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The joy of... your colleagues' books
A series celebrating the small pleasures of working in publishing.
It can sometimes feel as if finding any happiness in life, when there are so many problems for so many, is inappropriate at best, if not outright callous. How dare you enjoy the sunshine, DON’T YOU KNOW IT’S BECAUSE THE WORLD IS BURNING? But just as you can condemn the patriarchy while still liking the lovely men you know, being able to appreciate the whimsical, weird, serendipitous and simply nice things in day to day life doesn’t mean you don’t care about the world’s big and serious issues – in fact, being able to find a little bit of daily joy might just give you the energy, positivity and strength to face them.
So, here’s a column of everyday joys unique to publishing. And I’d love to hear everyone else’s too.
Recently, an editor told me that the publisher of her imprint had started sending the whole team a selection of that month’s new books, to their home addresses. Although she always felt proud when her books made the cut, it was even nicer to be reminded of what her colleagues had been up to. There was no pressure – read, don’t read, give them away – but it was such a simple thing which was bringing the team together.
It made me think about the unadulterated joy of… your colleagues’ books. Getting the first box of advances of a book you’ve been intimately involved in creating is moving, emotional — and sometimes bittersweet. You know how much blood, sweat and tears went into the writing, and it’s hard to look at the gold foil on the jacket without recalling the 10 rounds it took to get there. But you also know a whole world of work, for a vast team of people, is just beginning in order to get this beautiful object into readers’ hands, which can be the biggest challenge of all.
When your colleague opens a box of advances, it’s just like a Christmas surprise. "Ooooh they look lovely!" you can squeal, while they furrow their brow and check that last-minute edit to chapter five was actually incorporated. Then, you can surreptitiously swipe one while their back is turned, and read it for the first time later in the bath, in glorious physical, fully-proofed form.
[It’s] a beautiful invitation to look up from the specific niche of your own work and celebrate the multiplicity of readers out there, and why we need such a varied force of publishing people to serve them
It’s different to a book completely unconnected to you – you’re adjacent, its success has relevance to your company. When it hits the bestseller lists, people will still mention it to you, and you get to feel a sibling pride. You’ll probably never have to deliver any bad news to the author, or feel your heart burst as they describe the pain of wrenching the words from their soul; if you see them in the office or at a party you can just be like a fun aunt, full of bouncy praise. Acquaintances are not the same as friends, but they are joyous too.
The books your colleagues are working on might be in different genres to yours, or for different ages, and you might be completely baffled that people would ever read them; but that makes it even more powerful to marvel at how your colleague goes about working on them — a beautiful invitation to look up from the specific niche of your own work and celebrate the multiplicity of readers out there, and why we need such a varied force of publishing people to serve them.
Most of all, it’s a reminder that you’re not alone. Whatever you and the authors you work with are going through, the highs and lows, your colleagues are probably dealing with something similar. Their box of gleaming finished copies didn’t get there by magic either — and talking to the people who brought them to the world about how they did it might be the best daily joy of all.
