ACQUISITIONS EDITOR
All About Being An Acquisitions Editor
An acquisitions editor is the first person who will see an unpublished author's book. They are the ones the writer addresses their query letter to. With a lot of big publishing houses, they don't accept manuscripts from authors. They only accept them from agents of authors. For a full time acquisitions editor, you usually publish 15 to 20 books a year.
Once an acquisitions editor finds a book they feel is publish worthy, they then have to present it to other editors, marketing personnel and the higher ups in the publishing house and convince them that the book is worth the investment. This takes a series of meetings and steps.
You have to work your way up to acquisitions editor in most companies. You start out as an editorial assistant, helping the editor with miscellaneous office work as you learn the process of turning a manuscript into a published book. After you're an editorial assistant, you'll be promoted to assistant editor where you are now editing other people's work. After that you're promoted to associate editor where you learn the basics of acquiring a manuscript and then you'll be an acquisitions editor. You can be promoted to senior editor by having a lot of successful books under your belt.
Once an acquisitions editor finds a book they feel is publish worthy, they then have to present it to other editors, marketing personnel and the higher ups in the publishing house and convince them that the book is worth the investment. This takes a series of meetings and steps.
You have to work your way up to acquisitions editor in most companies. You start out as an editorial assistant, helping the editor with miscellaneous office work as you learn the process of turning a manuscript into a published book. After you're an editorial assistant, you'll be promoted to assistant editor where you are now editing other people's work. After that you're promoted to associate editor where you learn the basics of acquiring a manuscript and then you'll be an acquisitions editor. You can be promoted to senior editor by having a lot of successful books under your belt.
Amy Einhorn
She did so well as an acquisitions editor at Penguin books, they gave her her own publication under penguin, called
"Amy Einhorn Books for Penguin."
"Amy Einhorn Books for Penguin."
Additional Readings:
Q&A With Chip MacGregor (Who owns his own literary agency)
What Do Acquisitions Editors Do?
The World's 56 Largest Book Publishers
Article On Amy Einhorn
What is an Acquisitions Editor?
What Do Acquisitions Editors Do?
The World's 56 Largest Book Publishers
Article On Amy Einhorn
What is an Acquisitions Editor?
The Nuts and Bolts
Salary
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Skills
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Education
Majors Can Include: English, Journalism, Communications
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A Day In The Life
At any given time, an acquisitions editor will have a pile of query letters and book ideas on their desk or on the editorial assistant's desk. Most of them will be sent electronically. Most of the editor's day will be spent reading through these and deciding if they should reject or accept each one. A lot of cases will be automatic rejects. They will have simple things like spelling errors that make them a no right off the bat. It's likely that an editor won't even get one that they like in a whole day.
There are also days where editors will go to a meeting with other editors or superiors to present a book they feel is good enough to publish. They will have to convince their coworkers in several meetings that the book is worthy to publish. |