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/lit/ - Literature

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2840525 No.2840525 [Reply] [Original]

Hello /lit/!

A couple years ago I was very fortunate to land an internship at Random House. That summer I started a pretty popular and successful thread here about what really goes on in the publishing industry and how a book actually becomes a book.

Now two years later I'm a freelancer at that company, with the hope and expectation that I will be hired on full-time once I graduate this May. I know a lot more about the industry now than the first time around, and I was wondering if anyone would be interested if I started those threads up again? I had a lot of fun doing it before, and a lot of people seemed to like it!

If not, that's fine too. In that case, just let the thread pass and I'll delete if I see no one's interested. Otherwise, ask away, I guess!

-Sidi-

>> No.2840532

Very cool. I've been here only a few months so I can't remember your thread, but sounds really cool. I'm first and foremost curious about your job and education. How did you get into the publishing business? And what do you do now?

My second question is; do you think it would be easier to publish a short story collection in my native tongue or in English? It's a much bigger market to get into, but harder as well.

I've just been experimenting with writing English these days, and I wonder if it's even worth it rather than publish in my native tongue and then maybe even translate it myself.

>> No.2840531

Would Random House be willing to give someone an advance based on the first three chapters of a novel?

>> No.2840534

>>2840531
not op, but fuck no.

>> No.2840537

What's the average layover time between when a book's rights are purchased and its release?

Are there tons of unsolicited manuscripts from people who don't read guidelines?

Have any coke&hoe parties?

>>2840531
Write the fucking novel before you try to shop it around you retard.

>> No.2840538

>>2840525
>full-time

Pretending you know anything about the industry. Get out. How long was your internship? 4 weeks?

>> No.2840539

about how many of the people you publish actually make a living as writers?

What's the usual/average advance for a first-time author?

is it talent that gets you published or just knowing somebody?

I want to do an MFA soon, will that improve my chances of getting published?

>> No.2840544

>Know a lot more about the industry
Yet OP actually believe he'll get a full-time right out of school.

>> No.2840547

I am working on a book which is more of a novelty book such as a fake brochure.

I have planned it in detail, written out the sections and all I require is a photographer for the pictures. Would I be able to take my project in its current state to a publisher and have them help me finish it by them finding a photographer.

>> No.2840552

Also OP, link to your first thread? I'm sure it's been archived somewhere.

>> No.2840574

Wow, gosh, okay that was more than I expected. Well, let's go one at a time.

>>2840531

Depends on a number of things, but most likely no. Advances on anything less than a complete, if rough, manuscript are generally only offered to authors whom the editor has previously worked with or that come from an agent he or she very much trusts.

>>2840532

The publishing industry is a very competitive, closed industry and incredibly difficult to break into. The full answer to this is long enough that I'll do a separate post later.

As for the poetry, try your native tongue! International publishers have a lot more influence than you may think.

>>2840537

It takes about a year and a half to two years, on average.

Yes, we get a ton of slush.

No coke or hoes, but occasionally we do have office happy hour!

>>2840538

Try 8 months, and now I freelance there 9-5. I'm not saying I'm a super chief editor, but I do actually have a fair amount of experience at this point.

>>2840539

A lot of writers - if successfully published - actually do make their living off of it, or at least supplement it.

The advance varies wildly depending on book and author.

It's not who you know, but it's not necessarily talent, either. Mostly it's about readability and audience. A book doesn't need to be brilliantly written to be a fun and interesting read.

>>2840544

Within a couple months, yes, I do. Knowing the right people helps a lot in this industry.

>>2840547

Honestly not sure on this one, it may depend on exactly how many photos you need.

>>2840552

When I have more time I'll look around for it!

>> No.2840578

>>2840574
>Try 8 months, and now I freelance there 9-5. I'm not saying I'm a super chief editor, but I do actually have a fair amount of experience at this point.

Summer intern. Stop fooling yourself.

>> No.2840579

>>2840574

>As for the poetry, try your native tongue! International publishers have a lot more influence than you may think.

Not sure what you are saying? Native or English? Assuming native, which then will try to shop it around internationally?

>> No.2840581

>>2840578

Oh shuddup.

>> No.2840589

What does your average work day consist of?

>> No.2840614

>>2840578

It could've been a really long Summer.

>> No.2840633

>>2840614
Maybe he lives in one of those places where its summer for months on end and perpetual darkness the rest of the year

OP do you have a beard?

>> No.2840861

So ... what happened to this thread? It seemed promising.

>> No.2840878

>>2840633

Maybe he's living at the Amunsden-Scott polar base. I dunno. That's still only a 6 month Summer though.

>> No.2840892

>>2840878
there's only one person from Amundsen-Scott here, and that's me

>> No.2840898

Read this and then please get it published:
http://wowberries.blogspot.com/2012/04/sorbet-shoppe.html

>> No.2840902

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House

Guys got an eight month internship in the worlds largest publishing house. And you believe they give this guy a position that matters or holds some information on "the industry".

Jesus /lit/ you are gullible.

>> No.2840911

>>2840902

I believe I'd rather speak with him than with you.

>> No.2840914

I would love to know how you got that initial internship. Do you only need an undergrad degree to work in publishing? Or do you also need an ms?
What job do you expect to start with, and what job do you eventually want?

>> No.2840922

>>2840898

Publish this.

>> No.2841165 [DELETED] 

>>2840579

Yes, sorry if I was unclear. Poetry is really not my strong suit - in the whole publishing group that I work in, only one editor that I know of works with it - but I think you have the best chance of publishing poetry written in the language for which it was intended. That may mean not submitting to a US publisher, or at least, not their US branch - Random House, for example, has branches all over the world. Whoever publishes you, however, there's a very good chance that they'll shop your work around internationally.

>>2840589

I'm basically an assistant, so my day consists of mostly of a lot of little helping tasks. There's never a lack of work; if nothing else, there's always reading to be done. New submissions come in everyday, and I read through on average one manuscript a day, between my other tasks. Other responsibilities I have include transmitting finished manuscripts to the Library of Congress, photo transmittals, running flaps between departments, setting up meetings, fielding author and agent calls, and other small, bureaucratic work. A longer project for me would be something like filling out a Title Info sheet, which includes a book's summary, selling points, comparative titles, etc.

>>2840633

Sadly I do not, but sometimes when I get very drunk I draw a mustache on my finger and hold it to my face and pretend I have one of those.

>> No.2841177

>>2840579

Yes, sorry if I was unclear. Poetry is really not my strong suit - in the whole publishing group that I work in, only one editor that I know of works with it - but I think you have the best chance of publishing poetry written in the language for which it was intended. That may mean not submitting to a US publisher, or at least, not their US branch - Random House, for example, has branches all over the world. Whoever publishes you, however, there's a very good chance that they'll shop your work around internationally.

>>2840589

I'm basically an assistant, so my day consists of mostly of a lot of little helping tasks. There's never a lack of work; if nothing else, there's always reading to be done. New submissions come in everyday, and I read through on average one manuscript a day, between my other tasks. Other responsibilities I have include transmitting finished manuscripts to the Library of Congress, photo transmittals, running flaps between departments, setting up meetings, fielding author and agent calls, and other small, bureaucratic work. A longer project for me would be something like filling out a Title Info sheet, which includes a book's summary, selling points, comparative titles, etc.

>>2840633

Sadly I do not, but sometimes when I get very drunk I draw a mustache on my finger and hold it to my face and pretend I have one of those.

>> No.2841180

>>2840861

Sorry! My answers may be somewhat sporadic. Like I said, I work 9-5. I created this thread and did the first round of replies at the end of my lunch break. Now that I'm home for the evening I finally have a chance to tackle these.

>>2840902

You bring up a good point, but I want to make the distinction between power and knowledge. Of the former, you're totally right - I have pretty much none. I offer my opinions on a lot of submissions that editors ask me to read, but ultimately the only decision I actually can make on my own is to reject slush. However, I DO know fair amount, as I said. I have the duties of an assistant; it's part of my job description to know what my boss does so I can help him do it. How long do you think it takes to adjust to a job? I've been there eight months; I'd be a pretty piss-poor and incompetent employee if I didn't know my way around by now, and they probably would've gotten rid of me long ago if I was.

>>2840914

Ah, well, there's the trick of it. Like I said, I'm going to do a longer post about breaking in to the publishing industry, but the short answer is: nepotism. Publishing is pretty much all about who you know, and I was fortunate enough to know someone. A BA is all you need, provided you have good references. The entry level job in Editorial is Editorial Assistant, and that is what I expect to be doing once I graduate.

>> No.2841298

Oh, sad, I thought he was going to read that short story and be all like "YES!"

>> No.2843420
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2843420

>>2840525
Since Random House is a Bertelsmann company since 98, any chance you're from Germany? Sorry, if that was mentioned somewhere already.
My question would be how you perceive the chances of getting through to an actual editor as a first time author without an agent. I understood that in the US, an agent is almost mandatory, not too sure about the situation in Germany.
When reading about the masses of manuscripts being sent to publishers, I assume a lot of sifting through the stuff is done by - what, interns? Secretaries? - who might fail to recognize the brilliance of the average /lit/ writer. I assume an agent is a sure-fire way to get directly to the decision-makers, but on the other hand, there are a lot of small agencies that might just end up on the same pile as unknown authors - do they?

>> No.2843476

>>2843420

So I had a longer answer to this but it gotten eaten so here's the gist: it is very, very difficult to get an editor to see your work without an agent. I'm not sure how it works in Germany, but in the US agents are incredibly important because they know which niche each editor fills, and therefore won't send your high-tension political thriller to an editor who pretty much only edits scifi/fantasy, for example.

As you guessed, slush is read almost exclusively by interns, and then 9 times out of 10 quickly rejected.

To answer your first question, no, I'm not German. I work at the main US office.

>> No.2843489

Please, PLEASE tell me that manuscripts aren't chosen based one a PowerPoint presentation to some douche executive of the marketing department.

I work for a very large publishing house in my country and that's how they sort things out here...

>> No.2843503

>>2843489

Wow, no, not at all.

Generally speaking, submissions are sent to specific editors that the agent believes would be interested in the manuscript. The editor will read it, and will also ask others in the department to do so as well, especially if he or she is on the fence about it.

Acquisitions are made by the editors, and only after seeing at least a proposal and having a good understanding of what the book is really about. Marketing doesn't factor into the decision.

>> No.2843505

>>2840892

Care to elaborate? I've applied to Lockheed-Martin and their subcontractors for the coming austral summer but haven't heard anything back yet.

>> No.2843539

>>2843476
What is slush? It can't be trash, because you wouldn't know it's trash until you've read.

>> No.2843589

>>2843539

Ah, sorry, that's another thing that I had down in the post that got eaten. Slush is just the term used for any unsolicited materials. For the most part this means manuscripts that are submitted from anyone other than a legitimate agent.

>> No.2844353

>>2841177

>Yes, sorry if I was unclear. Poetry is really not my strong suit.

I'm sorry, but I never said poetry. I said short stories. The big selling point to me going English is if I can't get them published as a book I'd like to try some magazines. Of which there are not many in my country that publish short stories.

But I think I pretty much figured out what's best for me anyway. Thanks, I guess.

>> No.2845121

>>2843589
OP i have listened to a few audiobooks by Random House INC.
Have you ever watched over or saw the production of audiobooks?
How tightly are the scripts guarded?

>> No.2845378

>>2843476
>>2843589
Thanks! So do ALL agents have a chance at getting through? Over here, we have a handful of agencies that are well known and respected and a few dozen that I often have never heard of. I'm not too sure about the contacts those small agencies have in the business. Did you ever witness an agency being directed to the slush pile instead of an editor's desk? Are the big names only doing business with each other and small agencies belong to small publishers?

Second, are there records being kept about rejected manuscripts? Interns change, and after a year the same manuscript might end up being reviewed by someone else who never heard of it. I understood that most authors argue a manuscript is "burned" after submitting it to publishers and being rejected, but surely it is reasonable to submit again after a few years and thorough rework. But if one's being rejected by an intern, that intern probably is long gone by that time ...
So, are there databases with names and possibly short descriptions of the plot, or can one assume that after a certain waiting period, nobody remembers that manuscript being submitted before?

>> No.2845471

What is the furthest you have heard of a piece of unsolicited material going?

How many editors do you have for each genre? Are there many that deal with "literary" fiction?

>> No.2845544

>>2845121
If you do in fact have experience or knowledge about Audiobook reading, do you know anything about the hiring process and how readers are chosen? I'm looking to do voice work on the side of whatever career I end up getting and a few people recommended I read audiobooks.

>> No.2845594

>>2845544
Nice doubles, English isn't your native language is it?
That post was addressing the OP.

>> No.2845604

>>2845594
I'm aware. My post was also addressing the OP.

>> No.2845941

>>2844353

Argh, sorry! I saw the word "collection" and somehow got the idea of poetry stuck in my head. Hope I was some help, anyway.

>>2845121

Actually, an author I'm working with now is starting the process on his audiobook. He's a nonfiction author (my boss does mostly nonfiction and a few thrillers), so it may not be the answer you're looking for, but at least in his case he is directly involved with the transition from physical book to audiobook, so I hope that's reassuring.

>>2845378

Most agencies get through because by their very nature most of them have long-standing contacts at the houses. It's really a really competitive business, and its hard to start and maintain a new agency without already knowing some people.

That said, anyone can put down their name and claim to be their own agency, using their home as their business address (I've seen this happen), so if no one knows the agent or someone who referred them, it may well be considered unsolicited and placed on the slush pile.

As for rejected manuscripts: any manuscript that is rejected will always be returned to the author, because even if we don't want to publish it (even if we think NO ONE will want to publish it), we respect that people aren't made of money and may want to send their work onto other publishers without printing out another 400 pages.

Everyone who reads a manuscript - interns for the slush, editors and assistants for solicited material - must write a reader's report about the ms explaining why they like it or why they're rejecting it. Although we don't keep the manuscripts themselves if they are rejected, we maintain records of them by sending the reports to our supervisor, who keeps them in a giant file.

>> No.2845946

>>2845471

Full publication! It's rare, but some very successful writers have come from the slush pile, like Philip Roth.

Re: editors within each genre - you have to understand that Random House has 45 imprints divided over 3 publishing groups (Random House Pub Group, Crown Pub Group, and Knopf Doubleday Pub Group), and that's not counting Children's and International. The different groups don't really interact with one another all that much, so I can't say how many literary fiction editors there are in the other two, but in the division I work in there's an imprint that does mostly literary fiction and has about 7 editors.

>>2845544

Sadly I don't know much about how the readers are chosen. In fact, I know more about it from an acquaintance whom I know separately from publishing and who reads for audiobooks than I do from my job.

I believe he was hired from the voice acting agency he belongs to.