Today's photo was taken at EPICon 2003, where I participated on a publishing industry panel with author Piers Anthony. The three-member panel was titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Pros and Cons of E-Publishing." We noticed that Piers seemed to be the "good," I seemed to be the "bad," and the poor third panelist seemed to be the … ugly.

What I've learned #3:

I used to think (and the general public thinks) that editors read (or edit). People who meet me for the first time, upon learning I work as an editor say, "Wow, it must be great to read all day."

Instead of thinking of editors as people who read your work (and insert commas), think of them as the people who champion an author's work throughout the weeks and months leading to publication, throughout countless meetings and interactions with internal staff, and continue to champion that author when sales have flagged or the book has become a backlist title.

It falls on your editor to create and maintain in-house interest in a project. She’s the one responsible for ensuring a book doesn’t get overlooked by sales and marketing. This includes things like catalog copy and placement, publicity, and book packaging/treatment.

Bottom line, your editor is the one who will push to make sure your book is just right, before-during-after publication.

So, for fun, here's a snapshot of my week thus far. This is a typical week. A lot of these tasks are interspersed with one another (especially when it comes to e-mail), but for clarity, I'm not showing the multi-tasking. Also keep in mind that answering e-mail also involves manipulating various files in some way to deliver information between departments.

Monday
9-10. Answer e-mails/questions from internal staff, authors, agents.
10-12. Send out contract addendums to cover e-book rights.
Lunch. Discuss digital product plans with a colleague.
1-2. Meeting to discuss process for getting books on the Kindle.
2-3. Catch up on e-mail.
3-4. Maintain WritersDigest.com site (books homepage), as well as blog.
4-5. Start analyzing Fall 2008 Forecast for finance.
5-6. Finish responding to outstanding e-mails, read industry news.

Tuesday
9-10. Answer e-mails/questions from internal staff, authors, agents.
10-11. Editorial and design weekly team meeting.
11-12. Collect and funnel files for WRITING LIFE POETIC to Melissa (our dear assistant editor) for page make-up. Take care of queries, details associated with it.
Lunch. Catch up on industry reading.
1-3. Send out contract addendums to cover e-book rights. Blog.
3-4. Cover meeting (to discuss design of book covers).
4-6. Catch up on e-mail.

Wednesday
9-10. Prepare for and have an impromptu meeting with my boss.
10-12. F+W Town Hall Meeting with the CEO.
Lunch. Meet with a colleague over lunch.
1-2. Answer e-mails/questions from internal staff, authors, agents.
2-3. Discuss digital product plans and marketing with a colleague.
3-4. Title/design meeting (where we finalize the titles of upcoming books).
4-5. Catch up on industry reading, blog.
5-6. Continue Fall 2008 Forecast analysis.

While I'm in a position (editorial director) that doesn't involve much personal editing responsibility, the editors on my team have similar schedules that allow limited time for manuscript review. Their time is occupied by digital product efforts, online community efforts, responding and communicating with our business partners (and keeping internal staff informed about authors/books), putting the books together in InDesign, and keeping the wheels in motion.