Transcripts For CSPAN2 Peter Ginna What Editors Do 20180128

CSPAN2 Peter Ginna What Editors Do January 28, 2018

Geerchg im Bradley Graham im coowner of politics and pros along with my wife standing back there, and on what behalf of the entire staff, welcome. Thank you, thank you have, very much for coming we have a terrific panel for you this evening. Centered on a new book by peter right here. Title what had editors do art, craft, business of book editing. Although politic and e pros host many hundreds of author as each year, it is not nearly as common for us to host the experts behind those authors. The editors publishes and agents whose efforts are essential to the first and life of books. Peter himself during more than three decades in Publishing Industry has had a range of editing positions hes worked with a small independent Publishing Firm and a scholarly one as well as with large commercial houses most of his time is spent in trade publishing most recently publish and editorial director at blooms bury press imprecinct he founded for new book peter gathered essays from more than two dozen contradict tores from across the publishing field. And wrote one piece himself the articles take read rs through ever phase of book production fromming by decision to editing process to publication, and marketing. Later chapters provide case saids and look, at pursuing a career in publishing the book is time when significant and fast fast change in the publish and rise of amazon advent ebooks, and the growth of selfpublishing opportunity all have contributed to shaking up the industry more in the past 15 years as peter notes in his preference. Than in previous 50 years. But joining peter on the panel this evening are two other veteran publishing insiders and contributed pieces to what editors do. One with is cal morgan on the end there who ever spending many years at a very big house harper recently joined small very fine house of river head as executive editor. Among the successful authors championed by cal during his career, with roxann jess walter, ameleah grey, jam and mitchell just to name a few. His chapter in what editors do is called start spreading the news about the editor as evangelist. Seat next to him is executive editor at oxford, with University Press, shes toxed much of her editing career on books about history from the ancient to the modern. Among books and authors she winners of the pulitzer and prizes as well as New York Times best sellers. Her chapter in what editors do title of monograph and magnum is about editing works of scholarships. And speaking of University Presses i should note that what editor do is itself published by one. The university of chicago. Now also joining discussion this evening and filling out panel will be gail ross founder and president of the ross Literary Agency and a friend of of might peoplings interested in getting book published often asked how best to go about it. Well . General, the answer is to find an agent and gail who specializes in nonfiction is as good as they come and also to title truth and advertising gail is lizs agent for a book that lists current writing so ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming our very accomplished panelists. Thank you brad. Its a thrill for me to be presenting at this store because politic and pros is always been a great supporter of the kind of books that i love to publish and to read, and many authors of mine have had terrific events here so it is a kick for me to be the person up front instead of the one standing in the back so thank you for hosting this channel and thank you for taking the time and taking the train in case of the new yorkers to be here. So what ed or doors do it seem like straightforward not to say obvious title but one reason i chose it is because i think most people dont understand what we do as editor but it is our own fault for a business it is all about words we have some of the most confusing ambiguous terminology of industry thatnd why and editor would be exhibit when you hear word editing you think about a person sitting making notes on a manuscript correcting grammar or making a note for the author or make this chapter shorter, swp these points around the but thats only a small slice of the pie of what an editor actually does. I think editors role in the most fundamental way as being a connector and the connection between writer and reader. And to the author and that is definitely a big piece of editor responsibility so you also are and trying to be that ideal it ultimate reader and deciding helping the author create the become and shape the bock in way that gets across most effectively to that person. That involves both working on the authors text the way i was just describing. But also the much broader task of bringing the read arer to the book. To figure out who those ideal raiders are for this particular work how you get them to read, want to read it in the first place. So i say editor job is breaking down into three phases that brad mentioned in his introduction they all overlap and some take place simultaneously. The first one is acquisition finding books to publish. In any ways thats the most critical part of the job because if you dont it find books to publish you cant do any of the other things theres no Publishing House. Second is what i call Text Development and shaping the words, the actual writing with the author. And finally theres publication that part of brings the bock out into the marketplace making readers aware of it convincing poem that this is a book they need to buy. An want to focus on one of the aspect of editing imil as an agent has a Critical Role to play in acquisition process is hes going to talk about what that looks like from her side. Suzanne has read a terrific chapter in the book about working with scholarly authors and shes helped many academic writers did their first books for general audience. Which involves often kind of intense editorial intervention, and so she can talk about that editing piece. And cal who has my favorite chapter title in the book which brad also mentioned starts spreading the news about the editors role of con vague his passion about the book out toe people is colleaguing in the Publishing House and then out in the media and to book sellers to the world at large so hell talk about that piece last. So gail, were going to turn it over it you. Tell us what agents think about what editors do. And one of the books i worked on when i first started in the business was by a a woman who had a testing device withs that was far simpler myers brigs and four kinds of personalities and she said to me after going around to talk to editors in new york that myriad of things that you do bring together two least complimentary parts of her personality, Personality Test and that know that it was impossible to do what you have to do. So heres to you all. I want to say that this is a fantastic book, in fact, ive read this book and learned lots about the process i didnt know and im buying a case and giving it out to each of my new clients because it answers all those questions and i wont have to answer them anymore. But in terms of what we do, we i probably work on a regular basis or a semiregular basis and interact with pain maybe 100 different people in publishing 100 different editors in marketing and such, and that requires i mean i think that three most important things to me are and passion and responsiveness. And those are probably things that my client would have said dont work for same people because it is hard to sit in a room and edit and make a big dole and those are not complimentary things and so what i find is greatst thing for me is i get to just talk i get to know all of these people and know their, you know, from sewing a book about depression i know every depressed editor in new york so i know who to sell it to if im selling feminist book i know their kids names i know their kids are going to school so inside story of or a book on summer camps i know qhiewz kids have a problem at summer camp, and thats that passion most of the poem that i deal with ive already made decisions about smart and responsiveness by working with people. But the passion stop they have to fall in love with this. This is your i always say that im a midwife of a project but this is your the next closest person in my authors life. And we need a partnership because they are that connector they are everything at thes house. And they only do things that i cant do. I need them to make my client better and fall in love and have passion, knowledge and experience and just care, and be their advocate all the way through an frankly it is hard to start out in this business and not know all of those things so i tell people to call me to tell me how can i be an agent to work for other a littles buzz those relationships are really, really crucial and because it is hard. You know its not that they dont want to publish books but they have to go through so many hoops to sell in this marketplace today. That you need somebody who will fight as hard as i am and as hard as an author is for their work because its tough out there. And its the best thing in the world when had it works and a its even when it doesnt work really big when you know that youve been in a partnership and that that editor has made your work that much better and worked their hardest to it make all of the different parts of the house theyll be talking about better and they have to do that to make that acquisition to start with they have to really love it and learn to love it as much as you do so thats concern a little bit and answer questions later but more ask you one question now because you talked about number of hoops that have to be jumped through in acquisition people dont understand how complicated and how business the acquisition process can be in a big publish house talk fors just a minute how that is like from your side . Ill work for a long time on a proposal to make it best it can possibly be and my intent was working on proposal with author is to answer editor and market questions before they have hem to anticipate what the problems are are going to be and try to best prepare in the proposal and in any kind of meetings that we have with authors editor and publishers to have those answers already figured out for you. My job is to make you as acquirers job eatier to give you ammunition you need in the proposal in with the author to make it simple but it is hard an some places you walk into where are boss and boss says buy it in most places you go through editorial meetings and a at the ed for and publisher loves it you buy it in other places you have to hear from sales, marketing and editorial meetings some are ledge dire and theyre you know hundred people at a table and you have to go and then you have to go back to acquisition meeting after editorial meeting. So it can be hard but when they want it it can be fast. Right. Rights. All right lets ask susan about actual editing piece of the process. Thank youing well i guess i first wanted to say for anybody in publishing world politic and prose is like disney world, the super bowl mecca willy juan ka Chocolate Factory all locked into one store because we try to get these seats for authors so im especially grateful feel like i won the Golden Ticket already. For being here and thank you all for coming this is terrific turnout my chapter in the book is about editing for writing means hard core pencil and paper. I had many hours of transportation where i could sit in my own little world editing and that make me very happy. I work with a lot of first time authors but i work with authors who have lost track of how many things they have published every project that i work on really requires its own diagnosis for what work needs to be done what work could be done, and what optimal outcome is for the author in the press. So im going to hone in as requested tonight on working with serious academics to want to write for a general audience, and in the fold that i work many which is history, there are a lot of them and not enough shelves in store for historian who is want to write cross or trade bock or o anything but the dreaded m word the monograph. But what does this actually mean and what does it require in terms of editor very venges it is a different challenge and book needs to make intervention in the field to make an argument that speaks to discipline or shakes up a log held belief to do anything to move the needle in terms of a conversation that has been happening in academia for a long time but in doing so for a general audience the author needs to wear his or her learning lightly to summarize key yses and how his or her own alters that own picture this is in the a place for offering the great intellect ideas on this topic and putting someone elses words first which is first thing that i normally encounter or when i see academics trying to do this kind of writing. This is where scholars go wrong theres over reliance on secondary source and sentences quoted completely out of context. Or completely erasing landscape at everything that has been written before us so this work appears to be first of the only one ever written on the subject so there are things that go one direction or the other. Finding right balance is key to the work not per sieved as light or popular but scholar peer and yet yongd spcialist. Sm of the time for me there are products that i see and colonel of crossover book idea in what im seeing but i end up working with authors quite hard to develop ideas and structure and usually without an agent doing work before i get to see it. Its a much more organic process often like this weekend of going to a conference four days listening to people talk about their ideas. And then working with them afterwards after something that i decided that i think i really like. On turning points and key figures in the story, they may be human they may be animal may be landscape. On things like pacing and color and context things that trade authors i think often get, you know, much more easily than academics if im lucky it has a lot of these almosts but thats not the case but a rarity to work on a book like in the history of United States series with an author like Richard White or gordon wood they already have publishing plat forms quite extensive within with and followingers and they already know theyre writing for trade audiences how to do it instead it is more likely to see a project like tabs in disembodied torso and traitor and the gene crowe i swear i dont only edit women or American History so let me mention others that im sure here in the store Jeffrey Stewart new negro coming out. Roy cry of the renegade and elizabeth read at heart. These are are not authors that come to mind when you think about American History or World History theyre not david, and we work through these books quite a number of times i know a lot of people think that academic editors dont take time to do that. But there are number of us who do and it is not always, you know, a single straightforward edit but really working over these texts to think about the introduction and to try to craft a back to bring readers in. And that will allow extensively rrnlg deeply, deeply researched books and projects to a larger audience. Means respecting a readers intelligence but not papering over ideas with with jargon showing and not telling us much about a place a person, motivation, political anding and Cultural Climate is possible im sure im down to almost my last second here figure ifing out how long a book is that is adeal for approach it is by a biography event book, a big idea book, a or narrative history no one has more time now to sit and read than they did it in the past and truly concentrate on the book. So we have to find works that are right sized or make them that way. Susan works with historians. The balance between finding a balance between your rest the ignorance of the lay reader is something that anyone who is an expert maybe a journalist or science think tank person, sure many of you are in that category. Cal, how about telling us about the editor as an evangelist. I first want to say that we pay tribute to our remarks here. My version of that is i would not be sitting here if it werent for the guy sitting three chairs over. He was the first person said ever hire me into this. I was hired to be his assistant. A short time later i came across my resume and peters desk. The red on top of it, specs. Which is how he remembered which guy i was. I guess thats the impression i made. The spec wearing young graduate out of school who came and sat down and peters office came to that room to talk about doing the job that susan just talked about. To talk about being in editor and to see and to spend all day long working with words and authors and filling more more rooms that look like my bedroom or this room, or what have you. The great china my first year to in the company we worked as a place where i was a young editor and you could begin to do that quickly. I have many viewed the by the book and spent some times coming through. Its how many, once i have bought it, do it you want. But one thing you find right away is how many people in the book started out at st. Martins press. The reason was it was a place for young editors could acquire books quickly without rhyme or reason and based purely on their passion for the book and the small but they wanted to take that there might be an audience out there for this first novel so was able fairly quickly to start doing that. I had a sobering second shoe to drop about a year after i bought my first couple of books. I did all of the stuff we talked about i felt proud that these books were doing what i wanted them to do. And i bet my work was done. I now had these books off to the marketing department. So then back to my this work which is,s. The nothing happened. And i thought what is the piece of this process that ive missed. What i have done or failed to do to ignite the marketing implicit publicity and sales machine behind the book segments that it was the talk of the town in washington new york so big i talked to earlier was Tom Mccormick and anton looked at me which you still allowed to smoke in the office and large part because he ran the whole company. He looked at me and said you just in the secret of publishing which is that an editor is not just an editor. It has to be the associate publisher of all the books. He probably said his even though half of them were women. And i said that sounds great am i getting a raise . No, it means your responsibilities you neglected which you now to learn. Those are the secret key to launching

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