Under pressure
From the OTHER SIDE OF THE DESK
Modern publishing isn’t just hard for authors to crack. The demands facing editors are piling up in a way that’s detrimental for everyone, as Piers Blofeld explains
Piers Blofeld
One of the first pieces of advice I received as a young editor was that if I hadn’t made up my mind whether I liked a submission after a month, then my lack of enthusiasm was all the answer I needed. My indecision was a de-facto no, telling me that I should write a rejection letter and put the author and the agent out of their misery.
The basic truth of that remains, but the thing that has changed out of all recognition is the demands placed on editors. The idea that one would be able to stay on top of one’s submissions on a rolling monthly basis would seem like an unimagineable luxury to most editors now.