editorial Director. I've been asked by different people what this means in terms of my day-to-day job, so I thought I'd briefly outline it here.

-I am now overseeing our Middle Grade and Young Adult lists. The "Fiction" in my title is a bit misleading, as technically I would also oversee MG and YA nonfiction, but as we publish very little nonfiction at Little, Brown in general, we thought it was cleaner to just say "Fiction". This means running the novel portion of editorial meeting, approving which projects go to our acquisitions meetings, and then giving my recommendation at that meeting. Overall, I'm tasked to help shape our fiction list in terms of balance of titles (literary vs commercial, MG vs YA, making sure the books we sign up don't compete directly with each other in terms of subject matter, etc.).

-I will still be editing picture books (I couldn't give that up!), but my focus will be on MG and YA.

-Instead of just one person (my assistant) reporting to me, I have three other editors as direct reports. This means approving more paperwork (expense reports, contract requests, etc.), reviewing copy and P&Ls, etc., more annual performance reviews, responding to MG/YA-related requests/questions/emails, and so on.

-In general, I have more meetings, including attending jacket meeting in its entirety (rather than just for my individual titles), list planning meetings, and weekly updates with each editor.

-Because of my increased administrative duties, I may eventually have to tighten my own title list, and potentially acquire fewer books. I haven't passed any of my books on to other editors yet (I love all my books, so it's hard to give any up!), but I may in the near future. I do want to say that when deciding which projects to pass on, I'm mainly looking at which books are a good fit taste-wise with another editor, and which projects I feel another editor could manage as well or better than myself, especially considering my own increased workload.

I'm excited about the challenges of the new position, but I will say that I never really had this job as a career goal (and those of you who know me know how much I love goal setting!). There are some editors who want to be publisher some day. I've never been one of them. To be perfectly honest, I would have been happy being at the Executive Editor level for a long time--maybe for the rest of my publishing career, because the editing part of my job has always been my favorite. But at the same time, when this opportunity presented itself, I weighed my options, and it felt like a good move for me, a job where I could still do the editing I love, but also learn the business side a little more, to mentor more, and to help shape a list.

We'll see what this new position will bring!

Leg #1: Melbourne

     




I'm now in Sydney for the third and final leg of my trip to the other side of the world. I haven't had much free time (that I haven't filled with seeing the sights, that is), so I'll just cover my first leg in Melbourne in this post.

I left on Wednesday evening, May 4 in NY, and arrived in Melbourne after an over 24-hour travel time on Friday morning, May 6. Overall, it wasn't a bad time--had the seat next to me empty for both my flight to LA and then to Melbourne. I managed to sleep quite a bit, and also read and watched a few movies.

I was picked up at the airport by my friend and former colleague Antonella (an Australian who married an American, Chris. Antonella worked at Little, Brown in the production department) and her two young kids Ali and Thomas. We stopped at a cafe in the airport for coffee and a bite to eat.

Ali (with a straw mustache)

my veggie roll

Thomas

my first cup of coffee in Melbourne. I needed it after my 24-hour journey!

 We headed into Melbourne to walk around and see the sights:

Stopped for lunch--I had a meat pie! (as I knew from my last trip to Australia ten years ago, meat pies are very popular and common in Australia...)

my first meat pie in Melbourne

I stayed with Chris and Antonella in their home in Geelong (a city about an hour from Melbourne). In the morning, I went for a run along the river.

magpie (saw many of these on my run)

saw lots of these signs, too. Didn't see any snakes, though! Thank goodness.

That afternoon, we went around the corner to a local school's "fete". The kids went on rides and got their face painted while us adults ate sausage and watched.

Ali and Thomas, looking quite serious for children who have just had their faces painted!

On Sunday morning, Mother's Day, we participated in a 4K walk to benefit breast cancer research. Aside from it raining at the end, it was a lovely walk.

these are actually BATS hanging in the trees in the park. (grey-headed flying foxes to be precise)

And then, after a nice brunch, we hopped in the car to drive on the Great Ocean Road.

driving (on the wrong side of the car) on the Great Ocean Road.

Antonella in the back seat with two sleeping children.

We ended up in a town called Lorne, where we stepped on the beach, played in a playground, and stopped in shops, including three bookstores.

Hey, look! FADE TO BLUE by Sean Beaudoin! In a bookstore in Lorne.

On the way back, we stopped by a golf course to see kangaroos in the "wild"--if seeing kangaroos on a golf course counts as the wild...

We ended the night with a huge fish n chips feast--an imported, but popular Australian cuisine. We had flake, which apparently is shark.

fish and chips. and a snack called "dim sim".

On Monday, I headed into Melbourne on the train to meet with author Karen Healey (Guardian of the Dead) and her Australian editors at Allyn & Unwin, Eva Mills and Susannah Chambers. (Karen is a New Zealander who is currently living in Melbourne.) Publisher Eva Mills gave me a quick tour of the offices, which were in a charming Victorian building. It felt quite homey, really.

Karen, Susannah, Eva, me

We went to a lovely lunch where we talked about the differences between Australian publishing and US publishing (the titles are different, mainly--senior editors there don't acquire books, they "just" edit. Commissioning editors and publishers acquire, and usually pass the book on to editors to do the juicy, hands-on editing. The Publishing Director in Australia would be the equivalent of Publishers in the States. Publishers in Australia are more equivalent to Senior and Executive Editors in the US.) We also talked eBooks, and also discussed the growing effect the website Book Depository (an Amazon competitor in the UK that offers free shipping) has had on the Australian book market.

After lunch, Karen and I walked to Lygon Street (down back alleys and through a park) where we had coffee and dessert.

nutella and strawberry pizza with ice cream on top!

Then it was back to Antonella and Chris's home for a home-cooked meal, and then my whirlwind Melbourne trip was over--it went much too quickly! I do hope to be back again soon.

Overall, I'm enjoying the trip immensely, meeting great people, seeing beautiful sights. It took me about three days to get over jetlag, and I'm still not used to being so far ahead in terms of the time difference (14 hours! I'm writing this around 5:30 pm on Monday evening, and it's around 3:30 am Monday morning in NY. I'm writing this from the future!).

Some tidbits:
-don't try to get into the front passenger seat of a car on the right side. I did that twice.

-raisins are called sultanas here. Raisins do exist here, but they are a bit bigger/plumper than ours.
-if an Australian ask if you're from Canada, that means they like you. Or, they've learned that Canadians get offended if thought to be American.
-Australians call treating for drinks, meals, etc. "shouting"--if you're out drinking with a group of six, you can expect to have six drinks, because each person will be expected to shout a round.
-Australians drink a lot.
-candy is called "lollies"--as in, "Can I have another lolly?" asked Thomas. "Can I have a lolly if I finish my dinner?" asked Ali. :)
-The $2 coin is small and fat, the $1 is larger and thinner. (it's the opposite in New Zealand, which was confusing)
-The temperature here is about the same as it is currently in NYC, but as it's late Fall here, the days are very short.

Next up...Auckland! To be continued...