Thursday, August 30, 2007

Ask the Editor

Well, it's been a busy month here at the Publishing Careers blog! At the urging of my friend Joe Wikert, I've posted just about every weekday this August. You'd think I'd be in danger of running out of topics, but in many ways I feel I'm just getting started.

I've heard from a lot of you, privately and through comments, and you don't know how happy that makes me. I think it's great to share as much knowledge as we can about our careers and our industry. I also know that a lot of my readers have been in the business for a while, so I want to try to keep posting topics that reflect everyone's interests and questions.

I would also like to branch out and include topics on other areas of book publishing beyond editorial. There are lots of fascinating jobs in marketing, sales, design, and production, so I am really going to make an effort to share their stories with you as well.

So I need your help. What questions do you have? What topics would you like me to investigate? What tips can you share with the group? Let me know who's out there so that I don't keep feeling I'm writing just to hear myself talk!

Have a great Labor Day weekend. See you in September!



4 comments:

Joe Wikert said...

Hey Lori, keep up the great work! I've been enjoying reading your insight and I'm betting others have as well.

As far as questions are concerned, you've had the opportunity to work at both a large publishing house (Macmillan) and a smaller one (JIST). Have you ever talked about the difference, the pros and cons, etc.? I'd be curious to hear what you have to say on this.

Anonymous said...

Lori, I'm glad to have found your blog. And since you asked, I'd like to see something about how experienced freelance book designers and production artists might approach larger publishers--Wiley, Elsevier, Macmillan, Random House, and like that; along with not quite so, like Peachpit, Ballantine, Avalon; and maybe even university presses.

I've about 15 years' such experience, mostly for smaller publishers and book packagers. I've a whole process for approaching publishers, including a website (http://www.tianodesign.com), as well as a blog (http://www.tianodesign.com/blog). But I'm always interested in hearing new approaches.

Lori Cates Hand said...

Great ideas, both of them! I will post on these ideas later in the week. Thanks!

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

Lori, I found your blog only a few days ago, thanks to your interview of my colleague Stephen Tiano. Good writing. Nice to see someone explaining the business!

I'm a freelance copyeditor who's been in publishing almost 24 years. My clients are big pubs, small pubs, and authors. When I was an employee, I worked for a small pub, a midsize medical pub, and a big-name pub.