AMA: I work in book publishing

[booksandstories]

Recently advertised for a job joining the team I lead and received 200+ applications so I thought there might be interest in book publishing!

I work for one of the Big Five book publishers and have done for several years.

I work across fiction and non fiction.

Ask me anything!

[booksandstories]

@Helgadaley

I self publish because I believe that 1) Publishers are only interested in people who are already famous in a different field, or established authors.
2) They are only interested in unknown authors who have a significant following on social media (10,000 or more followers)
3) They prefer authors to be young.

How true is this? I have self published three novels so far and I am currently working on my fourth, but I think it's a waste of time approaching a publisher as I'm an ordinary, elderly person with zero interest in social media.
How much competition do you have from KDP?

It depends on several things, really - what area do you write in, and how many of your previous books have you sold? It might be that you'll realistically make more money self-publishing if it's a competitive genre.

For some genres the author profile is virtually immaterial so your age and social media is irrelevant.

I've worked with several debut authors in their 60s and 70s in the last couple of years and there are literary prizes for older authors so it's not unheard of, but it is more unusual. The readers of, say, Margaret Atwood or Joan Didion are as likely to be in their 20s as their 80s so there are authors of all ages.

[JustoneQuickquestion]

@Helgadaley

You would call it chick lit. I write from experience, mostly taking elements from the time I spent in France - getting involved in the first wine harvest of a close friend, being lifelong friends with a girl I met as a teenager, and vicariously experiencing the trauma she felt on being virtually abandoned by her parents. Getting to know a country with different, societal values, where women were expected to marry and were undervalued.
I didn't bother trying to find an agent or approaching a publisher - I'm a complete nonentity and no-one would have been interested.Thank you for the question!

That sounds very interesting. If you (or any other authors on here) would like to PM me links to one of your books, I’ll add them to my reading list. I’m always running out of books on my list and I read across many genres. I completely understand, though, if you (or other authors) would rather not ‘out’ yourselves by doing so!

Just so I don’t derail the thread completely I will ask the OP another question… have you ever been involved in a book becoming made a tv show? Does it result in loads more books being sold?

[Helgadaley]

@JustoneQuickquestion

That sounds very interesting. If you (or any other authors on here) would like to PM me links to one of your books, I’ll add them to my reading list. I’m always running out of books on my list and I read across many genres. I completely understand, though, if you (or other authors) would rather not ‘out’ yourselves by doing so!

Just so I don’t derail the thread completely I will ask the OP another question… have you ever been involved in a book becoming made a tv show? Does it result in loads more books being sold?

Thank you, I will pm you tomorrow.

[booksandstories]

@MrsJagoRoss

Why are so many books published? I feel you always hear that people read much less year on year and yet there are more and more books published.

I remember hearing the JK Rowling furore about staff not wanting to work on her book. Does this kind of thing happen often and it only hits the headlines if the author is famous?

There are so many books I think because publishing suddenly became a lot cheaper with automation in the 80s and 90s- the time was that printing was incredibly time consuming and slow, whereas now you can get a book out in a few weeks if needs be. But publishers just filled the vacuum with more books to spread their bets and make more money (which it did). They are still a good, reasonably priced gift or self purchase but the cost has rarely gone up since the 90s - paperbacks have been virtually the same cost since then.

As for people refusing to work with authors like JK Rowling, it does happen but more likely the marketing/publicity campaign gets outsourced to an agency if the books are still profitable. It tends to be relatively junior staff who make a stand against working on specific books - by the time you've been in the industry 10 years or so you realise that you don't have to agree with everyone whose books you work on.

Fwiw I think it's a good thing not to agree with every author you publish because then you can challenge your own views and theirs.

I'd rather people bought a book, which has been approved by lawyers and a team of staff, to learn about a topic, rather than watching TikToks about politics and feeling like an expert.

[booksandstories]

I'll pick the rest up tomorrow, time to go and read a book in bed!

[HelloVeritas]

My BIL is in publishing- the stories he has are fascinating.

The things he tells me about Neil Oliver 🫣😬

[HelenMirrensWeightedBlanket]

@Helgadaley

I self publish because I believe that 1) Publishers are only interested in people who are already famous in a different field, or established authors.
2) They are only interested in unknown authors who have a significant following on social media (10,000 or more followers)
3) They prefer authors to be young.

How true is this? I have self published three novels so far and I am currently working on my fourth, but I think it's a waste of time approaching a publisher as I'm an ordinary, elderly person with zero interest in social media.
How much competition do you have from KDP?

1. Not true
2. Not true
3. Not true

I’m a boring middle-aged woman who doesn’t use social media. Def not famous. I’m also a moderately successful author.

And I’d never self-publish because my editor’s input is too valuable

[Costacoffeeplease]

It’s possible to self publish and also have a professional editor

[Lilgamesh2]

What is the formula to writing a best seller?

[MouthAlmighty]

This is a really interesting thread, thanks for starting it, OP.

Can I have some advice, please?

I’ve been writing a book for the past while (Irish comedic fiction) and my motivation is low. I work full time in a really demanding computer-based job, so finishing work and then staying at the laptop to write is a struggle.

I think I struggle with motivation because I have no feedback. Some friends have read my first few chapters and have been encouraging, but they’re my friends so are very biased.

I would love to have a chance to put the first few chapters in front of a publisher or an agent and either be told it’s crap and give up, or hear that there’s potential and that they want me to finish it (ideally also setting a deadline so this natural-born procrastinator has the sound of a whooshing deadline approaching as motivation).

Do agencies accept very few chapters of unfinished manuscripts?

Do you know any good agents who focus on this type of book, or any publishers who will accept a direct submission of a very unfinished manuscript?

[newbiename]

Thanks for answering my question

[bloodyunicorns]

I wonder if I've worked with you!

Who is your favourite author to work with? Who has been the worst?

What do you think of sensitivity/authenticity readers?

[Helgadaley]

@HelenMirrensWeightedBlanket

1. Not true
2. Not true
3. Not true

I’m a boring middle-aged woman who doesn’t use social media. Def not famous. I’m also a moderately successful author.

And I’d never self-publish because my editor’s input is too valuable

That is so interesting! Can you send me a pm please? I would love to see your books.

[bloodyunicorns]

How diverse is your company? Do you get paid a reasonable amount? Is your company doing a drive to recruit fewer middle class white women and more people of colour?

[bloodyunicorns]

@Thehighlandcoo

I'm an in-house copywriter but do SO MUCH editing and proofreading. I love it and I'm good at it. How would I go about branching off into book editing/proofing?

I can answer this. Join the CIEP - Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading - and take some of their training, then decide on your client base and start marketing yourself.

[Whatsthepointofmosquitos]

Hi, I’m late thirties and looking for a career change. Used to be a lawyer, also done some freelance writing. I’d love to get into publishing at one of the big 5, but all of the entry level ‘editorial assistant’ jobs seem to be for administration assistant stuff like diary management. I would make a terrible admin assistant 😬 am I right that there is no other way in? I don’t mind taking low pay, or doing another qualification, but only for a job that’s going somewhere.

[Sniffypete]

@barefootNpregnant

The day-long copyediting/proofreading course you mentioned - is it a specific one or are there lots of similar ones? Thanks for the thread, so interesting!

I'm interested in this too, I'm a editor in an independent publishing house and I want to do something like this!

[MrsJagoRoss]

Thanks for a comprehensive answer OP! A great thread.

[stayathomer]

Williams is not well-liked in publishing. Many people in the industry don't really mind celebs writing books as long as they are interested in it rather than just making money. Lots of people really like Tom Fletcher (McFly/Christmasaurus) and he works v hard on his books.
I’m so surprised by this!! Have seen David Walliams both on tv and in real life talking about his writing and he came across as so passionate and dedicated to helping young readers. He also seemed so realistic in terms of his timelines putting out a book- I hate the mantra that you can only put out one quality book at a time- he was saying about how he works on the next one while his books are with editors and was talking about that old adage of ‘finding time to write’. (I have 4 kids, was working at the time and putting out 2 books a year- I am self published but hire an editor so it was refreshing to hear we weren’t just throwing out substandard material if we put out more than one book a year!!!) great thread op!!

[stayathomer]

MouthAlmighty
You need to find a writing/critique group, either online or in real life. People will read your work and motivate and inspire you to push on. One agent/publisher etc might love your book, another might not so please don’t give up based on that- the world needs more comic fiction!!! (Also read all the different articles on the amount of rejection/books written before people had their break and lastly, don’t forget self publishing is also an option!)

[mynannygoat7]

OP, I'm a New York Times and Sunday times bestselling author of thrillers. Thank you for this thread, i loved it! Pondering if you're my editor!

[bloodyunicorns]

Anyone who wants to be an editor or proofreader, these are NOT skills that can be taught in a day, and I'm not impressed that OP has suggested this. Anyone who is thinking about this, take a look at www.ciep.uk/training

There is so much more to editing and proofreading than newbies think. It's not just spotting typos 🙄 And it takes on average two years to build up a regular client bank after you have trained.

[JustoneQuickquestion]

@mynannygoat7

OP, I'm a New York Times and Sunday times bestselling author of thrillers. Thank you for this thread, i loved it! Pondering if you're my editor!

Can you put yourself and tell us who you are? I love thrillers!

[JustoneQuickquestion]

*out yourself, not put yourself! I might have to do the proofreading course mentioned 😆

[Numbat2022]

A question from someone in a different area of publishing - do you still have a production department in-house, or has it all been off-shored? Or was all that type of work always done by freelancers?