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Have you ever wondered what it's like to read books for a living? For me, it's like getting paid to watch TV. I even like reading bad books, because they make me laugh. How did I get such an awesome job? Well, I've been doing freelance editing since I was in college, starting with essays and papers. From there, I freelanced a few books, short stories, pamphlets, and brochures. I built up a decent list of references who all loved me. Then, one day, there was a job posting looking for a remote editor for a small publishing company. I applied. I got the job, in part because I was cheap (no formal publishing experience) and in part because the interviewer and I just chatted about awesome books we'd read and exchanged recommendations. I'm an "Editor", but I do acquisitions, copy editing, and layout work. What that means is that our slush reader will direct promising books to me, I'll read them and decide whether or not they're good enough that we can fix them up enough to publish them and make lots of money (hopefully). Then I present the books that I think are good during a weekly Skype meeting with our head editor. They make the final decision whether or not to pursue a contract for a book. At the same time, I have 1-2 books assigned to me that I'm editing with the author for publication. I 'handle' authors (I can sometimes be a therapist for authors, seriously - one author told me all about their father's mental health illness and how hard it all was...) On top of that, when the books are all ready to go, I do the layout work to get them ready for our distributor to print a hardcover version and release an ebook version to the major retailers. I do all of this work from home and use Skype or phone calls when I need to do something that email can't handle. That's the biggest perk honestly - I have young children and I don't have to pay a babysitter or daycare. I can just pause my timecard app and take care of them. Saves me tons of money and I get to work in yoga pants and t-shirt. Or my underwear, I guess, if I didn't have kids. Most of my work gets done at night, after I've put the kids to bed. I've come to learn quite a bit about the industry in my time at the company, so I thought I'd see if anyone was interested in asking me any questions. I'm fairly sure my company wouldn't appreciate the attention of the forums, so if necessary, I will shy away from identifying details. Our company is listed on various sites and has open submissions, so it's possible to find it. We've had people mention they found us on writersmarket.com a lot in their query letters. So ask away. Whovian Bookworm fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Jun 11, 2015 |
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Jun 11, 2015 23:45
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So, how does one get published?
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Jun 14, 2015 18:51
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Cat Army
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Write a original, engaging story, get a few beta readers who read a lot/are good with grammar to help you clean up most issues, and write a decent query letter. Make sure your query letter and opening 10-30 pages are really polished. Many companies request a short excerpt just to get an idea of the quality of your writing and that, along with your query letter, will determine if you get beyond the first cut. If/Once you get to the point where a company/agent requests your full manuscript - do EXACTLY what they say in regards to sending it them/formatting/etc. We've had people who ignore our requests for formatting and, although we usually give them a chance, when it comes time to decide whether or not this is a book I should present to my head editor, I will remember that you can't follow directions, so you might not be an easy author during the editing process. It'll be a strike against you. I also recommend knowing your genre. We've had a few authors writing sci-fi that don't realize how unforgiving that genre is when you get a fact wrong (do your research, editors are an anal bunch and we will check). But we've also had authors whose query letters said "my book is X genre, it will appeal to people who enjoyed (popular books), because (reasons)". One such author was actually spot on and we're currently trying to buy his book because it would slot right into the genre, but it's an original story that's a great new take on old horror themes. Finally, be somewhat aware of trends in publishing. Keep an eye out on what books are on the bestseller list, but also make friends with a few librarians. Librarians can often tell you what book they've seen flying off the shelves or what has a long hold list. My library has a special section for "hot" titles, a spare copy of a book with a long hold list or that they have trouble keeping on the shelves. I always browse this section to see what the trends are. Now, a really good book will trump trends, but, for example, YA readers are reading more middle grade books right now (according to a publishing conference my head editor attended). So, if you write middle grade and know this trend, you can write in your query letter that your book is middle grade but mature enough to appeal to YA readers as well. It helps you sell your book. All that helps you get your book into the hands of an editor, but mostly it's just a matter of writing an engaging, original manuscript.
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Jun 14, 2015 23:30
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How often do you get submissions that are just so bad that they have to be shared with everybody in the company?
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Jun 15, 2015 01:22
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What sort of books do you publish? I work for a dog book publisher, it's a kinda weird job. Family business where we basically came up with all the publishing stuff ourselves. Not a bad gig really.
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Jun 15, 2015 02:45
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Juanito posted:How often do you get submissions that are just so bad that they have to be shared with everybody in the company? In our database system, we keep notes on each book and some of the notes are rants, some are depressed (why did I read the whole thing?), and some are hysterical quotes of bad writing. We don't actually take erotica, but every so often someone tries to sneak one in and the various euphemisms for sex, vagina, and penis are hilarious; another editor on our team is a bit of a prude and doesn't find it funny. It just embarrasses them. Probably because most of the editing department is younger (late 20s) women. I recently started keeping track of bad lines that I've read ("chocolate petals of love" = black chick's vagina). I wish I had started it when I first got this job. I know there's dozens of good ones, but I don't care enough to dig through our database to reread the bad, bad books they came from for free. n8r posted:What sort of books do you publish? We publish fiction, no erotica/romancey romances*, children's (chapter books and up are ok), short stories, or poetry. (* We will publish something that has romance in it, just not an actual "Romance" novel - paranormal romance, for instance, doesn't count as "Romance".) It really isn't a bad job at all. About a third of my work is handling new manuscripts (reading, writing up a report/notes for it, if it's good, presenting it to my head editor, if it's bad, sending the rejection letter), the rest is editing and layout. It does get boring rereading a book for the fourth or fifth time to catch all the author's bad habits, but really, I could be stuck in a call center or Starbucks with my humanities degrees. Publishing is definitely not a bad gig, as far as jobs go.
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Jun 15, 2015 03:37
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If I write a book that gets published and sells an $avg number of copies, how much do I stand to make? Could this be a job for an averagely decent writer?
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Jun 15, 2015 04:15
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I have no idea what an $avg number of books is. I can tell you that you can get a vague idea of how many books are selling based upon Amazon sales rank. Anything below 10,000 Amazon sales rank is a pretty decent seller. You'd need a few of those at the same time to make much of a living. Not an easy task.
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Jun 15, 2015 04:19
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photomikey posted:If I write a book that gets published and sells an $avg number of copies, how much do I stand to make? Could this be a job for an averagely decent writer? One thing that surprised me is how little authors make initially. Did you know J.K. Rowling only got a 1500 pound advance for the first Harry Potter book? And it got rejected by 12 companies before someone gave her that tiny advance. So, our company pays a varying amount for an author's debut book, but we try to keep it under $5000. Royalties are between 5-10%, depending on what the author negotiates. Usually, the higher the advance, the less we want to pay in royalties. Some companies make an author pay back their advance before they pay out royalties (for example, if you get a $5,000 advance, you don't get royalties until after you make $5,000 in royalties... that's why it's an "advance"). Some companies don't. Some companies buy ALL the rights (meaning if someone wants to make a movie based on that book, they buy the rights from the publishing company rather than the author, and the author can't sell any books set in that world to another company, because the publishing company bought the rights to that intellectual idea), some don't. Some hold the copyright, some let the authors hold it. This varies a lot based on contract negotiations. Also, from what I understand, a lot of publishing companies (mine included) make you sign a non-disclosure agreement before you even look at a contract, so you can't tell anyone what their standard contract offer looks like, or how much they offered you. Most publishing companies make money from serials and authors that write multiple books. This is also how most authors make money. It's all about building a brand. If J.K. Rowling announced she was writing another children's book, Harry Potter fans would all give it a try, and she and her publisher would reap the benefits of her name. THAT is how an author makes a living at writing in the world of traditional publishing. Continuous writing, creating a consistently good brand. Even if you get a bestseller with your first book, you're looking at probably 5% of the profits. Profits come after the publishing company pays off their marketing company, distributor/printer, staff, etc. And most books sold these days are e-books for $5>. People want cheap books. So you're making a few cents per e-book. Not a lot of money, but the thing is, most contracts include a first rights clause that gives the publishing company the right to bargain for your next book before you shop it around. So if you become a bestseller with your first book, you can demand a lot more from the publisher for your second book, especially if it's a series. Because people buy bestsellers and pay attention to their follow up books. If that book also becomes a bestseller, then you're really in a position to request a large advance or higher royalties from the publishing company. Now... self publishing is a whole different ball game. You can make a lot more money, but it's a bit of a gamble and a lot of work. You have to be/hire an editor, a layout person, a marketing person, a publicist, someone to write the library of congress stuff (that's how you get libraries and bookstores to maybe stock your book), and a cover artist. You can find freelancers, and, in fact, that's what my company does. Most of the staff are actually contractors, with very few of us being actual employees. But with self publishing, you can make 100% of the profits. Visit the creative convention subforum for more information on self publishing. There's quite a few of them that do it successfully, and they'd be far more knowledgeable than me. Just be aware that very rarely will a publisher take on a book that's already been self published, and some are hesitant to work with an author who has been self publishing. EDIT: Oh, and book sales vary wildly. For every book that sells a million copies, there's hundreds that are only bought by the author's family and friends. So it would be hard to even judge an "average" amount. Whovian Bookworm fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jun 15, 2015 |
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Jun 15, 2015 05:05
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The whole idea of an "average" amount is that it is the number between the number that J.K. Rowling sells and the number that the guy whose only purchases are his family sells. Not saying you have to be able to quote it, but it's not inherently difficult to judge. I have had several friends write books (self published) lately, and it seems the whole reasoning is not to sell books, but to have the esteem of being an author (moreover a "best selling" author) so you can charge more for consulting and/or speaking events. I assume (by the focus on consulting/speaking) that the money coming in from the books is gravy, but you couldn't live on it.
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Jun 15, 2015 09:52
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Whovian Bookworm posted:One thing that surprised me is how little authors make initially. Did you know J.K. Rowling only got a 1500 pound advance for the first Harry Potter book? And it got rejected by 12 companies before someone gave her that tiny advance. So, our company pays a varying amount for an author's debut book, but we try to keep it under $5000. Royalties are between 5-10%, depending on what the author negotiates. Usually, the higher the advance, the less we want to pay in royalties. Some companies make an author pay back their advance before they pay out royalties (for example, if you get a $5,000 advance, you don't get royalties until after you make $5,000 in royalties... that's why it's an "advance"). Some companies don't. Some companies buy ALL the rights (meaning if someone wants to make a movie based on that book, they buy the rights from the publishing company rather than the author, and the author can't sell any books set in that world to another company, because the publishing company bought the rights to that intellectual idea), some don't. Some hold the copyright, some let the authors hold it. This varies a lot based on contract negotiations. Also, from what I understand, a lot of publishing companies (mine included) make you sign a non-disclosure agreement before you even look at a contract, so you can't tell anyone what their standard contract offer looks like, or how much they offered you. Pretty good idea re: the NDA. The fact of the matter is that we offer virtually every author the same terms. Our authors are working within a very small niche, so it's hard for them to shop around. The goal in our niche is to have a book that 'catches on' for whatever reason. Ideally, we like to have the only book AND the best book on the subject. If you have the definitive work on house training, everyone buys it, and nobody else will probably bother to write another. Some successful dog books sell a few hundred copies a month for years without any changes or updates. That's fairly different than fiction where I believe you can see very large sales, then the sales taper off rapidly.
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Jun 15, 2015 19:35
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Whovian Bookworm posted:One thing that surprised me is how little authors make initially. Did you know J.K. Rowling only got a 1500 pound advance for the first Harry Potter book? And it got rejected by 12 companies before someone gave her that tiny advance. So, our company pays a varying amount for an author's debut book, but we try to keep it under $5000. Royalties are between 5-10%, depending on what the author negotiates. Usually, the higher the advance, the less we want to pay in royalties. Some companies make an author pay back their advance before they pay out royalties (for example, if you get a $5,000 advance, you don't get royalties until after you make $5,000 in royalties... that's why it's an "advance"). Some companies don't. Some companies buy ALL the rights (meaning if someone wants to make a movie based on that book, they buy the rights from the publishing company rather than the author, and the author can't sell any books set in that world to another company, because the publishing company bought the rights to that intellectual idea), some don't. Some hold the copyright, some let the authors hold it. This varies a lot based on contract negotiations. Also, from what I understand, a lot of publishing companies (mine included) make you sign a non-disclosure agreement before you even look at a contract, so you can't tell anyone what their standard contract offer looks like, or how much they offered you. Do you feel like self publishers are, on the whole, putting pressure on traditional publishers or are they mostly cranks?
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Jun 15, 2015 21:27
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Whovian Bookworm posted:Did you know J.K. Rowling only got a 1500 pound advance for the first Harry Potter book? And it got rejected by 12 companies before someone gave her that tiny advance. S I have been wondering about this phenomenon: what causes multiple publishers to misjudge the book market to such a serious degree? Is it simply a conservative, over-catious mindset that creates an aversion to publish anything that is unlike existing bestsellers?
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Jun 15, 2015 22:11
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photomikey posted:The whole idea of an "average" amount is that it is the number between the number that J.K. Rowling sells and the number that the guy whose only purchases are his family sells. Not saying you have to be able to quote it, but it's not inherently difficult to judge. I'm not involved in the accounting or legal side of things, so I'm not really qualified to give an average for our company, let alone for the entire market. Some publishers' names have more prestige attached to them, so their books will sell more than an unknown publisher just by virtue of brand. That impacts sales figures. I actually don't know how many of our various books sell even. It's not discussed with us editors. So not only do I not know how much profit a book brings, I don't know how many sell. When it comes to numbers, I'm rather out of the loop, I'm afraid. It is possible to make a living at just writing books, but it's really, really hard. Writing is like any of the arts - you have your Will Smith, who makes millions per gig, and your busboy who desperately wants any paying gig so he can afford to eat this month. He'll probably even work for free sometimes to "build his resume". There's probably thousands of writers who don't make poo poo off of their books for every Neil Gaiman who has movies, speaking engagements, and dozens of great books. You have to write a lot of books and get a name to be able to really make a living at writing as a traditional published author. Self publishing is another beast entirely, like I said. There's also too many people who are writing utter poo poo who really, really think they've written the next Moby Dick or Oliver Twist... and really, what they've written is so very bad that I can barely understand what they mean to say because of errors, contradictions, and any number of other writing disasters, let alone follow the story (if they even wrote a complete story arc). Many authors make money off of their brand through speaking engagements and teaching classes and such. That's one reason publishing companies are nice - a good publishing company should market you and, hopefully, set you up with a publicist who can help you shape and improve your brand, in order to make even more money off of yourself.
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Jun 15, 2015 23:25
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Paper With Lines posted:Do you feel like self publishers are, on the whole, putting pressure on traditional publishers or are they mostly cranks? There's definitely some pressure, but it's mostly on the smaller publishers who can't offer such attractive resources as the big publishers. Let's be honest, even if you're doing a great job selling your books, Random House has TEAMS of marketing people who each have networks and it's much easier for Random House to get a book in, say, Oprah's Book Club than an author working on their own. It's possible, but you kind of have to either write a true masterpiece, hit on the right topic at the exact right time, or win the luck lottery to get that kind of publicity. So there's probably not as much pressure on those big companies. My company tends to get a lot of submissions from people who have previously self published, so I feel like many self publishers would gladly work with a publisher, they just haven't hooked up with one, for whatever reason. Monetarily speaking, self publishers can offer their books at much lower prices than a publisher can and still turn a profit, if they do everything themselves... Even though I'm an editor and my job exists based on the idea that people care about reading a book with proper grammar, I have to admit that's simply untrue in most cases. Twilight is a freaking mess in terms of copy editing, but sold millions. Why? Because the average reader doesn't care about the minutia of grammar. They just want an easy to understand story. So self publishers, to some extent, can get away with below par editing, layout, and art... people will write this off as "oh, it was self published, so it's expected that it isn't as perfect". Now, a publisher pretty much has to have everything perfect. If you miss something, it's not "oh well, can't be perfect". It's shoddy work and reflects poorly on the company. So that's money that the publisher has to shell out... But they have to lower prices a certain amount to compete with self published titles. So the profit margin is thinner for smaller publishers. And, I'll be honest, I'm concerned my company will fold due to not making enough of a profit. We recently started offering some services to writers to help them polish their books... so we're trying to increase profits, obviously. However, I don't see the book sales. We could be breaking even and the backers just want to see more profit. I'm not involved in the numbers, so I don't know. Kopijeger posted:I have been wondering about this phenomenon: what causes multiple publishers to misjudge the book market to such a serious degree? Is it simply a conservative, over-catious mindset that creates an aversion to publish anything that is unlike existing bestsellers? It kind of depends on the book, really. In the case of Harry Potter, the first book is kind of... unoriginal (and I say this as a fan). There's a long history of magical boarding school and secret school stories and books. So you get yet another magical boarding school story and you go "eh, it's been done before". You read it, and (back then) you think kids don't have much buying power anyway... Kids are loving Men in Black and The Fifth Element, you think magical boarding school not so much, aliens, sure. You, of course, would have been dead wrong. You can't really predict how the market will change or what'll be the next big thing. I personally didn't think much of Hunger Games when it came out because it seemed unoriginal because I had heard of Battle Royale and Running Man (which, in turn, is based on a Stephen King story). People described it and I would tell them that it had been done before and they tried to talk me into reading it and I politely declined. Now it's huge. I read, jeez, probably 100+ books a year and I would've passed on Hunger Games with a note that it had already been done before. But the timing wasn't right for Battle Royale, while it was really right for Hunger Games. Sometimes, some books become popular purely because of the timing... And it's really hard to gauge what book will kick off a huge following. In the case of Twilight, it was a matter of underestimating (again) the selling power of certain kinds of YA books. They're can be clean enough that precocious kids 8-12 (middle grade) can read them. They're usually light enough to be a nice little read, and they often have simplified themes, since the audience is teenagers. That means adults who haven't read since they were forced to do so in high school/college can pick up this sort of YA and enjoy it, so you've got a huge audience. Years ago, kids mainly got book from libraries and got picked on for reading. I was picked on for reading so much and always being in the library and I was born in the 80s. I don't doubt that it's probably still a little bit nerdy/unpopular to be stuck in a book all day, but at least now, there's more kids buying books and more parents buying for them. Before, the thought was to appeal to parents, who would judge whether or not to buy a book for their child. Now, we focus more on kids, because they've got more power in the buying process. People are more willing to let children read what they want (within limits, obviously). (My parents let me read whatever I wanted, so I got Cujo and Beowulf for my 7th birthday... We were really poor and my parents thought my book love would lead me to college and high paying jobs, so they spent what little extra they had on books for me. Sorry to disappoint you, dad...) Nowadays, publishers do not underestimate children and teenagers are powerful buyers. One of our editors is in their 70s, and has trouble seeing the value in YA and middle grade books, so they don't get assigned those genres. Finally, sometimes editors can be very biased. Most of the other editors on my team hate horror and horror stories, including zombies. I love horror, even though it gives me nightmares. So I had to make a passionate argument for publishing a particular book, because I know the genre better than they do, and I know it has huge potential. When they read the book, they felt it was a decent enough story that, coupled with my assurances that this would fit in great with the genre while being unique, they chose to try to buy it. We're in negotiations for the book now. When I first brought the book up during our weekly editor's meeting, just a kind of "I'm currently reading this, which has (horror elements)", everyone was like "goodness, that sounds really dark and weird" and I just shrugged it off because it IS horror. If not for my argument, my editor would've probably dismissed this book because they're not into horror and don't know much about it. I had to explain what kinds of readers would be interested in the book, compare it to other books, etc. So editors are fallible. We aren't paid to read outside books, so any reading we do that isn't submissions or copy editing is on our own time. So it's natural that some editors will be burned out on reading. And it's natural some will just want to stick to their particular favorites. I choose to read tons of random things. I haven't read detective fiction since I was a teen, but I'm editing a detective novel, so I read Memory Man because it was a best selling detective novel. I skimmed some reviews of it to see what people thought of it. Now I have a better idea of what that market likes right now. Not all editors do that, because that isn't something you can bill for... I'm just weird and willing to read anything. Plus, I can deduct the cost of e-books on my taxes, since knowing the market is part of my job (even if they don't pay me for it). This is one reason they love me, the other editors use me for a second opinion on whether or not to reject something. So those are some of the reasons that publishing companies can completely miss a trend. I'm sure there's more reasons, but those are the ones I know of myself.
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Jun 16, 2015 00:28
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What makes it traditional publishing, that it's in print and you pay the authors (mostly)? Your setup sounds pretty nontraditional in other ways. How long (ballpark) has the company been around? Also quote:We don't actually take erotica, but every so often someone tries to sneak one in and the various euphemisms for sex, vagina, and penis are hilarious; another editor on our team is a bit of a prude and doesn't find it funny. It just embarrasses them. Kopijeger posted:I have been wondering about this phenomenon: what causes multiple publishers to misjudge the book market to such a serious degree? Is it simply a conservative, over-catious mindset that creates an aversion to publish anything that is unlike existing bestsellers? That's what happened with Harry Potter. When Bloomsbury bought the first book, they didn't imagine or even hope it would be a big hit. They had an initial print run of 500 copies, which is tinytiny. It was luck, not foresight, that they picked it up. Minor titles become bestsellers, and titles the publisher is pushing flop, all the time. If you think your bets would be better, you should look into being an agent or acquiring editor, not joking.
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Jun 16, 2015 03:27
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Anne Whateley posted:What makes it traditional publishing, that it's in print and you pay the authors (mostly)? Your setup sounds pretty nontraditional in other ways. How long (ballpark) has the company been around? We're traditional because we do print (and ebook), we pay an advance and royalties, and we offer the full service package for authors: editing, layout, cover design, printing and distribution, marketing (including hiring professional photographers for their author portrait), and we usually hire a publicist for them as well. There's some aspects that are nontraditional (beginning to offer manuscript services, working remotely, having everything online, etc.), but overall, we identify as traditional. I've been here for a year and a half, and I think it was around for about a year or so before that, so it's fairly new (2-3 years or so). Still, unfortunately, too early to know whether or not the company will be able to stay in business and compete, but hopefully they last awhile. Anne Whateley posted:this is an excellent example of a hostile environment for an open-and-shut sexual harassment case, so you might not want to do that. I also wouldn't want to explain to the IRS that all my books were research material. 'Course, I wouldn't want to be your employer explaining that you're all independent contractors, either. I didn't do anything, I don't think? They brought up a book taking a sudden turn for the raunchy and being a badly written sex scene and that they wished it were a real book so they could slam it shut. I said I usually find the euphemisms and awkward wording to be hilarious, they said it was just embarrassing to read bad sex scenes. That was it. We don't post or share bad sex lines/euphemisms with each other. The kind of quotes we tend to post in the notes are what I'd call editor funny... For example, one author was writing what amounted to Harry Potter fan-fic with the narrator being the author who had visited the magical world, and actually had a line along the lines of "I won't explain how magical school works, because other authors have obviously visited this magical world and they're much better writers than me and I don't want people to think I'm stealing their ideas". Or paragraphs that are a single sentence with about a dozen commas and 2 semi-colons (true story, if it had been grammatically correct it would have been a glorious sentence, but it wasn't). The sex euphemisms I just read to my husband and chortle about. Since we have a mixed sex work environment, it would be really awkward if we were posting the bad sex scenes. Especially with the 70 year old... I don't claim *all* my books as research material. Only the ones I actually buy as research material. That probably makes no sense, but basically, I don't buy a book unless I'm editing a book just like it and I haven't read the genre lately, I'm reading a bestseller that I'm not actually reading for pleasure (solely reading it for research), and if I don't intend to reread the book. It's pretty easy to keep track, because I don't pay for personal books (yay, book bub). If I pay for a book, it's more than likely a book I'm reading for work because I/we need to know more about that genre. So far, nobody has said anything, but that's probably because it's a low amount of money to claim as business expenses... I'll probably see an accountant this year, because I bought an expensive new laptop to use primarily for work and I'd like to deduct that as well. They may agree with you. Also, I never thought about whether ~80% of the staff being contractors was weird. I guess because it's so normal in publishing to have unpaid internships. The only other publishing editor I know is also an independent contractor, but she edits technical stuff instead of fiction, so that might be a different field entirely. Anne Whateley posted:No, publishers take risks all the time, or even put money into projects they know won't pay off. The problem is just that guessing which books will become bestsellers is really, really difficult. A huge percentage of titles don't break even -- they lose money for the publisher. Like, a huge percentage of titles. But sometimes one of them will become a mega hit out of nowhere. This is pretty true. What particular combination of genres and themes will become the next big thing is like picking lottery numbers. Acquisitions editors, managing editors, head editors and whatnot go to big conferences where people talk tons about trends in buying and publishing, trying to anticipate what could be the next big thing. So if you really think you have a good idea of what'll sell, and prove yourself to be a good predictor, you can become a speaker at such conferences for a fee as well.
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Jun 16, 2015 06:22
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Ah sorry, it sounded like the porn stuff was among the bits you (plural) were saving to the database and passing around to laugh at. There are a bunch of IRS independent contractor tests you can look into, but you won't get in trouble for it either way, so it doesn't really matter.
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Jun 16, 2015 07:33
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Anne Whateley posted:Ah sorry, it sounded like the porn stuff was among the bits you (plural) were saving to the database and passing around to laugh at. Nah, I apologize if it came across that way. That definitely would be a hostile work environment. One example is we have lots of people writing fantasies that will describe people as wearing clocks (cloaks), so there's the occasional "Flava Potter popped up again... That guy really gets around." We're a corny bunch, I suppose.
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Jun 17, 2015 01:59
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Contract work lends itself to publishing because work tends to be pretty cyclical. Right now we have essentially nothing at the editing/manuscript phase. It's just how the deals work out. We're not big enough to have projects going all the time. This is a little different than the OP which it sounds like she is more of an hourly employee than a contractor. I know nothing about current contractor law, so who knows if her employer is doing something legal.
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Jun 17, 2015 19:03
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Whovian Bookworm posted:Most of my work gets done at night, after I've put the kids to bed. This stood out to me. How many hours a week do you work? Are you the primary income in the household?
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Jun 17, 2015 20:00
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| # ? May 3, 2024 09:28 |
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I'm a contractor, not an employee. We have cycles of frenetic work and then times when there's nothing for you to edit. I imagine the bigger the company, the less cyclical your work tends to be. The huge publishers that put out several books a month probably don't have a lot of downtime for their editors. We have projects going 90% of the time, but we tend to have about several books in varying stages of the process from contract negotiations to waiting for their release date. The editors that only do copy editing probably get a lot of highs and lows. If I'm not editing anything, then I ask for more manuscript submissions to round out my hours. I've always asked for more work when I finished my tasks or had a lull, so I've always had my 40 hours a week. (I've heard that in editing work, especially freelance and contract work, it's more common to pay per page or per word, so some/all of the others may get paid that way. I get paid hourly, though.) As far as I understand it, the vast majority of us are contractors. We all kind of hope to get hired on by the company (we're like unpaid interns that way, I guess) for obvious reasons, but they're not really trying to skirt the small business requirements or anything, we have under 25 employees, contract and real employees.
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Jun 17, 2015 20:06
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