In this, the first article in our "Day in the Life Of” series, we chat to Leanne Storer, whose job it is to read through all the unsolicited manuscripts that get sent to Penguin Books.
1. Can you explain what is meant by ‘unsolicited manuscripts’ and how these are dealt with by Penguin? Unsolicited manuscripts are ones that potential authors send through to publishers that the publisher hasn’t asked for. As you can imagine, we receive a lot of these! If you are not an established writer and you do not have an agent, your manuscript will be added to this list of submissions, and you will have to wait your turn in the queue for it to be evaluated. The turn-around time for an unsolicited manuscript is usually around 4 months.
2. Describe your job at Penguin Books. What do you do on a typical day? I usually start my day by recording all the new manuscripts that have been submitted. It’s important for us to keep detailed records of all the manuscripts and their status in the evaluation process. I then will respond to any queries that have come through to us from aspiring authors. After that, it’s time to get reading! If a manuscript is not suitable for publication, I will send the author a letter or email to let them know – we respond to every single submission that we receive. My job also involves doing the admin work for our department, so I am kept very busy helping our department to run smoothly!
3. Is there a recommended course of study that you need, in order to get a job in publishing? We recommend that you do a publishing course if you want to work in the editorial department. Wits University offers an Honours degree in publishing, and we suggest you study English or Journalism as your undergraduate degree. Alternatively the University of Pretoria offers both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in publishing. But remember, publishing isn’t only about editing – we have sales, finance, marketing, publicity and logistics departments too!
4. How would someone go about getting a book published with Penguin? You need to submit a cover letter, synopsis and the first three chapters of your book to us for evaluation. Go to www.penguinbooks.co.za and click on the ‘Publish with Penguin’ tab for our full submission guidelines.
5. Lastly, what do you love about your job? (and there must be loads…after all, you get to read all day long!) The best part about my job is finding (and being the first to read) a really good manuscript. So submit something amazing and make my day!
Over the next few months, we’ll be bringing you profiles on some other interesting Penguin people — so watch this space!