Must Know Monday

During last Thursday's Q and A we had a great question about communication in the publishing world. We wanted to post it along with Deidre Knight's response for everyone to benefit from.

Question:

Can you talk about day-to-day communications with editors? Is it usually very businesslike, short and to the point? Or is there some social chit-chat in there, too? For existing relationships, do you and/or the editor ever save up all the things you want to discuss, make an appointment, and address several clients' issues at once? Or is there constant back-and-forth via e-mail and phone all day?

Answer from Deidre Knight:

Elaine asked me to answer this one, simply because I’ve been agenting the longest of anyone at TKA. I *love* working with editors. There can often be plenty of personal chit chat, and a number of editors are people I would definitely describe as friends. Of course the relationship always remains professional, but it’s natural that when you work with someone on a book, or many of them, that you develop a rapport. To me, publishing people of all kinds—editors, agents, writers—are my kind of people. Having been a book nerd for so much of my life, it was instantly freeing to meet so many like-minded people once I became an agent.

All of the above said, when we’re talking business, generally communications stay pretty succinct. Emails are short and quick, but traded in volleys most times. There’s a lot of back and forth. But in that mix, it’s not uncommon to ask about children or vacations, that kind of thing.