Publishing's hiring problem: the agent's view

Recently I tweeted my frustrations (I know, never a good idea!) about publishers not hiring enough people – or quickly enough. It was a week in which I had been told that a marketing team could no longer spend even one hour (all we would have expected) meeting my author in our initial campaign-building conversation that traditionally brings editor, publicist, marketing, author and agent together to collaborate on launching a book; it was a week after a debut author’s publisher had failed to send the author any personal congratulatory note on the day of their paperback publication; it was a week in which I’d written a long email to an editor who is vastly overworked, most often sending emails at 10pm at night, to ask them to please get on a call with our author as quickly as possible so we can finally nail a book idea that the author could have embarked on writing weeks before, and for which the delay has meant the author having to compromise some much-needed time away.

In every case I have sincere sympathy for the editors involved, who I know to be good people, trying their best to keep everyone happy, and genuinely passionate about the book and the author. But all these editors and their colleagues work for one of the Big Five: the corporate publishers who are also the richest publishers, and yet they don’t seem prepared to spend their money on recruiting enough editors, publicists or marketing people (and probably in other departments too) to allow each book time, attention and effort, and care for each author. At least two of those three editors have lost editorial colleagues in the past year and still have no one new in place, months later; it’s been noticeable that the editors left behind have disappeared into their undoubtedly crazy schedules and are a lot less available to their authors.

My authors are confused and disheartened: are we having that call or meeting? Will I get my edits back soon? Is my contract ever going to be ready to sign? Do they care?

I feel desperately sorry for my industry colleagues working for publishers who have repeatedly had their workloads increased: expected to quickly step in when a colleague leaves, to cover for more books and more authors while HR hold off from hiring a replacement; expected to be point person for every single part of the publishing process, in contact with multiple departments, agent and author while pushing to get their books some focus from similarly overstretched colleagues.

But I’m even more concerned for my authors and how it feels for them: long wait times on emails and deliveries (often months to wait for editorial feedback); only hearing from their editors when there is an issue that the author needs to be made aware of, but no time for checking in or following up; no communication after publication: it’s on to the next!

My authors are confused and disheartened: are we having that call or meeting? Will I get my edits back soon? Is my contract ever going to be ready to sign? Do they care?

As agents we are having to overstretch in turn, to fill in the gaps. We send the first Happy Publication Day emails, looping in the full publisher team in the hope that the author will get a round of congratulations in turn and feel valued; we chase the covers that take too long to produce and reveal, because art and digital departments are overwhelmed too; we chase social media posts and announcements; we ask about sales; we ask what more can we all do; we ask, we ask, we ask…

We’re trying to welcome people into this industry, but then we’re working them into the ground

It’s exhausting for everyone. And, as agents, we are also often supporting our authors emotionally, sometimes protecting them from knowing the fuller extent of the lack on the publishing side and trying to make up for it by sounding positive, encouraging and hopeful. “Don’t we all want the best for your book?”

It’s important to make clear, too, that in our current conversations around inclusivity in the industry, failure to hire and failure to publish our authors well – with enough people giving enough time to each book -– is doing an active disservice to being inclusive. We’re trying to welcome people into this industry, but then we’re working them into the ground; we’re trying to publish authors who make themselves vulnerable by telling stories that are less heard, and yet we don’t offer them the time to get to know them, listen to their ideas (let’s talk about taking the book into the author’s community, for example – how will marketing and publicity do that without sitting down with the author and discussing how they can work together?), and we are not helping anyone if we don’t put money into human resources.

It’s a tricky thought, but how about publishing a few less books and hiring a few more people?