Tuesday 22 April 2008

Editorial Meetings

I got to sit in on an Editorial meeting today. At long last I got to see the nuts and bolts of how books get acquired!

...sort of.

It was very interesting and revealing to see the Editors hashing out amongst themselves whether or not books looked good, whether they thought they'd sell, what the competition was, when the manuscript would get delivered, how it would affect the brand, etc.

But there was a lot that wasn't discussed that I still don't understand. Like how the appraisal process for a book works (fairly key, if you ask me), or who approves the purchase price for a manuscript and how that process works, or how marketing money gets allocated amongst titles purchased.

Some of these things I hope to learn later this week, as my boss has graciously agreed to take some time to sit down with me and answer some of my questions about the business. A lot of the rest I hope to pick up this summer, when I'll have a much longer time period to ask questions and observe.

But honestly, I'm finding myself very much wishing that someone had written a book on this--or explained it in a blog post or a chapter in a how-to-get-published book or something. It's the kind of thing that would really really help in knowing what it takes to get yourself published.

I promise to share my knowledge once it's all gleaned and polished. ;-p

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