Eddie Vedder’s Rise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXVpjjpwNss

Bénédicte is my editor in France and happily we’ll be meeting for the first time next week at the London Book Fair. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to travel to France several times in my life so it was a huge thrill when Bénédicte emailed me with the news that she was publishing the Iron Elves in France. After publishing studies in Paris, Bénédicte found a position as an assistant in a small publishing house, Editions Joëlle Losfeld. General fiction mostly. She worked there for 8 years and in 2003 had the opportunity to replace one the most famous SF/fantasy editor in France who retired. Bénédicte grabbed it with a crazy excitement and is now in charge of the Pocket and Fleuve Noir lines. She’s always loved all the genre literatures and science fiction especially. As if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Bénédicte also works as an editorial adviser/consultant for two other imprints of the Editis group (Presses de la Cité and Pré-aux-Clercs).

1. Why did you choose publishing for a career?

I’d like to sound original but I’m afraid to say I chose publishing for my passion of literature. That’s not a bad reason after all. As a kid, I wanted to be an astrophysicist but I missed the path to a scientific career. But with SF books somehow I’m still looking at the stars. At first I was interested in selling rights abroad but during a job meeting, someone told me I had no real capacity for commercial fights. And eventually I knew I was into editorial matters, contacts with writers and reading all day long.

2. What’s the future look like for book publishing?

I’m optimistic about books. I’m not into e-books I’m afraid. I don’t really like to have to read on a screen. I understand, though, that this new way of reading appeals to many people, especially young readers very familiar with new technologies. Of course it’s very convenient when you’re a publisher to read books and manuscripts on e-readers. Nowadays, we receive books by email up to 80% of the time. Anyway, I guess books will always be part of our life and our culture. When you love books, you like the objects, too. A solid and sensual piece of paper, its smell, its cover… And whatever form books take, you’ll always need publishers to do the job. Maybe that’s one of the trades where no robots would be able to replace us. I hope so…

3. What advice would you give someone looking to follow in your footsteps?

First, passion.
Second, be a polymath and learn how a publishing house operates. It’s very useful to know how the people around you work: publicity, sales, marketing, press, bookselling, manufacturing…
Third, forget about your weekend!

4. What author or publishing insider living or dead would you like to meet and why?

I met Michael Moorcock and Stephen Baxter, so I’m happy now! But here are a few others whose work gave me shocks: Sylvia Plath, Angela Carter, Howard Fast, James Purdy, Horacio Quiroga.
There’s one French publisher, very famous in France, Eric Losfeld. I worked 8 years with his daughter, Joelle, a publisher too, who became my dearest friend. And it would have been an honor to meet her dad. He was free, open-minded, brilliant, funny, and transmitted the whole thing to his daughter.

5. If stranded on a desert island without the cast of Lost (or the S.S. Minnow,) what five books would you want to have with you?

Awful choice. A perfect anthology of 8000 pages with all my favorites! And can I also have the last episode of Lost?

6. Why do books matter?

I guess they can change you, they can change your way of looking at the world around you. And of course they entertain and sometimes give you the feeling that you’re getting smarter!

Merci, Bénédicte!

You get one wicked chest and head cold which I currently have. Oh, and to top it off, my allergies are in full bloom along with the pollen. Still, I remain cheery because I’ve decided to afflict one of my characters with the symptoms. Poor, miserable bugger won’t see what hit him. Mwuh hah hah hah – cough, splutter…screw it, I’m taking a shot of Nyquil and watching some tv, I’ll lower the boom on him tomorrow when my head stops trying to squeeze my brain out my ears and down the back of my throat.

Are you good at that? I’m hit and miss with it though I am working to get better. Everything from finishing off the salad in the fridge before it goes bad (I read a report that on average people end up throwing out 12% of the food they bring home) to killing off small tasks and errands instead of letting them pile up to the point of feeling overwhelmed by them. The really amazing thing that’s dawning on me is the sense of satisfaction I get by accomplishing these little tasks. I think it’s as much that I got it done to the fact that now that it’s done I can cross it off and it’s one less thing to worry about. I’m applying that to my writing more, too. When a scene I just know has to be in the book pops into my head I write it down, even if it is going to occur several chapters ahead of where I currently am. It makes for a bit of a chaotic writing process, but it works for me, or, I make it work for me if that makes sense.

In my ongoing series of talking with publishing insiders I’m happy to welcome Sally Glover. Sally is marketing director at Lynne Rienner Publishers – http://www.rienner.com/ I met Sally through a subrights deal years ago when I licensed many of their military history titles for the Stackpole Military History Series. I love her insight and upbeat attitude. Oh, and for those unfamiliar with Lynne Rienner, the publisher has been going strong for 26 years as an independent publisher and is known for its cutting-edge, high quality scholarly and academic books and journals in the social sciences.

1. Sally, why did you choose publishing for a career?

I was eavesdropping on a conversation between a fellow college student and a publishing veteran, and thought, “hey, that sounds interesting.” I went on to attend the Denver Publishing Institute and have enjoyed fourteen years in an industry that is never dull. Every day there is a new author, a new subject, a new market.

2. What’s the future look like for book publishing?

This is an exciting time to be in book publishing. None of us really know how popular ebooks will become or if and when they’ll supersede print, but one thing is for sure: we need to be keyed into what customers want, when they want it, and how they want it delivered. The market hasn’t shifted yet, but I’m confident that if and when it does, it could be a tremendous opportunity for growth—as long as we are the ones making the business decisions. We can’t continue to relinquish control to the Amazons and Googles of the world. Their motivations and skills are very different from those of writers and publishers. Books, in whatever form, have tremendous value. Content must be paid for and it is our responsibility to ensure that it is. If the creative process isn’t funded, it won’t thrive.

3. What advice would you give someone looking to follow in your footsteps?

Publishing is in flux, or at least it thinks it is, so you will meet some uneasy people, but don’t let that discourage you. Your generation is the one best equipped to see the forest through the trees, and point us in the right direction. Editing, marketing, and selling what writers and artists create is valuable, not to mention very satisfying.

4. What author or publishing insider living or dead would you like to meet and why?

Neil Gaiman because he can tell an amazing story. And Jaron Lanier, because his cautionary tale in You Are Not a Gadget is important reading not only for writers and publishers, but for society.

5. If stranded on a desert island without the cast of Lost (or the S.S. Minnow,) what five books would you want to have with you?

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The River Midnight by Lilian Nattel
The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

6. Why do books matter?

Because they educate, enlighten, and entertain.

Thanks, Sally!