more on the Galassi | the yin & yang of publishing in the literary house

• Galassi reading, The Double Agent: The Role of the Literary Editor in the Commercial Publishing House. P. 79 The Art of Literary Publishing.
  
  1. An effective editor, according to Galassi, is someone who has all the good virtues of;
  Humor, tact, courage etc , what he says, “the primary requirement seems to me to be an eductated and well-defined taste.”
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  2. An editor should always have ideas of his own –
  shining light where none has shone before like Verba Mundi,
  and should know about his own culture, but about other cultures as well.
  
  3. What Galassi tells us, and I agree, is that often working for a big conglomerate and publishing trade literature (that is books that are often perceived as Editor’s Books, no necessarily immediate ‘sure things’) is like infiltrating for a purpose – almost a David and Goliath struggle between the Publishing House and the Editor who wants to publish his or her own books.
  
  4. The truth is, you will have to publish other books to support your literary trade books.
  
  a. You’ll have to publish books that, as he says, “pass” for literature –
  b. but when you find a book you TRULY believe in, be prepared to act – we spoke about this before –
  c. Having to fight for your book – at Ed. Board meetings, with the Publisher and so on. You’ll have to prove that the book is worth at least a chance and in doing this, you’ll have to ask yourself seriously how much of your own reputation are you willing to stake on this.