Not all publishers use the same titles. For example, the job of senior acquisitions editor in one company is titled project editor in another. In others, the title of executive editor does not exist. Also, the chain of command can vary from house to house.
Few creative endeavors match the fascination of book publishing. Some time ago I met a man at a cocktail party who had been the president of a major book publishing house, had left that company for undisclosed reasons, and was "at liberty." I asked about his plans for the future. He replied, "I don't know where I'll go, but it will have to involve the written word." At the time, his response seemed pretentious, but on reflection I understand it.
There are about 220,000 jobs in book publishing, bookselling, and related fields. Is there one for you? Perhaps, but there are considerations. First, there's money. If you want to make $300,000 a year by the time you're thirty, get an M.B.A., a job in mergers and acquisitions, and read balance sheets instead of manuscripts. Book publishing is not a high-paying field, and entry-level salaries are low. On the other hand, upper-middle and top-level people in book publishing are paid as well as their counterparts in the media business. Salary increases tend to be in the range of 5 or 6 percent a year, comparable to other communications jobs.
In defense of low salaries, we must realize that book publishing is a low-profit business. The reasons are not simple. Although the price of books escalates each year, manufacturing costs have risen in the same proportion. Another factor is duplication of titles within a category. For verification, just look at the popular fiction, cookbooks, and self-help racks in your local bookstore.
Significant, too, are the high acquisition costs paid by publishers for works by proven authors. Not all those blockbuster, multimil- lion-dollar authors' advances result in multi-million dollar profits for the publisher. The risks in this industry are profuse.
In book publishing, promotions to the top do not come as rapidly as they might in magazine publishing or advertising. A brilliant agency copywriter can become creative director and make more than $125,000 a year by the time he or she is thirty. Such a rapid rise is seldom achieved in book publishing. The pace in book publishing is more like a long-distance run than a sprint.
I read an article recently in a trade publication about the career track of a forty-one-year-old woman who was made publisher of a prestigious publishing house. She had, by the time of this appointment, spent fifteen years in publishing, starting with four years as an editorial assistant at two companies, and another eleven years as an acquisitions editor.
Another factor for consideration is job location. Publishers Weekly (PW), the leading industry trade publication, reports that someone in book publishing will make six times as much money in New York, Chicago, or Boston than in Idaho.1 Publishers in these cities offer much better pay than their colleagues in other parts of the country.
"It's largely a matter of scale," says PW. "The bigger the publisher, the higher the salaries; and big publishers tend to be located in major communications centers."
At publishing companies with annual revenues from $10 million to $50 million, the president or CEO earns the most money, followed by the heads of sales and marketing, production, editorial, subsidiary rights, art, and advertising and publicity.
In the giant publishing houses, those with annual revenues of over $50 million and up to $500 million or more, the salaries are indeed formidable. A president or CEO can make $750,000 a year, a sales vice president, $300,000, and an editor-in-chief, $175,000.
The book publishing industry is based heavily in New York. Al-most 45 percent of publishing's book output comes from New York City and about one-half of its employees work there. Working in New York may be exciting and fulfilling, but is also expensive, especially on entry-level salaries.
