A Day in the Life: Editorial Assistant
Name: Elise Nicole Smith
Title: Senior Editorial Assistant (just promoted to Assistant Editor)
Company: Wadsworth Publishing (a division of Thomson Higher Education)
Age: 24

Education
B.A. in English from Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in professional writing and editing, and a minor in Spanish. MA in Rhetoric and Composition from Brigham Young University. I also worked as an editorial assistant for Inscape Magazine (BYU student literary magazine), BYU Studies (a scholarly religious journal), and the Rhetoric Society Quarterly (a national journal for the Rhetoric Society of America).

Professional History
By the time I finished my BA and MA, I knew I wanted to go into publishing; either magazine or book publishing, since I had experience with both. Upon leaving college, the design and layout side of magazines drew me to magazine publishing, while the idea of being involved in substantive developmental editing drew me to book publishing. I attended NYU Summer Publishing Institute to figure out which one piqued my interest the most, and surprisingly it was book publishing (even though I previously thought my dream job was to work for InStyle Magazine). I liked the monthly and yearly deadlines that book publishing had to offer, rather than the fast paced weekly deadlines of magazine publishing. In addition, I felt like I just "fit" with the personalities and culture that I observed in the book publishing industry. As I interviewed at Random House and other trade publishers in NYC I slowly began to realize that I fit better in academic publishing and that I would enjoy that the most. I mostly felt that my educational background in teaching and in academic settings made me feel at home with professors and textbook authors, rather than high profile novelists or nonfiction writers. I also have a better understanding of the needs in the textbook market compared to the needs of a mass trade audience. While New York City has a strong academic publishing community, the San Francisco Bay area is home to some of the biggest names in textbook publishing (including Wadsworth). I moved across the country to San Francisco, away from my family in NYC, and decided that college textbook publishing at Wadsworth was what I wanted to do. I got hired as an editorial assistant for Criminal Justice, and I loved it. Then I got promoted to senior editorial assistant for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Finally, within a year I got promoted to Assistant Editor for Sociology. In my free time I've taken developmental editing workshops at the UC Berkeley extension and a graphic design class. I am currently working on my own efforts to write a nonfiction book and develop a niche womans magazine.

Job Description
Well, the official description is: Assist the publishing team in the overall development of product by coordinating manuscript reviews and maintaining all necessary records. Assist editor with correspondence to authors, internal and external customers, reviewers and sales reps. Coordinate review of manuscripts by maintaining reviewer database, selecting reviewers, preparing and mailing material and monitoring deadlines. Assist editors and team members in communicating with authors, internal and external customers and other team members. Assist with preparing art and text manuscripts for production, and generally oversee schedules. Take initiative on the completion of routine tasks as assigned.

But, the job entails a lot more as you will see.

My Day
7:00 a.m. - Get into the office. Eat breakfast while reading new emails and checking voicemail. Start forming mental checklist for the day.

7:30 a.m. - Answer emails: usually from sales reps overnight and any big issues with books. Respond to anything urgent or prioritize for later in the day. Go over my "To Do List" and status reports and decide what to do for the day (this changes throughout the morning).

8:30 a.m. - Read through mail and sort (i.e. letter from a prison inmate requesting books or information, manuscript proposals and sample chapters for submission to editor, incoming books to be shelved or sent to appropriate people, invoices to pay, book reviews to look over and analyze).

I'm training new editorial assistants  so I get interrupted a few times to answer questions.

9:00 a.m.  My editor (boss) comes in. She forwards me any urgent emails/calls and I act on them. Begin working on one of many review projects that are on going. All my books are in various stages of development. (At each stage in a book's development we have academics review a book manuscript or proposal for a small honorarium fee. They provide us feedback on whether the book will be feasible in the current market, whether it has been developed well, and whether it is ready to go into production, among other things. They are current teachers in the discipline and often use our books or our competitors' books. We often try to target reviewers who would be mostly like to use our text or who would be able to give us a constructive feedback.) Meet with editor about our target reviewer and get details of the project. Do research on review project and possible reviewers. Contact reviewers about the project. Decide who to hire. Send them manuscript and materials for the review. Answer any of their questions.

10:00 a.m. - Create contracts/addenda for authors, get approved by management, and send to authors for signatures.

11:30 a.m. - Review marketing plans for all the 2006 copyright books, make corrections, add any additional information needed.

11:30 a.m. - Put together production documents to get a new book into production. Prepare art manuscript and text manuscript. Compile all the necessary materials. Route for signatures of management and send to production. Set up book launch meeting with production, marketing, manufacturing, print, editorial, and technology.

12:30 p.m. - Think about taking lunch, but get distracted with more urgent matters. Copy manuscript for production (best to do while everyone else is at lunch so the good copier is free).

1:00 p.m. - Get something to eat, or snack at my desk (usually I don't get out). Work on development of books. Read through reviews and analyze them so we can come up with a revision/development plan for authors. Prepare summary and analysis of the reviews and send to authors. Talk to authors about their book schedules and make sure everything is on track. Send reminders to reviewers who are currently working. Follow-up with authors whose deadlines are approaching, see if they need anything.

2:00 p.m. - Work on book proposals for the new copyright year (2007), updating financials, course information and book development plans.

3:00 p.m. - Finish preparing review materials, contracts, author development aids to get out before UPS final pick-up at 4:30 p.m. so everything goes out overnight.

3:30 p.m. - Book Launch Meeting - set up conference call, bring copies of documents, and take notes. Interject as necessary about schedules, authors, designs, etc.

4:30 p.m. - Prepare materials for a 1st edition book meeting the next morning. Arrange meeting set-up and conference call. Make copies. Distribute to team members.

5:00 p.m. - Format a manuscript by an author who isn't computer savvy (listen to music while doing this as it's time consuming and tedious).

5:30 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. - Head home. (Sometimes I check email or voicemail later in the evening to make sure nothing has come up and respond as necessary to urgent emails).

Favorite Part of the Job
Author conference calls (other than when we are discussing royalties), design and book launch meetings (you get to see the full vision of the book), author visits (we go out for nice lunches), working on review analyses and development plans (it is higher-level thinking work).

Least Favorite Part of the Job
Formatting manuscript in Word, making little changes to the production schedule, authors and reviewers who turn in late projects, paying people and dealing with people who are impatient about getting their checks, ordering and shelving books and mailing copies, and anything having to do with the copy machine.

Advice
To get anywhere in publishing, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. It's an apprenticeship and it's good experience. Don't take any learning opportunities for granted, and try to soak in as much as you can about every part of the business. Also, figure out where you want to go in the business and make it happen  no one is going to do that for you. It's definitely good to learn to love the books you work with, even if you don't at first (I love learning about serial murderers, juvenile delinquency, and terrorism now, although I never would have guessed it at the beginning). Ask questions. Be interested. Figure out a way to make your own mark, even if it is in a small way. Most of all, you really have to be able to see the big picture of what you are doing, and enjoy it.