When I was in my second year at the University of Virginia, my father hinted that I should winnow my list of bearable professions. Publishing consistently found its way to the top of the list. After that, I threw myself into publishing internships and the Radcliffe Publishing Course with zeal.
My first actual job in publishing was as a sales rep for Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a small literary publisher, in those days still independently owned. They had a wonderful list and I believe they still have more Nobel laureates than any other house, but it was frustrating for me, because I wanted to be in editorial, not sales. So after a few years, I made the jump over to editorial at Cloverdale Press, where I really learned to edit in a lot of different genres. in a sense, that was my start as an editor.
Q. How did you first become involved in publishing? A. I studied English and Journalism in college in effort to prepare myself for the field. I then attended the Radcliffe Publishing program after which I got my first job in publishing.
Unearthing the deep-rooted creativity and passion that inspires fictional characters requires an author to expect the unexpected. That's one pearl of wisdom author Emily Hanlon shared with writers recently at a workshop focusing on unleashing and developing characters from the imagination.