In May 1995, we discussed the role of an acquisitions editor with Eugene (Gene) Brissie, who has performed this significant function for more than twenty years.
Gene Brissie is a native New Yorker. He attended the Lawrenceville School and was graduated from Princeton University. Brissie started his career in the Subsidiary Rights Department at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, eventually becoming director of foreign rights.
After four years, he left Farrar, Straus for the Pocket Books division of Simon & Schuster, where he started the Subsidiary Rights Department A fewyears later, Brissie became editor-in-chief of Pocket Books's trade paperback imprint, as well as vice president and, ultimately, associate publisher of Fireside Books, Simon & Schuster's largest trade paperback imprint.
In 1984, Brissie joined the Putnam Publishing Group, where he was named vice president and publisher of Perigee Books, remaining in that position for more than eight years. From 1992 until 1995, he was vice president and executive editor of Chicago-based Contemporary Books. In 1995, he returned to Simon & Schuster as vice president and editorial director of business and self-improvement books in the Prentice Hall division.
You have been an editor for at least the fifteen years that I have known you. Can you trace your career path, including your major at college and first job, which trained you for the position you now hold?
I majored in English and American Literature at Princeton and worked for a couple of summers at Harcourt, Brace. My first job out of college was a brief stint as a copy editor for a very small publisher. My first real job was at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In my subsequent years at Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster, I was either editor-in-chief or associate publisher of three different imprints.
My training was definitely "on the job." It strikes me that anything you do in this business is good training to be an editor or, ultimately, a publisher. Selling foreign and domestic rights made me a much better editor than I would otherwise have been. One of the things you do all day long is sell, sell, sell-to an editorial board, to an author, to publicists, to sales reps, and so on.
I think it helps to be willing to take the next, logical step in any job. I suppose I tried to do things that were in addition to those comprising my job. As a subsidiary rights assistant, I was willing to help someone in the department send out books or manuscripts or make follow-up calls, which eventually led to making the deals themselves. Once you take all those other steps, it is a very short time before you close a deal. Once you close a couple of deals, you quickly do more.
It also helped to have bosses who expected and encouraged me to keep doing more. The same was true in making the transition to editor. When I was selling rights, I also tried to bring in a couple of books. Once I brought in a couple, it was easy to bring in more. At some point, I had a boss who said, "Why don't you become an editor?" It goes back to my point that any job you do in the industry helps you to become a better editor, if that is what you want to be. The jump to editor-in-chief or publisher takes place with time and experience. At some point you realize that you know how to handle lots of different books and lots of different authors and perhaps other elements of the business, such as marketing.
As the editorial director of a division within a large publishing company, do you operate autonomously from your parent publisher, or if you do interact with them, what form does this take?
I do not operate completely autonomously, although there is a certain amount of freedom. I answer to the president, I buy books via an editorial board, and I am constantly getting advice from our marketers and the sales manager; if they cannot sell what I buy, there is no point to the exercise.
How much of your time is spent on acquisitions and how much on editing?
I do spend a lot of time acquiring books-and overseeing editors who also do so-and a good deal less time editing. Much of that gets done by the editors who work for me.
Do the literary agents present their best book ideas to a number of editors simultaneously, or do they single out editors with whom they have close personal and business relationships?
There are agents who submit only to multiple editors, and there are agents who submit selectively, and there are some who do a little of both.
How does an editor cultivate the top agents?
See them; take them to lunch; respond in a timely fashion to their submissions and, for heaven's sake, return their phone calls.
When working with celebrity authors, is it almost always necessary to hire a ghostwriter to work with these authors?
Not always, although it is most of the time.
How are these ghosts compensated, and do they receive a share of the author's royalty?
A ghost, in my experience, gets a piece of the advance, although not necessarily any of the royalties. Some ghosts, however, are worth half the advance and royalties, the maximum that can be expected.
How many books do you have in process at any one time?
We publish about seventy-five business and self-improvement titles per year. I personally work on perhaps five to ten.
Are there any areas of book publishing that do not seem to be getting their share of bright young talent?
I do not think so. There are so many bright people coming into the business and looking for any opportunity to get into it that I don't think any areas are being ignored. Sometimes, aspiring editors make the mistake of thinking that the only way to become an editor is to become an editorial assistant first As I mentioned previously, in my experience, everything you do in the business-promotion, subsidiary rights, publicity, sales-helps make you a better editor.
Is book publishing, once past the entry level, as poorly paid as has been suggested, and does the compensation structure equal the other areas of mass communication once one reaches the middle-executive level and beyond?
There is no question that the pay at entity level is low. Compensation gets much better at the middle levels and above. It is certainly competitive with advertising and newspaper and magazine publishing; I'm not familiar with compensation in TV and radio.
What college training would you recommend for those seeking to make book publishing their life's work?
Mostly, read everything you can get your hands on, whatever the subject. Make books a part of your life and reading second nature. That is more important than majoring in English or liberal arts or business. The people who do best in this business are the people who read and love books, whether the format be print or electronic.
Is there really any opportunity to be published for the writer without an agent? What would you suggest?
Yes, we publish a number of writers without agents. That said, an agent is definitely the path of choice for a previously unpublished writer. A lot of agents will evaluate over-the-transom [unsolicited] manuscripts or proposals. They also scour magazines for interesting new writers, so doing pieces for periodicals is sometimes a good way to get an agent or book contract. Writers should write and publish wherever they can.
