What do editors worry about?
The anxieties of working in publishing...
Hi everyone,
I hope you’re having a lovely week! Thank you to those who were so engaged with the last newsletter featuring an interview with Backstory books, and those of you who continue to restack and share this newsletter - it’s so kind of you and always much appreciated.
Today’s is a very honest post. I’ve talked before about the fact that I want to make the industry feel more transparent, and tried to recognise some of the worries that authors have about the publishing process (understandably so, as they are giving over their work to a publishing house and essentially relinquishing a lot of control over their book) – but the bottom line is that editors definitely worry as well! So I thought I’d write a post about it to help show the human side of us all…
As an editor, I care A LOT about my authors and their books. And I am pretty sure the same goes for most editors out there. We don’t just buy books for the sake of it; usually, we buy them because we feel passionately that those stories deserve to be out in the world, reaching readers, and we’re privileged to be the ones to start that process. (Agents start the process really, but editors take it to the next, more concrete stage with a publishing contract). I feel personally connected to the books I am publishing, I want them to succeed, and I want the authors to feel happy that they chose me as their editor and the publishing house I work for as their home. Of course, that probably does not always happen 100% of the time, even though I wish it did! So without further ado, here are a list of the things that I worry about…(and your own editor probably does too!)
That authors won’t agree with or like the edits I suggest. After I write my structural edits on a novel, I type them all up into one big editorial letter (more on that process here) and then I read through it about three times before I send it to the author. At that stage, I cross my fingers that the author can at least see where I am coming from, even if they don’t necessarily agree with all my suggestions. With smaller line edits, too, I sometimes pick up on little points and find myself wondering, am I just being really stupid for not understanding this? (Often for me, this is TV/Film references; I didn’t have a TV growing up and I believe it has stunted my cultural knowledge somewhat. Though it did mean I read a lot, which I guess worked out well!) But I worry about revealing an embarrassing gap in my knowledge in the line edits sometimes.
That I won’t get to publish the books I want – so for example, if a book proves very popular with a lot of publishers, we all go into a bit of mad scramble to pull offers together pretty quickly, and then we might have pitch meetings with the authors and agents to tell them about how we would publish the book (i.e. an auction situation, which I will do another post about in the future). In those situations, you don’t get to know exactly what other publishers are offering, financially or otherwise (by that I mean you don’t know what their plans might be: when they want to publish, in what format, their vision for the book, whether they might be offering bonuses, etc) and so after you send the offer email or finish the pitch meeting, you usually spend a few hours or days (occasionally weeks!) worrying about whether the agent will accept your offer or not. I hate that feeling of refreshing your email over and over again, and it really does work both ways! The sad fact is that sometimes we do huge pitches and don’t win the book, and this means you end up spending a lot of time on projects that don’t necessarily come off (though it is always a learning process, and you can take something useful from each experience).
That authors won’t like their jackets - this one is more common I have to say; in an ideal world, your author loves their jacket, but this doesn’t always happen and if an author isn’t happy, I will always listen to their concerns and try to help. Sometimes, I’ll argue the case for the existing jacket, and give the author more information around our thought processes internally - but if we’re not getting anywhere, I will need to go back to the design team and ask them to try some new options. This process can make me anxious because it can sometimes delay things - we need jackets confirmed by certain times in order to sell in the books, and have the jackets ready for UK and International sales meetings, and so if we’re really struggling to agree on a jacket I begin to worry that we might miss those meetings. Obviously, ideally there is always enough time to make changes, but on occasions where an author is very adamant that they don’t like the cover direction at all, it can be tricky (though we do always get there in the end!)
That the books I buy won’t sell well – although editors do have control over some parts of the publishing process, we don’t control everything (YET! ONE DAY!) and so we all feel that vulnerability when we launch our authors’ books out into the market. I am fairly obsessive when it comes to checking sales figures and Amazon rankings along with my authors, and I genuinely LOVE giving authors good news (calling an author to say they have hit the Sunday Times list is a lovely feeling). The same goes the other way, though; it is awful having to tell an author that something hasn’t sold as well as we might have hoped, or that they haven’t been selected for a particular promotion or retailer, or that things haven’t gone quite in the way we’d have wanted them to. The thing is, we are still often beholden to external forces – the whims of readers, the staff that place the books out on the shelves in supermarkets or bookshops, the other books out in the market at the same time, the cost of living crisis, the decline of high street retail space, the competition from publishers like Amazon itself who have access to different levers than traditional publishers do. We do everything we can for the books we take on, but at the end of the day reading is subjective and so whilst we may all think a book is marvellous, there could be a reviewer or a buyer who thinks otherwise and there is sometimes nothing we can do to change that person’s opinion.
That an author will be poached by another publisher – this does happen and everyone does it, including me, but it’s always hard if it happens to one of yours! I want the best for my authors, but if you’ve put a lot of work and time into their publishing and they then end up moving on, of course it is sad. Sometimes, authors move for more money, sometimes it is because an editor or key staff member has left the business, sometimes it’s because they are disappointed in their publishing or simply have been offered a deal they cannot refuse elsewhere - there are a variety of reasons, but it can sting if someone does decide to go.
That there will be mistakes in the book! This does happen occasionally – each book goes through a rigorous process of checks, starting with the editor, then moving onto the copy-editor and then the proofreader (who are usually external freelancers, seeing the novel for the first time with a fresh pair of eyes) but by the time it goes to print, I have usually seen it about ten times and become a bit blind to errors. Book jackets are checked by a LOT of people internally (we use a system where employees from editorial, art, marketing etc can view the cover online and mark up errors), so it is rare for mistakes to be made, but we have all heard the horror stories, and when new books arrive I have to slightly look at them through half-closed eyes for fear that we have somehow spelled the author’s name wrong on the front of the book. (For authors – I have never actually done this… but it remains a slightly irrational fear that I know lots of editors have!).
That an author will feel unhappy with another part of the process – I always try to communicate a lot with my authors, but I do sometimes think that especially debut writers are scared to ask their editor questions, and so I feel bad if any authors are sitting at home in the dark (not literally, though if it helps your writing process, go for it!) about what’s happening with their books. A good publisher should always keep you up to speed as to what is happening at each stage – there will be quiet times, when we are just beavering away behind the scenes, but in my personal view, you should be told your sales sub (how many books are being sold into shops pre-publication), your sales figures post-publication, your marketing and PR plans (these will vary, some will be more extensive than others), and your timings e.g. when certain things like seeing your cover or your book starting to preorder will happen. You should always see your book jacket before it goes to press (front and back) and be told about any price promotions for the ebook and audio promotions (it is helpful when writers support these too, by letting their networks know about the reduced price). And you should feel free to ask your editor questions if you don’t understand anything or are new to the process.
So, those are just a few things that editors worry about (I am sure there are more…). As a senior editor, I also spend a lot of time thinking about our division’s finances and strategy, my direct line reports, and the team as a whole - so there is a lot to consider. Hopefully, this post shows authors that editors do go through a lot of the same things you experience, and that we truly are on the same side as you when it comes to wanting your novel to fly. I hope this provides a little bit of insight into the people on the other end of your emails…most of them are refreshing their inboxes, just like you!
As always, thank you for reading The Honest Editor, and do comment below if any of this resonates. Feel free to email me or post below about what you would like to see covered in this newsletter, as well, so that I can continue to make it as useful as possible.
For those of you in the UK, enjoy the sunshine!
Phoebe x
This is great, thank you Phoebe! Now I'm going to be brave and ask if you'd be up for doing a post about communication in publishing. It used to be that you'd always hear a definite answer when your manuscript went out on submission to editors: I know a lot of writers who are in this position, and many are not hearing anything, even months after the editor has said they're reading and enjoying and their agent has nudged. I'm sure you never do this - but from an author's point of view, it's so bad for our mental health and self-esteem to send work into what appears to be a void. I totally understand that editors are often overworked, but a simple form rejection would be pretty easy to send. With no response, authors are in limbo, not knowing whether editors are still interested or have rejected our manuscript. It's so important to receive a clear yes or no: rejections sting, but they give closure.
This is so so helpful - thank you. I often have to remind myself that everyone working on my book will be a 'normal' person like me, rather than unapproachable demi-gods, and have their own worries and concerns.