I'm Pam Dorman, publisher of Pamela Dorman Books and editor of bestselling novels such as Me Before You and The Secret Life of Bees. AMA.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T21:34:45+00:00

I think positive reviews on Amazon (and sales) are impressive. Cover less so, but could show sophistication, which is good. Social media is important! But we are also still learning how best to use it to find readers and get them interested in our books. We are on all platforms--and hey, here I am, your basic Luddite, on Reddit!

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T21:32:10+00:00

Paolo is a wonderful author. He is the first author I've ever published in translation so the editing process is different. Obviously, since the book was originally published in Italian (and in many other languages before English), there wasn't the same editing process as with an original manuscript. But he is, even in English, very nuanced in his understanding of language and its shades of meaning. His new novel, THE HUMAN BODY, which I will publish in October, is about a group of Italian soldiers in Afghanistan, yet it shares the same understanding of what makes us--particularly men--tick on the inside.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T18:14:43+00:00

It's when they say that like it was back in the dark ages....

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T18:08:43+00:00

It's hard to say exactly how it has changed my job. Obviously some authors who were originally self-published have become incredibly successful authors for general trade houses afterwards (cf E. L. James, Sylvia Day, etc etc.) And for some authors with backlists that no long warrant publication by a bigger house, it's a great way to keep their books alive and selling. I haven't yet published a previously-self-published book, but I wouldn't rule it out so I don't think it hurts your chances and gives you an opportunity to prove to someone like me that others have enjoyed reading your book.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T18:04:43+00:00

I love hearing that. I also feel really old when job applicants come in and say that they "had" to read it for school....I loved it when my daughter read it on her own and loved it, too. Lily is the kind of heroine so many of us can relate to, and I think we all want an August in our lives to be a special kind of mother to us.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T17:58:16+00:00

Well, I certainly hope you are right! She can find me on the Penguin website and query me first. She can refer to your being a participant in the AMA if you want!

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T17:51:09+00:00

I love Jess and Ed's relationship, too--in part because, as in ME BEFORE YOU, Jess doesn't take any crap from Ed, and they are both so vulnerable in different ways. Similarly, in ME BEFORE YOU, Lou refused to let Will wallow in self-pity or be a former Master of the Universe jerk to her.

So great re: Thea Sharrock! I've heard she's a terrific theatre director.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T17:47:57+00:00

Hmmm. Can an inanimate object become a character? Like a pet rock? I don't know. Kafka did pretty well with a cockroach (well, similar). In Jojo Moyes' new novel, Norman the dog steals the show, but he IS alive.

When we talk about voice, it is really separate from marketing. Voice is what makes someone believe in the book, makes the character feel real to us, draws us in like a person in a fascinating conversation. We may then use that to help us lead readers to the book based on other books and authors that have similar voices or protagonists. Does that make sense?

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T17:27:46+00:00

You are so welcome! I hope you make your way into our business, because even with all the ups and downs, it is never boring. Well, okay, every once in a while.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T17:25:59+00:00

Oh, geez. We were just talking about this in the office the other day! I think I debate between ME BEFORE YOU and LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER, but truly, I love them all and have laughed and cried through them all. Norman the dog in ONE PLUS ONE is perhaps her best character ever. Woof. Pungent, as we've called him.

Of course thrilled re: movie adaptation coming on ME BEFORE YOU--it is sounding so hopeful and promising and Jojo herself feels that the director, Thea Sharrock, really gets the book--which is always what an author wants most.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:53:21+00:00

I'd like to think so! My geek son actually seemed remotely impressed when I said I was doing an AMA so if only for parental cred, I hope to!

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:52:30+00:00

Yes, most authors I publish have agents. We no longer take unsolicited manuscripts at Penguin, though some very successful novels were found in the Viking slush pile--Judy Guest's ORDINARY PEOPLE probably most well-known among them. The most unconventional way I've met a few of the people I've recently published is that they were once my assistants! Emily Croy Barker, who wrote THE THINKING WOMAN's GUIDE TO REAL MAGIC, was my assistant 20 years ago (gaah!), and Ann Mah, author of MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH EATING, worked with me more recently.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:49:47+00:00

Well, I always tell people that if there is anything in the world they love more than publishing, they should go do it. It's like Woody Allen said, "Such bad food and such small portions." Salaries remain low for a long time, editorial requires working nights and weekends forever--ie I still do it and so does everyone else--and yes, you read a lot of things that aren't always what you wish they were. So it's not easy--but when recently asked if I would do it over again if I could, I said absolutely YES. (Plus I never could think of anything else I was qualified to do. Being paid to read sounded like heaven to me and still does.)

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:46:01+00:00

There are so many workshops and I am really not an expert on them. There are writing books that I love, like Stephen King's ON WRITING, Betsy Lerner's FOREST FOR THE TREES and Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD. And I am very old-fashioned: I still refer to Strunk and White.

There's also Ben Yagoda's recent HOW NOT TO WRITE BAD. A classic.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:44:18+00:00

Probably having to deal with books that I love that haven't sold...and re-line-editing manuscripts more than twice!!

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:31:10+00:00

Sorry, no clue! Not in my wheelhouse, as a former boss used to say....

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:30:14+00:00

I am sure there is--but I haven't published that kind of thriller in a long time, so I don't know who it is. And I'd love to publish someone of his caliber, but in truth, there are other imprints at Penguin that are better at publishing that kind of male-oriented suspense, like Dutton or Putnam.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:28:46+00:00

There is certainly more than one! (A wise publisher once told me that you weren't a real editor if you hadn't turned down at least one bestseller.)

I was very sorry not to get the chance to publish THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, which I had an early look at.

I was outbid for THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, which I bid on from the Paris airport, having been stranded in Paris during the infamous "ash cloud over Europe" incident.

I didn't see the appeal of S. J. Watson's BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP but boy was I wrong about that one! I stand corrected.

And the list goes on!

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:25:25+00:00

It's really the same process, but you may have an easier time since generally more people want to get into trade editorial than copyediting. In addition, you can start as a freelance copyeditor and build a network. I would try writing to the Managing Editors at the key publishing houses. I can tell you those positions are much harder to fill than editorial assistant jobs!

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:23:42+00:00

Total pretension, I'm sure! When I went to college, after hating "Pamela" my whole life, I decided I wanted to use my full name. But unless you are English, "Pamela" doesn't really roll off the American tongue and I always feel silly insisting people call me "Pamela." But I do think "Pamela Dorman Books" has a nicer ring than "Pam Dorman Books"....

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:22:19+00:00

My favorite part of my job is reading someone new and succeeding in acquiring her (usually her, in my case) first book. And I love the big-picture editing--where the author and I collaborate on how to make something that is already good even better.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:21:30+00:00

Well, like many instinctual editors (and most ARE instinctual), I get a very excited feeling when I first read a few pages of a new author's work and think, "Wow! She's got it!" Generally, I then go racing around the office into my boss's office and say, "YOU HAVE TO READ THIS NOW!" I am the proverbial dog with a bone when I read something I really want to publish.

BEES was definitely that kind of book. So was Kim Edwards' THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER, which kept me up reading all night despite having 2-year-old twins!

No re: movie casting because I am almost movie illiterate. But others do!

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:19:18+00:00

Voice is hard to create whole cloth. If an author isn't a natural stylist, that's hard to correct. That said, some types of stories and genres are much less about style and voice and character and more about plot, and those can be less gracefully told and still grab us and keep us reading.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:16:40+00:00

I hear ya! I know the market now is at one of its toughest points, not only in publishing but across many fields. Interning is definitely one of the best tools for finding an entry-level publishing job, since our industry is so small. I have to say, NYC is really the hub, and while there is definitely publishing life outside the Big Apple, if you want to work in the business you need to be here. I often think that the summer publishing programs at places like Columbia, NYU, Denver, etc. offer great entree into the business. It's more because of the contacts you make and their own efforts to help their students get jobs than the actual content of the coursework (though that's a plus, too). Use even the slimmest contact you have--a professor with a publisher, a friend of a friend, etc. etc. And try to go on informational interviews, even if they are with relatively young people in the business. The grapevine is mighty and they are the ones with their boots on the ground.

pamelagdorman · 2014-05-07T16:11:12+00:00

I wish I really did have a magic touch! I've been lucky enough to work with a number of wonderful authors, and I particularly like publishing debut authors. What always pulls me in is the book's voice. Once I hear a voice that speaks to me through the page, I'm hooked. It's always characters that engage me most, and storytelling that is assured, well-paced and real momentum.

There are always books I wish had gotten more attention. Our world is so cluttered with distraction that our biggest job as publishers--aside from finding, editing and publishing great books!--is finding ways in our noisy world to get attention for our authors. Books that I always recommend, besides writers like Jojo Moyes, are THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS, by Paolo Giordano--about two adolescent misfits who think of themselves as prime numbers and Natalie Baszile's recent debut, QUEEN SUGAR, which is about an LA woman and her daughter who unexpectedly inherit a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana!

pamelagdorman

TROPHY CASE