Behind the scenes at The Bookseller...

Heloise Wood, the investigations editor at the industry's leading trade magazine, tells us how they decide what to cover, what they're on the look-out for, and why difficult conversations matter...

Hello everyone, happy Friday! I hope you have had good weeks. Thanks so much to everyone who has filled out my survey so far - a reminder you can do so here to help make this Substack as useful as possible.

Today I have a very interesting guest: Heloise Wood, who works at our UK industry trade magazine, The Bookseller. Heloise and I had a lovely coffee and discovered we both trained as journalists at the same college in the same year (back in the day!) I was a journalist before I went into publishing, so we had a nice time reminiscing about learning shorthand and doing law exams!

Heloise is now the investigations editor at The Bookseller, meaning she has a fascinating view on the industry and some of the issues it faces. Below she shares some insights. I hope you all enjoy.

Hi Heloise, welcome to the Honest Editor. Please can you start by telling us about your role at The Bookseller, and explain what The Bookseller is to readers who may not know?

The Bookseller is often described as the ‘industry Bible’ because it features so much news and insider knowledge about the books industry. As well as obviously covering issues impacting bookshops and booksellers, it also covers publishers, authors, illustrators, illustrators, designers, libraries, trade bodies as well as related charities, schools and universities, think-tanks, tech companies and government policy.

You have a fascinating insight into the publishing industry, and have gone from writing news articles to compiling more investigative pieces. On the former, how did you decide which news pieces to run; how does that process broadly work?

One big thing I think that can be overlooked with news is the importance of the ‘new’ angle. The majority of news articles on The Bookseller website are book deals and are an important part of the industry, but we often don’t get the press releases until many months or years after the contract’s signed. It can be frustrating when you’re writing about a book deal acquired by an editor who left said publisher years before and everyone in the industry already knows about the deal. Sometimes we’ll hear about an important book deal through the grape-vine and the publisher will be reluctant to announce it because they’re not ready, and then we have to negotiate! So if something is newly signed that is exciting and already feels more newsworthy. We also generally always need a high res colour headshot of the author, who acquired the book from which agent, and what the rights were. There’s more info here.

The other difficulty is the volume of book deals we get sent through – at peak times such as leading up to book fairs, the news team (of three staff) can get around 10 deals each coming through daily. We run about a dozen stories on the Morning Bulletin (our main newsletter, though we have several) and try to include a mix of rights deals with other stories as well as a mix of publishers and agencies etc. So we can’t cover all rights deals and that can be understandably frustrating for publishers, authors and agents especially when it’s been presented to the author as a given that their deal will be announced there. I’d say we cover around half of those sent in.

In terms of prioritising, as for anything, we look at what will make people click on the story. This could be if it’s a big auction, pre-empt or a six-figure deal - I realise that is frustrating but it is something people like to read about! Also if it’s a multi-book deal, an exclusive submission, a debut or a well-known author, that can help.

Other possible hooks could be a newly created publisher, imprint, the first acquisition of an author in a new role, a prize-winning writer, perhaps a book based on a popular article, someone with a big following, an author switching genre or moving publishers, a particularly interesting topic. If we can run something exclusively, and have more flexibility on what to run, then that is helpful too.

Generally books deals aren’t the best read though. I always find it interesting seeing our ‘Most Read Articles’ on a Monday morning. Job moves, promotions and restructures or redundancies are massively well read, as are the launches of new imprints. Parties or events can also be a surprisingly big hit. We also look into ‘trends’ in submissions, though editors always groan (even inwardly) when we use that word!

Other things we might cover are prize announcements, including shortlists, though generally not longlists unless it’s something like the Booker.

I’m always on the lookout for something unusual which we might have missed, or perhaps something in the national news which we could further explore from a trade perspective. Certain themes will dominate – for example, AI and its impact on the industry over the last few years.

What made you want to move into the investigative side, and what kind of pieces have you written so far?

I first joined The Bookseller as a reporter in 2017. I’ve worked in slightly different roles across the news team since then, had a year out freelancing and then having a child, but I wanted a new challenge. We also wanted to explore the industry from a more in-depth perspective and were changing the shape of the team around this time. My role includes investigations and research – such as concerns over use of AI in the industry or workplace culture – and exploring wider trends across the industry but I also do profile interviews, such as Bonnier Books UK co-CEO Sarah Benton, Joffe Books founder Jasper Joffe and Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah. Previous articles include the industry’s approach to job-sharing, fact-checking in non-fiction, trolling on Goodreads, cyber theft of the £30k Folio Prize, and a survey on class.

And the most challenging?

One of the most challenging things I think is supporting employees and authors beyond the entry point. So, building an author’s career after less-than-spectacular debut sales, or helping junior employees from diverse backgrounds rise through seniority – generally retaining, engaging and championing people consistently. Some of this comes back to the challenge of building audiences for books, events and campaigns.

There are so many things competing for people’s time and attention now and there is such limited space to champion books, and limited time and budget for training and developing people. Sometimes because we’re a ‘nice’ industry we shy away from difficult conversations but sometimes we need to have those conversations.

The Bookseller is read very widely by the majority of our industry - does that ever feel pressurising to you? How do you deal with comments that are negative, or situations that perhaps receive attention on social media?

It can feel pressurising. The amount that we’re expected to cover – say four to six articles daily on the news team – can be exhausting, or even just covering one very complex story within a tight deadline.

There was a time when I felt anxious about going on X (formerly Twitter) because I’d spot negative comments about my reporting.

We often have to discuss headlines – they are reductive by their nature – and we use SEO to help spark readers’ attention, but this might not tally with publishers’ or agents’ expectations. Copy approval can be a tricky topic too – we don’t offer it, we need editorial freedom and to sometimes cover negative aspects of the industry, but we also don’t want to alienate all our contacts and readers. It can be a difficult balance.

Do you have any advice for those wanting to get into the journalistic side of publishing?

Studying journalism is often, though not always, essential when applying for news or investigative positions. Many respective institutions such as the PA offer part-time courses. Alternatives could be building an audience through Substack or a podcast. Joining organisations and getting on mailing lists can be helpful e.g. Women in Journalism or Creative Access, as well as monitoring the media landscape on Press Gazette to see which companies might be expanding, or new editors who could be or more responsive to pitches. We list all our roles on our own Jobs in Books website too. Sian Meades’ newsletter is great, as is Journo Resources. LinkedIn seems to be used more since engagement with X has diminished. Also building up experience as a commentator (email pitches to my colleague Molly.Flatt@thebookseller.com).

In general, honing your USP is key, as is targeting your chosen publication/s carefully to show you know its output and the industry. I first emailed The Bookseller asking about speculative applications in 2013 when I was a local newspaper journalist (I didn’t hear back). I emailed Philip Jones (the editor of The Bookseller) about 18 months later when I worked at The Independent and we had a coffee but it didn’t lead anywhere. Eventually I secured a maternity cover role in 2017.

I only work three days a week, so I find it challenging getting everything done, but meeting people who work in the industry is one of the best parts of the job, and generally speaking to people is a really important part of being a journalist. If I can be of any help with any of the above, or if there’s something you think I should look into, email me on heloisewood@hotmail.com and I’ll do my best to respond. Thank you for having me, Phoebe.

Thank you so much, Heloise, for your insights! I still get the magazine delivered to my door and I am such a publishing nerd that I genuinely love reading it on a Friday with a cup of tea.

If you are writing this weekend - good luck! I have some final edits to do before my next book (book six!) goes out on submission… scary!

Phoebe x