Editing the bestsellers and trend-spotting

 

 

The SYP’s final speaker meeting of 2009 focused on a skill that many young publishers would hope to cultivate – commissioning books that become bestsellers. But can an editor learn to spot trends and commission sure-fire money-makers?

 

Our speakers for the evening were Antonia Hodgson, Editor-in-Chief of the commercial division at Little, Brown Book Group, Jon Wood, Deputy Publisher at Orion Books, and Suzanne Baboneau, Publishing Director of the adult trade division at Simon & Schuster UK.

 

To start the evening, each speaker told the audience a little about how they got where they are today.

 

Antonia got into publishing in 1990. ‘There was no such thing as work experience then,’ she told us. ‘I had a sister who worked at Little, Brown. I went in to help her out, and I was offered a job there. I worked as an assistant before I went to university, then at a medical publisher for a bit after I graduated. Then I went back to Little, Brown as an editorial assistant, and worked my way up there. I never moved from the company I was in, because it’s a big company, with lots of different imprints. I was there at the right time, and I was lucky. Hence the eclectic list I’ve worked on – I’ve been able to create bestsellers, work in a company I know really well, and stick to things I like. When I’m looking at new work, I ask myself whether I like the voice, whether it’s a strong voice, and then I look at the market. I think I hit my stride in terms on feeling confident about what I was looking for about five years in.’

 

Jon Wood started his career in publishing in 1994, ‘when work experience did exist, though in my case there was an element of nepotism! My father created audio books, and he managed to get me work experience at Hodder & Stoughton for two months. They told me to forget editorial, there were no jobs. But they were looking for a part-time sales rep for six months, so I did that, and then got the job full-time. I ended up doing the job for four years. I still wanted to be an editor though, so I spent a lot of time giving readers reports. At that time, publishing was a very static industry, which let talent get away. There weren’t many editors. Then, the crime and thrillers editor left, and they couldn’t replace him. I volunteered myself for the job to the MD at a party, got an interview, got the job on probation, and got a job! I did it for two years, during which time I bought nothing that worked. I did buy Harlen Coben, but unfortunately it didn’t work at that time!

 

‘I was then recommended for a job at Orion, as I’d done good work on the backlist at Hodder. Harlen Coben was my first success there. Life gets easier after your first hit; people start to rate you. I then had success with RJ Ellory, and eventually worked my way up to running the fiction department.’

 

Suzanne Baboneau, Publishing Director of the adult trade division at Simon & Schuster, has been working in publishing for 30 years. ‘I still have moments when I don’t know what I’m doing!’ she confided. ‘I started in 1980. I did a French degree, rather than an English Literature degree. I came to London and learnt French shorthand and typing. I then had an interview at Pan Macmillan. I could start immediately, so I got the job. It was an amazing place. We had people like Wilbur Smith and Dick Francis. It was a big, mass-market publisher. I was a secretary for three years, and I mostly read in that time. It’s a good idea to build up a portfolio of authors who you’re read. I also spent a lot of time writing reader’s reports.

 

‘Then I moved to Hamish Hamilton for two years – it wasn’t part of Penguin at that point. We produced hardbacks, so it was very different, quite a rarefied environment. It wasn’t a linear process; we were buying from other publishers. It was very different in those days. Then I went back to Pan. My boss could spot a bestseller a mile off, it was uncanny. He moved to Knopf, so I went with him for a couple of months, but I decided that I preferred British publishing – they have a different way of approaching the publishing process.

 

‘I moved back to Pan around the time that vertical publishing started in 1987, and I became assistant fiction editor. I didn’t start commissioning for seven years. I was lucky, I had great mentors and the time to read and report, and I’m still using what I learnt then now. I would council have patience, build up your knowledge, learn, build a foundation. I stayed there for 15 years, and eventually became editorial director of fiction at Pan Macmillan. In 2000, my boss moved to S&S, and I followed six months later. At that time S&S was a poor cousin to S&S US, so we had to work hard to build it up into what it is now. I’ve been there for the past ten years, and I think it’s getting harder to spot the next bestseller, things change for one day to the next.’

 

 

Our speakers then moved on to talk about spotting trends and bestsellers. Jon pointed out that a lot of the most successful authors today break through late in their career, so you have to have patience. ‘Writers take time to find their voice. Unfortunately, you often don’t have the time for this these days – there’s a lot of pressure to make an author work within three or four books.’

 

Suzanne mentioned that ‘you have to have belief, editorially, even when a successful author has a new breakthrough’, and Antonia told us that ‘mentors are very important; you can learn a lot from them. We work in an open plan office, so there’s more connection between the junior and senior staff, which I think was lost with email. Personal relationships are very important. It’s about who you know, and working with like-minded people.’

 

Jon agreed, and added, ‘it’s hard to over-state how important the editorial department is – you have to create excitement. It can be frustrating. Only 16­­–20 per cent of books make any money. As an editor, you have to make stories of your own, creating narratives of authors’ lives, making other departments excited, or letting writers write and learn.’

 

Suzanne spoke of the importance of editorial distance when buying books. ‘You have to follow the process a book will go through. Even if you love something, you have to be subjective. You have to have a combination of gut instinct followed by a cool head.’

 

Antonia moved on to talk a little about trend-spotting, stating that ‘the concept is a dodgy one, depending on what is meant by it. You shouldn’t be thinking of what you want before you read it. It’s not like fashion, it’s not a new thing every season, though there are genres that come and go, such as misery memoirs. You have to look for a great story, and then think about the market. Trying to guess the zeitgeist is impossible. The ideal scenario is to have lots of editors with different tastes and diverse backgrounds, all looking for different stories.’

 

Jon added, ‘we’re under a lot of pressure from sales and marketing to publish in genres that are tightly defined and doing well at the moment, but editors are looking for something that stands out. The perfect book is one that fits a genre and can be packaged, but does something different with it, for example, Harlen Coben, who took the thriller into the home, which meant that women were starting to read more crime thrillers.

                       

‘I’d offer three rules:

1.     Don’t buy something you don’t love, even if you think it’ll sell.

2.     Don’t buy too many things that are brilliant but you know won’t sell.

3.     Buy authors not books – everyone wants a repeating author.’

 

On the subject of judging a potential book from a proposal, Antonia mentioned that she works on a lot of non-fiction – ‘you can judge very quickly from a proposal. There are publishers who can see books and publish them even if they don’t love it, but the question is, is it fulfilling?’

 

Suzanne continued, ‘I often ask myself whether I’d recognise Dan Brown if it had been submitted to me. I think probably not. What is it that makes that book work? You do need a mix of people and backgrounds, then the process joins in a full circle.’

 

In relation to what makes a good commissioning editor, Antonia mentioned the recent Ebury ad, which advertised for a commissioning editor but said that editorial experience wasn’t necessary. ‘It caused a lot of controversy, but I think it’s good to open the commissioning process to other experiences.’

 

‘It’s important to bring editorial assistants through the career process. The situation is better now than it used to be though,’ Jon stated.

 

The evening concluded with questions from the audience to the panel.

 

Q: How easy is it to move from other departments into editorial, or is where you start off where you end up?

 

Jon: It is difficult, but it is possible. You need the balance between enthusiasm and aggression.

 

Antonia: Don’t rely on what you think you want to do, it’s about having fun.

 

Suzanne: We tend to forget that everyone who works in publishing is a reader and has an opinion. Use people more as readers.

 

Jon: It’s all about creating momentum. You need to get as many people as possible involved.

 

Q: How closely do you work with literary agents to find talent?

 

Suzanne: There are so many, you have to be aware of trends. You could sit at a desk and wait for it to come in, but there’s nothing to stop people pursuing their own leads, especially in non-fiction. We had to struggle at S&S to become one of the publishers of choice for literary agents. Lots of people go from publishing into agenting, but not vice versa – there’s more money in agenting!

 

Jon: It’s important to find agents that share your tastes, who you have a track record with. The friends you make early on can be very important.

 

Suzanne: You can tell when agents are very passionate. You can’t get to know everyone. Certain agents can be used as a calling a card to supermarkets.

 

Q: How important is timing during the year?

 

Jon: There’s a real science to it. It all depends on the format and the type of book. If an author is at the beginning of their career, then you’d usually publish in the spring. The ultimate aim with hardbacks is to go to autumn and Christmas. But if you go to autumn too early, the book will drown. It’s different for mass market books, when the big time is the summer read. You can calculate from week to week what top tens sell. You want to get in there for at least one week, and you can go to buyers with this. We have a key title schedule.

 

Suzanne: When we got wind of Dan Brown, we were about to publish Phillipa Gregory in the US, so we moved it forward two weeks and got her to number 1 before Dan Brown came out. Sales directors often share information like this.

 

Jon: You have to work to a two week cycle – supermarkets change their runs every two weeks.

 

Suzanne: At the end of December, very few paperbacks come up. You have to look at important dates that are coming up, like the world cup, the Olympics, valentines day, and so on. You have to always be asking questions, even about brand authors. For certain authors, you have to have a month. Though of course this depends on deliveries.

 

Q: How much of commissioning strategy is based on sales figures?

 

Antonia: We have BookScan now, which has only been available for the last eight years. It’s pretty accurate now. There are still books that go missing, though it has become more and more relevant. When I first started, there was no real way of telling how an author was doing. Everyone can look now. It’s brutal for some authors – their sales might be tailing off, and you have to use editorial judgement to determine whether you think their new book will break through.

 

Jon: You have to question the publishing of previous books, the cover, marketing strategy etc. Agents are obsessed with Amazon ratings.

 

Antonia: In non-fiction, it is easier to predict, as you can look at the sales on a particular topic, and can see the core sales. You would hope that sales figures alone wouldn’t prevent an editor from acquiring a great book, but it lets you judge what level to go in at.

 

Q: After you buy a book and the text is delivered, how much work is needed?

 

Suzanne: Every author needs work. Some agents do loads of editing first; others just love to do the deal. It varies loads. Some need hand-holding and confidence building.

 

Jon: Don’t expect to edit in the office – it’ll be at weekends and evenings. It’s impossible to edit in an office environment. Everything interfaces with editorial, so you’re too busy.

 

Suzanne: You can’t teach to edit, you just learn it and pick things up.

 

Antonia: There are different ways of editing, and they’re all valid.

 

Q: How do you cope with difficult authors?

 

Antonia: You know you’ve gone the right route when an author knows already that something is wrong. At commissioning stage, if I sense an author is going to be difficult, I would back away.

 

Suzanne: I find it’s better to talk face to face. Email is efficient and quick, but impersonal. The author has to have confidence in you. Celebrity fiction is a particular problem, as these people have day jobs. It’s important to remember it’s their book, and not to be too heavy handed. Agents come into their own if it gets too sticky.

 

Jon: It’s surprisingly rare. Writing is a lonely process, so they’re mostly glad to have someone to talk to.

 

Antonia: I’d recommend always starting with the positives.

 

Q: Do you have any advice for people who don’t live in London who want to get into publishing?

 

Suzanne: It is true that publishing is very London-centric.

 

Antonia: It is a problem; it’s really challenging, especially to diversity. I’d say get a job in anything to do with publishing so you can get a place to live, though admittedly it’s difficult in a recession.