The The NSW Writers' Centre

Jude McGee – On Publishing

May, 2010

Jude McGee has been an editor and publisher for almost twenty years. During that time Jude has edited and published an array of fiction and non-fiction books, working with many of Australia’s best-known authors. Her roles have included publishing manager and commissioning editor at HarperCollins; managing editor and publisher at Random House; and publisher at Allen & Unwin. Now a freelance editor and copywriter, Jude teaches professional editing at James Cook University and the University of Technology, Sydney, and has been a guest lecturer at Macleay College.

What are some books that you have worked with as an editor/publisher?

I’ve worked on everything from the sublime to the ridiculous during my 20+ years in publishing. Highlights include Tom Keneally’s The Tyrant’s Novel, Peter Carey’s My Life as a Fake, and last year’s 10 Short Stories You Must Read This Year, which was a collection of stories by ten well-known Australian authors given free as part of the then-named Books Alive campaign. Another highlight was The Big Picture, a gorgeous coffee table book celebrating 175 years of The Sydney Morning Herald and containing over 700 photos from their archives.

What are three reasons why manuscripts are rejected by publishers?

1. The writing is not of a high enough standard.
2. The book falls between two stools. So, in the case of fiction, for example, the book is neither literary nor genre fiction – that is, the quality of the writing is not literary, but there isn’t a strong enough plot for it to succeed as popular or genre fiction.
3. The idea has already been done better before – it feels a bit old-hat.

What can authors do to avoid rejection?

• Read widely — in the area you are writing but other areas as well.
• Research the area you’re writing in, looking at what has been recently and not so recently published, by whom and how.
• Polish, polish and polish again. Make every word count, kill your darlings, especially when they’re adjectives, and write because you love it.

Many large commercial publishers do not accept what they call ‘unsolicited manuscripts’. How can a new author get a publisher to read their work?

Again, do your research. Find out which publishing companies are publishing books like yours. Then find out WHO in the company is responsible for acquiring such books. A polite email to that person won’t be considered out or order, unless you pester them. Accept that when they say it’s not for them, they know what they’re talking about.

You could also try to get an agent, who can help you then find a publisher. Again, to find an agent that’s right for you, you’ll need to do some research.

Attend literary festivals and any other events that publishers and agents might frequent. You may just run into your perfect publisher in the loo!

What happens to a book after it is accepted by a publisher? What’s the process from manuscript to shelf?

Once you’ve submitted a draft of the manuscript that the publisher accepts, you may then receive a structural report or structural edit to help you write a further draft. When the publisher is happy with the content and shape of your manuscript, it will be copyedited. You’ll be asked to review the copyedit and answer any queries. Then the edited manuscript will be sent to the typesetter. About three weeks later you will receive first pass page proofs of your book to proofread (they will also be proofed by a professional proofreader). The book will be corrected before final ‘art’ is sent to the printer for printing and binding.

During this time you’ll also be sent cover roughs to consider. The cover art will be sent to the printer around the same time as the text. The book will take about a month to print (in the case of paperbacks without pictures). You’ll receive advance copies of the book about three weeks before publication. By then a publicist may have been in touch to discuss publicity opportunities.

Advice to new authors about getting published is usually full of doom and gloom. Is there any reason to feel positive?

The book lives! Publishers are always looking for new talent and new books. New formats like ebooks may change the way we read and what we read but statistics suggest that people are still buying books in the same kinds of numbers they always have (or more). Good writing will out, so work hard on your writing and ideas. But the days of sending out complete hard-copy manuscripts by snail mail addressed to simply, for example, ‘HarperCollins Publishers’ are over — do your research and be smart about finding the right publisher for your work.