Everything you ever wanted to know about Editors and Publishing Agents

www.askaboutwriting.com

Middle aged women are scattered around, everyone else is surplus. Is this going to be a bore-a-thon? Or will it be captivating? It’s just before the start and I’m yawning already. Not a good sign… There seems to be some young children attending. No doubt they, and their parents, hope to end up writing for a living.

This event is being brought to us courtesy of the DLR County Council and is part of a series being curated by Dermot Bolger (DB). In the past I’ve found some of these talks quite introspective. But my passion for writing is the motivation for my attendance.

A couple in front of me have arms clamped around each other’s shoulders, romantically, as the hum and buzz of low-volume chatter gets more feverish. After a short toilet break I return to my seat, with DB chairing proceedings. He introduces his audience to the three panellists: Faith (Publishing Agent), Deirdre (Editing) and an Irish-American veteran of the bookselling business, Tony.

We are attentive as DB speaks, firstly, to Faith. She begins by saying that there is “not many agents in Ireland” and stresses the importance of submitting manuscripts in the correct time and “getting the pitch right.” She speaks clearly, through experience, and seems quite professional. Faith continues by saying that there are “a lot of different stages in the publishing process.” The Publishing Agent informs us that her job is as a ‘go-between’ with the author and the publisher and also says that she reads everything sent her way, “except sci-fi books.” She advises writers not to “over-sell your work”

Deirdre is up next. She says that authors must be 100 per cent happy before submitting work. She communicates with great sincerity and gives us an invaluable insight into the world of publishing and outlines the whole process involved. By listening to Deirdre one gets an understanding of the hoops and roundabouts associated with publishing a book and her knowledge of editing is generously shared with us. When asked, she replies that Short stories are not as popular as in the past and that it is “hard to get shops to enthuse” about them.

As he questions his guests, DB gives his amusing experiences of book titles as the audience warms to the occasion. The third guest is Tony, an American with a distinctive Irish brogue, and he tells of his background editing in the world of books. As he reminisces over his experiences a child screams in the distance – reminds me of mass on a Sunday. Ciarán Carty, the Hennessy book award, the Sunday Tribune, the Francis MacManus award are some of the subjects Tony touches upon this evening. DB says that literary awards are ten-a-penny and over-rated.

When she receives manuscripts for publishing, Deirdre says that a lack of punctuation and spelling mistakes are annoying and she gets put off with this careless attitude. She’s similarly unimpressed with work being sent to her by email. Faith agrees with this view. Throwing in his penny’s worth, Tony says that there is a much shorter shelf life for books in shops these days.

This is a fascinating night of discussion and, though I’m not planning on writing a tome any time soon, there are valuable insights to be learned. Comedy writing is a subject that interests me so it was with great interest that I listened as the panel turned to this style of writing. Deirdre is “nervous about” this topic and Faith says it’s very hard to get right. Everyone is agreed that there’s not many who are working in this genre with Paul Howard’s ‘Ross O’Carroll-Kelly being a popular exception.

Book writing is incredibly hard work and can take up over two years of your life. This leads me to believe that writing, initially at any rate, is a recreation, not a job. It should be viewed as a career. As this public meeting draws to a close, members of the audience question the panellists. Novel writing, childrens books and poetry are all given an airing and I get the feeling that pride is a big part of writing. Faith says that genre is less important than the quality of what is submitted.

DB brings things to a conclusion by reminding people that new writers are always needed to perpetuate the bookselling business. Over the course of about two hours a fair amount is learned about the minutiae of the publishing and editing of books and I found it to be of benefit. There was a good turnout this evening and my attention was kept for the duration, it has made me aware of the various angles of book publishing.

DB will continue with another night of discussion with the writer, Carlo Gebler, on 17th November next at 8pm in Deansgrange Library.