30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 4 – editors are overworked
September 6 2023 marks 5 years since my first novel was released 😲
I’ve now published 6, and have 2 more under contract.
To celebrate, I’m sharing a new post about what I’ve learnt from being published EVERY DAY throughout the month. This post is part of that series!
Click here for the rest →
OK so hands up who thought that editors sat around reading books all day and occasionally marking up manuscripts with a red pen?
Me! I did. Once upon a time. Before I got my publishing deal and got to know some of them, I had this rose-tinted idea of them sitting at their enormous desks reading books and going out for lunch with writers and having long chats about the state of the literary world All. Day. Long.
In my defence, I worked in the magazine industry for years and I have to say that those ‘editors’ did, to me, seem to be doing very little apart from going out for boozy lunches and shouting at the junior staff (and in the case of one editor, writing their secret Sunday Times column when they should have been working on the magazine they were actually, you know, employed full-time to work at).
I’ve had six editors working on my books thus far. And they’ve all been brilliant. Clever, insightful women who love books and read far more than I do.
Working with all my various editors has been a real joy.
But I became aware, pretty early on in my publishing career, that these women are BUSY. That their jobs involve a hell of a lot more than just reading books and passing the odd comment on them.
Editors are basically project managers, dealing with all the key elements that come together to get a book published: sales, marketing, design, publicity, editorial.
They have to know their numbers and use spreadsheets (shudder!) to calculate how much money they think a book will make (which is basically impossible, because publishing books is the same as betting on horses).
They have to convince all the other staff at the publishing house to fall in love with the book they’re in love with.
They have to reach out to other authors on their authors’ behalfs to see if they might want to read early copies.
They have to build The Hype. The Hype that is actually the weird lemming-like publishing-industry fever that makes some books take off.
They have to liaise not only with many different departments, but also with their authors and their authors’ agents. And remember, you’re not their only author. I know it’s hard to accept, but they are cheating on you with a dozen other authors!
And of course, they’re also reading all the other manuscripts that get submitted to them! They have to do this to stay in their jobs, because woe betide they missed out on the next megaseller because they were too busy fiddling around with those damned spreadsheets for their existing authors.
I remember one of my editors telling me that she received about 12 new manuscripts a week from agents. And she might buy 2 or 3 of them each YEAR.
(I have to say, that was a real ‘pinch me’ moment, and made me realise just how much getting a book deal is like winning the lottery.)
Added to all this, they REALLY CARE about the books they publish.
I’ve always felt as though my success is my editor’s success too, and that they honestly feel the same sense of satisfaction as I do when good things happen to my books.
There’s been a lot of talk of burnout in the publishing industry over the past few years. One article in the Bookseller caught the attention of lots of people.
I think it’s really important that we continue to have open conversations about this, but also that aspiring writers are aware of just how tough an editor’s job can be.
I know it’s not working down the mines but even so, emotional stress is a real thing, and takes its toll.
ALSO, editors aren’t (generally) earning megabucks.
I mean, I know most writers don’t earn very much either, but we’re cursed so we don’t have a choice. These guys could probably apply their enormous brains to any other job and earn double the amount yet they stick with publishing because they love books.
So yes. Be nice to your editor. Respect their time. Only send them emails that are really necessary. Here endeth the lesson!
