ethics | your responsiblity to your author

You should never lie to your author – your author depends on you for the Truth with a capital T. in the Platonic or philosophic sense as I’ve said before – Virtue, Love, Truth, the big emotions and loyalties that come with a capital letter before them not a small letter. Ethics means being ethical. No more, no less. This means that the Author is deserving of the ultimate truth of any issue AS IT RELATES TO his or her book.

You are the author’s chief and really, only advocate at the publishing house in admist a swirl of other editors and books and employees which can be intimidating for anyone.

Never “sugarcoat” the truth.

• If a book is not selling well, say so and give reasons as to why you think that may be; is there a remedy to this? A different way of pitching the book? It may just be that this is not a 'big book' and you, as the Editor, will have to break the news to the Author that you have done all that you can do.
• If reviews are not as many as you or the author expected, be honest about why you think that may be – again why that may be and what efforts you can take to pump the reviews up. Perhaps you can make another effort.
• If reviews are not as good, be honest and try to suss out why that may be the case. It may just be that the book is a not a good book “a dog with fleas’, or it may well be that your publicist did not send it to the right people. It is up to you to make sure that the book gets into the right hands for the particular type of book that it is and its genre.
• Did your author give you a good, substantive list of who might review the book? (not just friends for free copies…) on their Author Questionnaire
• Did the Author help provide good connections and did you follow through
• Did the author also write a letter informing the of their upcoming book which can help?
• Have you pulled out all he stops and whistles on manuscript and finished book? Is it what you expected it to be, both on your end and what the Author promised to deliver?
• Did you provide your sales team with all of the information they need or needed to hand-sell the book, keeping in mind that they represent hundreds of other titles and have about two or three minutes on average to represent each book for a medium-sized house with a medium-sized distributor?
• Have you pitched the book to the best of your ability to your Distributor and sales group and made every effort to get the book into all bookstores and representatives?
• You must be able to answer Yes to all of these questions. Although not each of these items is directly your responsibility, it is your book and your Author and in this sense, you oversee every aspect of the book as it makes its way through production.
• Have you, finally, followed up or seen that a letter is sent to each reviewer and each editor of the main media, concerning the book and its virtues? A letter from the Editor to the right journal or newspaper can make all of the difference.

There may be many more things; can you think of them? At least, however, the above list is a starting point and gives you some idea of what you, as the Editor, really owe your Author.