An acquisitions editor is responsible for finding and acquiring new manuscripts for publishers, either by sorting through unsolicited manuscripts or by building relationships with agents and existing authors. They must convince others at the publishing house to produce the book, and their success or failure depends on consistently picking winners. A successful acquisitions editor needs a keen eye for good writing and the ability to make connections and maintain the trust of the best authors.
An acquisitions editor is a specialist editor at most publishers who focuses on finding and acquiring new manuscripts. Depending on the publisher, this type of editor may include sorting unsolicited manuscripts, but they may also be responsible for contacting existing writers about new projects or interacting exclusively with agents. An acquisitions editor largely guides a publisher’s direction through the books they acquire, but ultimately they also have to defer their decisions to higher-ups, so they rarely have a free hand to acquire books.
At publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts, an acquisitions editor may spend a good deal of time reading prospective manuscripts from new or emerging authors. Most acquisitions editors have a support team, made up of junior or intern editors, who help read through the slush pile of unsolicited manuscripts. These subordinates then set aside any manuscripts they find interesting for the acquisitions editor, so the editor has far fewer manuscripts to work with in his search for material with potential.
In houses that do not accept unsolicited manuscripts, an acquisitions editor will largely only deal with agents or existing authors. In that case, the editor will build relationships with agents to bring you suitable work. Agents act as a kind of preliminary screen to ensure that writing of a certain quality is approved, making the acquisitions editor’s job much more focused on the good stuff.
It is very important that an acquisitions editor really likes the manuscript or has some other reason for wanting to promote it. This is important because, once the manuscript is chosen, the acquisitions editor’s job is far from over. He or she will have to convince others at the publishing house that the book should be produced. Even mid-level publishers require consensus among many different people, including other editors, executives, legal advisers, and sales managers. With huge publishing houses, that list of people grows even bigger.
Generally, a publisher spends between $50,000 and $100,000 (USD) to produce a basic book. This is a big cost for an established author; it’s even more of an investment if the author is lesser known. The success or failure of this investment rests largely with the acquisitions editor who has decided to promote this particular manuscript. Its reputation, in turn, depends on constantly picking winners, or at least books that match, and an editor who finds himself consistently picking books that fail will soon find himself out of work.
The best acquisitions editors forge close relationships with key people in the company, including a network of agents, authors, and sometimes even smaller printers. They use this network to scout talent and find golden manuscripts before other publishers discover them. As a result, a truly successful acquisitions editor not only needs to have a keen eye for good marketable writing, but also needs to have the ability to make connections and maintain the trust and respect of the best authors.
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