We continue to feel the love with the second half of “The Unsung Heroes of Publishing,” featuring everybody’s favorites: editors, agents, and yes, authors!

Editors
Once, I was convinced I wanted to be an astronomer. When I met with a professor of astronomy at a local university, his advice to me was that I really needed to love astronomy to try to get into this field, or it wasn’t worth the time, effort, and money. I think the same can be said about being an editor. If you’re not in love with words, grammar, and the particular genre or medium you’re working in, it can be easy to burn out quickly, because editing can become your world.

Most editors I know–in fiction, nonfiction, and educational publishing–work insane hours. (See John Klima’s post Is It Just Me, or Do Editors Never Sleep?) Part of this is deadline-driven, attempting to meet the date for sending the book to the printer or getting the material ready to post online, but part of it has to do with their love of the material. Many editors are perfectionists. They are interested in both finding gems and polishing those gems to their highest shine. They are on a mission to find the best of the best and make it even better. (In other words, they’re there to make the authors look good.) In addition, the publishing industry–like most other industries–is strapped for cash. Rather than hiring more editors, many publishing companies simply require their editors to edit more and more books each year. This can lead to both burn-out and a sky-rocketing number of typos.

On the small-press end of things, the editors who start their own publishing houses and magazines do good by creating new homes for work that may have been overlooked or not quite fit in elsewhere. However, these publishers also often struggle to make sales and gain fame (or notoriety). (See the current plight of Electric Velocipede and small horror presses such as Apex, for example.) They often work with very small staffs who wear many hats in addition to “editor,” including “sales,” “marketing,” and “coffee guy-or-gal/IT wizard.” This labor of love can be very emotionally, physically, and financially draining.

But wait, there’s more! There’s also a lot going on behind the scenes at both small presses and major publishing houses. These are the types of things that people may not know about unless they’ve done it personally or heard editors talk about it. For example, I was reading an author’s list of complaints about the way agents run things, and they were questioning the necessity of having a marketing plan for their book. After all, wasn’t it the job of the agent to market it to publishing houses? Or, once the book was bought, didn’t the publisher have a marketing department to handle these things? The thing is, editors are often tasked with justifying the purchase of a book. The fact that they fell in love with it isn’t enough. They need to provide information on projected sales figures, target markets, and the type of platforms that the author might be able to use to market their own book in order to sell the publisher on the book.

No one seems to want to say anything bad about the editors, beyond suggesting different methods of finding their ways to books, probably because the editors are seen as the Final Authority. However, keep in mind that–despite their god-like powers–editors are people, too. They have their preferences and they have their bad days. It’s possible that they rejected a story or novel because they had a migraine, that day, and their eyes didn’t want to focus, or because they just read six other stories about vampires. These are things authors have no control over. All the more reason not to take rejections personally.

And, yes, as in any other profession, there are some unscrupulous editors. Preditors and Editors is a site which exposes the shady side of publishing, including warnings against particular publishers, editors, and agents who have had complaints lodged against them. (Note: These are complaints other than “they wouldn’t buy/represent my work!”) This includes information on how to spot scam publishers and agents.

Agents
Ever read the acknowledgments at the beginning or end of a novel? If not, pull a few books down off your shelf and read them. Once you have, notice how many authors include their wonderful, lovely, couldn’t-do-it-without-you agents among the list of those they thank. (In fact, this is one place where writers are told to look for the names of prospective agents to send their work.) This is because reputable agents are able to find or create publishing opportunities for authors that they probably would not have been able to find or create on their own.

What exactly does an agent do on a daily basis that earns this adulation? There are other people (such as agents themselves) more qualified to answer this question, but I’ll give you a very general overview. Agents wear many hats. For example, they might act as editors, suggesting changes to make a manuscript more marketable. They act as cheerleaders, championing new novels to different publishers. They act as negotiators, attempting to get the best book deals for their clients. And that’s not all!

One complaint levied against agents is that they act as gatekeepers, preventing manuscripts [read: my manuscript] from reaching editors. Some people believe that this is a flaw in the publishing system that prevents new voices from being heard. However, many editors like the fact that agents act as first readers (or slush readers), providing editors with a large percentage of high-quality (and marketable) manuscripts. (Remember: Publishing is a business.)

Because of the nature of the work agents do, they do not get paid until they sell an author’s book. This is can be a powerful incentive. It can also mean a lot of work with little reward, because agents do not have control over the whims of the markets or the departure of friendly editors from particular publishing houses. But agents choose to represent books because they believe in their potential, which is a vote of confidence in the book that can convince editors to request a manuscript they might otherwise not have looked at.

Of course, there is a dark side to literary agents, and it is this: there is no license or certification required to be an agent, so anyone who is able to print up business stationary can call themselves an agent. (Don’t jump on agents about this, however. There is also no license or certification to be an editor or an author.) Editors (and interns) learn to identify these agencies and generally relegate submissions from these agents/agencies to the slush pile. (Whoa. Submissions from agents might still go into the slush pile?!?!) To learn how to spot potential scam agents/agencies, check out the Preditors and Editors site.

Authors
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Authors provide the lifeblood of the publishing industry. Without authors, everyone else would be sitting around with nothing to do. The amount of time and effort people put into writing (most often in addition to the time they spend in working at day jobs, raising families, and dealing with life’s hurdles) is truly amazing. Admittedly, it’s become easier to write (and submit) for publication due to the advent of the personal computer, but that’s also opened up writing to a host of people who might otherwise never have had the means to write.

While many people cite writing as a hobby, it’s also an incredible amount of on-spec work (work done with no certainty of payment). Authors may spend years researching, writing, and polishing a novel or building up a body of work (short stories, poems, articles, etc.) Much of this work is done just for the love of words, the joy of playing with ideas, and the sense of satisfaction from finishing a piece. It is also done in the hope that someone else will love their stories/characters/ideas just as much as they do…and possibly pay them for it. Many writers start out by imitating their own favorite authors (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all) and eventually move on to find their own voices. Other writers are motivated by what they see as an author or a genre’s failure, or are inspired by the thought that, if this can get published, why not me?

To survive in publishing, writers must be very resilient people. They must have the self-esteem necessary to take criticism of their work, either from members of a writers group or from editors. They must have the bravery to send a story or novel out into the world and the thick skin to deal with rejection. (Repeat after me: The editors/agents are rejecting the novel or story, not you. And, as I mentioned earlier, their reason for rejecting a novel or story might have nothing to do with the novel or story itself and everything to do with their own preferences or the fact that they left their iPod on the bus that day.) And authors must have the initiative to keep sending things out, no matter how many rejections they’ve received in the past.

That sounds like a lot of hard work, and it is, especially when it comes to the initial stages of drafting and revising the novel, as well as drafting and revising cover letters and query letters, then tailoring them to a particular editor/agent. And, to be honest, the pay-off may not be what the author was expecting. Most first novels sell for a lot less than one might expect. At the major genre publishing house I interned at, many first novels were bought for under $10,000, an amount that hasn’t changed much in the past few years. On top of that, new authors are often expected to promote their own books, as marketing budgets generally go to the books that are expected to bring in more money.

So why do people want to be authors, again? Oh, right, because they’re crazy. Or because they love writing. Or because they fall in love with their stories, or their characters. Whatever the reason, it can be payoff enough in itself.