Lunch with an author at a glamorous restaurant, a ride in a limo, a fancy literary cocktail party at night… That's what life as a children's book editor in New York is like, right? Well…no.
Many people think editors have very glamorous lives. Other think they sit at their desks, reading all day, and sometimes adding commas and periods to manuscripts.
The truth is pretty far from either of those pictures. An editor's life is very busy, often exciting, and complex. For our authors, we are friends and advocates. Part of our day is spent taking care of our authors' needs, making sure everything is going smoothly for them, reviewing different stages of their books. We e-mail our authors and sometimes call. Then there are meetings, meetings, and more meetings—to talk about new projects, book jackets, book production schedules, marketing plans, sketches and art, and everything else that goes into making a book. It's never, ever boring, and it's always busy.
What about all that reading and editing? Most editors read and edit manuscripts when they're not at work. I've edited at soccer and basketball games, at wrestling matches, on trains and planes, in my kitchen and in hotels, and while getting my hair cut (the hair cutter kept telling me to stop moving my head!).
And we don't just get a manuscript from an author and add a few commas to it. We ask questions, help the author think about the plot, the characters, the theme—the whole picture. We do what I call "forest and trees" editing: First we look at the forest (the story) and later at the individual trees (each word).
And every once in a while, we take an author to lunch at a fancy restaurant.
Rosemary Brosnan
Executive Editor, HarperCollins Publishers
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