Tell me a bit about yourself and your experience in the publishing business. I’ve been in this field for close to 15 years now. I started in 1992, and came out of a graduate program in developmental biology. I was on a Ph.D. track. (laugh) We all come at this from interesting angles. But I’d been reading science fiction and fantasy since I was a kid.  In fact, my mother always used to say to me: “Why don’t you read a ‘real’ book?”  When I left university, I decided to try for a job in the field I loved, so I sent letters to all the publishing houses in New York. It turned out that Avon had an opening. It was my first job interview out of graduate school, and I got the job right away.

Photo by Linnea Sinclair

I worked there 2 1/2 years, and then my boss called me into his office and said, “There’s a job opening at Bantam, and I think you would be great for it. Here’s the woman’s name; give her a call.” Two days later I had the job. I feel like I’m where I meant to be.  It’s been a great time, and I work with fantastic authors.

You mentioned working for two large New York firms. Do they have their own personalities? Is there a difference in how they approach the publishing process?

It’s hard to say. I was at Avon so many years ago that know it’s changed a lot since then. But the miracle about working for Bantam is that they are incredibly supportive. We have a fantastic staff, and I feel like our list is incredibly well supported, thanks to the efforts of Publicity, Marketing and the publisher’s office. Everyone works very hard to help me push books that I believe in, and that kind of support is invaluable. My co-editor and I feel incredibly fortunate.

How supportive is Bantam and you personally to adding new authors to that list of yours?

Oh, very. I pick up one to two new authors a year. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the year, and how many vacant spots I have on my list. One of the unfortunate sides of the business is that occasionally you have to let an author go, if their sales just aren’t supporting their career. But I’m very keen on finding new talent to fill those positions. In fact, just yesterday, I bought a new novel from two 20-year-old college students. It’s called Havemercy, and I’m really excited about it. My other newest buy is fantasy author Scott Lynch, who I think is truly a fantastic talent.

There has been some discussion among authors I know about the amount of time editors are now taking to read even agented submissions. Some attribute the slowness to the budget cut-backs in which editorial assistants are being let go and not replaced. As one person put it, “There are now too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” Can you speak to this issue?

I don’t think it’s a question of too many chiefs and not enough Indians. The fact is that we just don’t have the time to get through all the work that needs to get done in a day. I just finished reading through a stack of submissions that was literally as tall as I am, and that was only two or three month’s worth of stuff. And my assistant has it even worse, because he assists two editors, plus carries a list of his own, in addition to reading submissions. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago we had to institute a policy of no unagented submissions, because we just can’t deal with the volume.

Your answer does speak to the question of cut-backs and how money is allocated. If you had more money available to hire more assistants, those stacks wouldn’t pile up so high.

Yeah, but the problem is that publishing is a business and, as such, requires profits. People aren’t buying books like they used to, and we have to reflect that in our staffing, and in the decisions we make. We’ve also cut back on our list since I’ve been at Bantam. We don’t publish quite as many books as we used to. Our decisions are based on the market, and—in many ways—the market is tough out there right now.

How many books does Bantam publish in a year?

We are actually the Bantam Dell division, so we run two lists: Bantam and Dell. I’d say we average about 30 books a month in fiction and nonfiction—including hardcover, trade and mass market. For Spectra, the SF/F portion of our list, we average about three books a month. Unlike some other publishers, though, we don’t separate our list out by imprint in the schedule. Mystery, SF, fantasy, romance, whatever; we treat our books the same and give them the same attention, regardless of genre.

So does your list of authors include other genres?

My specialty is science fiction and fantasy, but an interesting sideline for me lately is that I’ve been picking up a lot of fantasy/romance crossovers. I have three paranormal romance authors at this point, and I’m open to finding more. I do tend to branch out a little bit to other things that have magical elements, but science fiction and fantasy is my primary love.

And just to elaborate further on the cross-genre issue, there are interesting things happening in the field right now. We were talking about this same topic at the Romantic Times convention I recently attended. There seems to be a lot more freedom to experiment right now—much more than there was a few years ago. Publishers still have to publish into categories so the bookstores will know where to put the book, and that still influences the business somewhat. But the readers have shown that they are much more amenable to books that combine many genres. As my alter-ego, Kate Brallier, I write paranormal romance. The book that is coming out from Tor in 2008 deals with reincarnation and whaling, and is set between present day and nineteenth century Nantucket. I would never have been able to publish such a novel three or four years ago. No one would have taken it. So I hope this freedom and flexibility in the market lasts for a while, because it is a lot of fun.

Some independent bookstore owners I know say these cross-genre books are a problem, because they don’t know where to shelve them.

It is a challenge. For Linnea Sinclair, who is my science fiction romance author, we originally put her in SF because I’m a science fiction/fantasy editor. Her science fiction is very good. But, as it turned out, 90 percent of her reviews came from romance sites, so we switched her category to romance—and we’ll see how that works. It’s a great experiment, figuring out where the majority of an author’s audience is. But today with so many on-line communities over the Internet, people talk to each other and recommend books to each other, and it doesn’t matter quite as much where things are shelved in the store. They are willing to cross into new sections, and try new things.

There seems to be quite a turnover of junior staff just now among the New York firms. What is your take on this? How precarious are junior staff positions right now? Is this a normal part of the business?

Actually, this sort of thing happens in publishing all the time. Things turn over radically about every five years. Somebody leaves, everybody reshuffles, and then it settles down again for a few more years. During my time in publishing, I’ve seen four or five of these major reshuffles.

And we’re in the middle of another, are we?

Yeah, but it’s going to settle down. The fact of the matter is that publishing jobs are few and far between. Many people contact me, wanting to know how they can break into publishing, but the reality is that there are about seven or eight houses doing science fiction, and maybe about 15 to 20 editors in total, working in the field. And we hang on to these jobs like they are gold, because they are amazing and we don’t want to give them up.

Can you describe your day? How much actual editing do you get done?

The one thing I really love about my job is that there is no average day. It’s always different, always something new. I do anything from editing my books to reading submissions, to writing or rewriting cover copy, to talking to the art director about covers, to helping the marketing department or writing catalogue copy. It goes on, and on, and on. Every day brings new challenges. I feel very fortunate that, at Bantam, we don’t have a lot of meetings during the day. Some of my friends are locked into meetings all day and have to do their editing at home in the evening or on the weekends. But I do get a chance to edit a lot at work, which is a real boon.

As an editor you have handled some of the biggest names in the genre. Can you describe what the relationship between author and editor should be like? Has this changed over the years?

I don’t think the relationship has changed. I think it’s a supportive and an interesting one. I’ve read fairly extensively, and if something doesn’t work for me in a manuscript, the chances are it isn’t going to work for other readers, either. So I try to be the objective eye, and say to the author, “You might want to think about changing this.” It’s not really a question of who is right, but what is right for the book. Some of the most fun I have is brainstorming with authors on the phone, throwing out ideas and suggestions for ways to fix elements of the book that aren’t working as well as they should.

In addition, I think a lot of my authors appreciate that I’m an author too, and know how the creative process works. I know the traps you can get stuck in, how characters can take off on you, and the corners you can write yourself into, with all the best intentions in the world.

What is the creative process like for you as an author?

Well, it’s very punctuated, of necessity. My job in publishing isn’t the kind of job you can leave at the office at five o’clock. There are always manuscripts to read and edit. There is always stuff to be done. So I have to fit my writing into spare corners. Fortunately, I’m a fast writer, so I can probably do a book in about three months—if I sit down and put my will into it. It’s just a question of finding the time. My husband, David Keck, also writes, so we have instituted a policy of Writing Wednesdays. That means no TV. When we come home from work, we each get on our laptops.

Once a story takes off for me, it almost writes itself. I like the process of finding out where a story is going to go. I have a rough outline, and I always know my beginning point and my end point, but there is always a bit of discovery in the middle, so it’s a lot of fun.

Can you speak to the controversial issue of publishing all, or some, of a book on-line, for people to review before purchasing the paper copy?

This is a tough one, because some people believe it works and others don’t. I think there are advantages and disadvantages to it. It’s sort of a sticky issue. It’s one of those areas in the business that is going to be interesting to watch in the months and years to come.

Does Bantam have a specific policy about this?

We will not do it. We will run about the first 2,500 words, or the first chapter, on the Internet, to give people a taste. I think that’s vital, but we certainly don’t give away the whole thing.

What about authors posting their work on their own webpage?

If we are actively publishing their work and they are under contract with us, we discourage them. What they do afterwards is their own business.

In an interview of yours I recently read, you commented about how incestuous the industry is. How hard is it for Canadians, minorities and authors from other cultures to break into the publishing business?

(laugh) It isn’t really incestuous, it’s just that we all know each other—as sometimes very well...as my husband discovered to his horror when he had to submit his book to the bridesmaid and the usher at our wedding. But in terms of authors breaking in, what it really comes down to is the book. I don’t always know where an author is from. I don’t pay much attention to the cover letter; what’s most important is the writing. When I read submissions, I go right to page one of the book and see if it grabs me. If I’m still reading at 3 a.m., I’m going to try to buy it, regardless of the author’s background. Because that is the magic moment that all editors look for.

Is the industry floundering? Trade, mass-market, thick book or thin, is there a difference between what people on the street want and what publishers think they want?

We certainly do get a sense of what the public wants by what they are buying. Right now paranormal romance has really taken off, because the public is buying it. So, to a certain extent, we do listen to the reading audience and what it wants. On the other hand, at Bantam, our goal is to have the best, the strongest, the most unique list we can. Our feeling as editors is that if we really love and have a passion for a certain book, then there are probably other people out there who will also share that passion. So I don’t think we ever buy for trends or for a market. If you don’t love the book, it isn’t worth working with it. An editor has to read a book from front to back a minimum of three times. If you don’t love that book, reading it that many times is going to be a...challenge.

We are certainly trying to find innovative ways of reaching new markets and new readers—mainly through a lot of targeted internet outreach. For instance, we are doing banner ad campaigns and book videos through Guerilla Nation, which tends to post to places like SciFi.com and other sites. Many readers also seem to be active online, so we feel that it is an outreach ripe with potential

Thank you very much, Anne, for doing this today. It’s been a real pleasure meeting you.