Anna Kelly of Hamish Hamilton discusses the importance of winning over publishers’ sales teams
Anna Kelly
Anna Kelly is an editorial assistant at Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Group UK. Founded in 1931, Hamish Hamilton has become an integral part of Penguin, focusing on publishing exuberant, energetic and subversive writing and publishing a maximum of 20 new titles a year.Here Anna talks us through the process of deciding whether a book is right for publication by Hamish Hamilton.
What’s your role with Hamish Hamilton?
I’m the editorial assistant and I work with two editors. I’m lucky to work in such a small editorial team (there are just the three of us) as it means that I get to help out with a bit of everything, including the really important and exciting things: choosing what we publish, editing and being in contact with our authors.
How did you come to work for Hamish Hamilton?
Towards the end of my degree I’d decided that I wanted to work in publishing. I was in the process of trying - unsuccessfully - to get some work experience when I saw the editorial job advertised and got an interview. I was really lucky to get my job without any experience… I’m still not quite sure how that happened.
What’s your professional background?
I don’t really have a professional background as such because this is my first proper job, but my degree was in French and German literature, so that’s my background.
What makes Hamish Hamilton different to other publishing houses?
I like the fact that Hamish Hamilton has a very clear identity - it’s very committed to trying to find writing which is really doing something innovative and different and pushing boundaries somehow, but it also has a wonderful history and heritage and has always been the London publisher of writers like Camus and Sartre and Salinger.
It’s a very strong combination. Another thing that distinguishes us is our covers and design: when I tell people that I work at HH, they often comment on how aesthetically striking our books are. Our publishing director is very passionate about this and I think that it really shows.
What kind of books does Hamish Hamilton publish?
We publish a mixture of novels and non-fiction. There are certain types of non-fiction books that we seem to be very good at publishing, for example nature writing and psychogeography, but we’re also always looking out for literary novels - especially ones which are that little bit different and are distinguished by the brilliance of the writer’s voice.
We have a very diverse range of writers on our list, who come from all over the world and represent all different facets of society, from those as well-established as John Updike and Paul Theroux, to well-known young writers like Zadie Smith and Jonathan Safran Foer, to Marilyn Chin, an Asian-American feminist activist poet whose first novel we published this year.
What happens to a submission once it reaches your office?
One of the three of us will read it, depending on who it seems most suited to. If we decide it’s not for us, we have a chat and agree to turn it down, making sure that we give constructive feedback to the agent about why we don’t think it’s right for us. But if it so happens that whoever’s read it really loves it, then they pass it to the other two to read and then we all discuss again.
Sometimes at that point we realise that we couldn’t make it work, but sometimes we all completely agree, and then at that point the book would be raised in a weekly meeting that takes place with all the editors in our division and we’d talk - as passionately as possible - about why we really think we should publish this book, and try to get as many people on board as possible.
This is the stage at which it’s really important for us to get our marketing and sales teams on our side, as without their support we can’t successfully publish a book.
Usually we circulate the submission round to a few key people, and if they all like it, then we make an offer to the agent… and everything starts from there.
What do you look for in a submission?
I’m always looking for writing that shines with confidence and makes you feel that the writer knows exactly what they’re doing. Although I like reading lots of different styles, there’s a certain sort of exuberance and energy and subversiveness that I always fall for.
I also always ask myself how I’d talk to my friends or colleagues about something I’m reading. If it’s something that I can imagine pressing on people to read, then I know I’m on to something.
How can a new author get past the slush pile?
It’s probably easier to get through the slush pile of an agency and therefore to find an agent than it is to get through a publishers‘ slush pile, because unfortunately we have to give priority to reading the submissions that come from agents.
One thing that always helps is making sure that you have a writing presence outside of the book that you’re submitting, so that an agent or a publisher has something to go on.
Writing a good blog is always helpful, or, if you write fiction, then having short story prizes on your CV instantly makes you stand out as someone who’s to be taken seriously.
Once you have accepted a manuscript, how do you prepare it for publication?
Penguin is quite unusual in that it actually has two editorial departments. Our department does all of the structural editing - making sure that the book works on a macro level - but then once we’ve done that, we pass it to another department who are responsible for the copyediting and proofreading.
Every book is different and we always brief the other editorial department on what a particular manuscript needs in order to be as good as possible. Some are so clean that they require almost no editing at all, while others need quite a lot of work…
What is your favourite part of this process?
It’s wonderful working with authors who are really excited about being published and really grateful for your editorial input. And seeing a book go from something a little bit raw to a finished object that you can start telling everyone about is brilliant - it’s a lovely feeling when a book you’ve worked on and feel evangelical about starts to be picked up and talked about by lots of people.
I always like the idea of scenes and characters I really related to being replicated in hundreds of different people’s minds, each time probably completely differently.
What is the most challenging part of it?
Every book has a slightly different life, and publishing seems to be very good at throwing up an infinite number of tiny unexpected things that can go wrong at any given moment.
In editorial we’re a little like project managers, trying to make sure that we’re in contact with all the different departments who work on our books and keep everything running smoothly.
I think that’s the challenge - just making sure that you know what’s going on at all times and not letting anything slip through the net.
Whose writing has excited you recently?
We’ve been publishing lots of really exciting authors recently. Shane Jones is a great addition to our list and Light Boxes seems to have won fans all over the internet - probably because it’s such an unusual concept and it’s quite unlike a lot of other books being published at the moment.
Another book I’ve really enjoyed working on is Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. It’s his second novel, but it bucks the trend of second novels in that it’s even better than his first book, which was itself brilliant.
He has such an incredible knack of understanding exactly how people feel and expressing it so expertly that you as the reader can empathise with even the most horrific or seemingly insignificant characters. And he’s also hilarious. I think he’s going to be really big. I hope so.
What would you say the main challenges are for an aspiring author?
I really feel for writers trying to make it today. It’s an incredibly tough and competitive path and there are so many stumbling blocks along the way.
I know that some writers feel that the publishing world is a very closed circle - impossible to penetrate unless you happen to know someone who knows someone - and that they’re destined always to end up on the slush pile.
And then there’s money. Unless you’re lucky enough to have some sort of funding or grant, most people have to write their first book in time squeezed around a full-time job, which is hard enough, and even if you get a book deal, advances have fallen so drastically over the last few years that writing full-time often isn’t a viable option.
What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
Try to get involved in the book world as much as possible. Reading these days is becoming more and more sociable, and the internet means that everyone is closer together and more connected than ever before.
Hopefully that means that it’s getting easier for us as publishers to find new writers who are passionate and talented, and easier for aspiring writers to meet publishers and published writers and break the cycle I mention in the answer above.
So go to book events and festivals, read lots of books and reviews, join literary groups and author fan pages on Facebook, write a blog, read blogs, follow publishers‘ twitter feeds, and so on… and then submit your manuscript to literary agents who are likely to be interested in your book.
Look on agents‘ websites to find out which authors they represent - if you can find someone who looks after some of your favourite writers, that’s a very good start.
For more on Hamish Hamilton, please visit the Penguin website.
Related posts:
- Anna Alessi of Sparkling Books stresses the importance of a promising opening chapter - Anna Alessi is a publisher at Sparkling Books, an independent...
- Ed Wolf of Wild Wolf Publishing emphasises the importance of your synopsis and cover letter - For the 11th feature in our series on publishing houses...
- Award-winning poet Ruth Padel emphasises the importance of reading widely and curiously - Ruth Padel is a prize-winning British poet and a Fellow...
- Eric Lane of Dedalus Books discusses the ways writers can improve their chance of being published - As the third in our series of interviews with publishing...
- The importance of a winning film title - What's in a name? Well, with films it seems to...
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment