Watch Parts 1 and 2 of our EA Roundtable.
As an author, you might have a sense of what an Acquisitions Editor does, since you’ve been talking with them about your new book proposal. But what do Editorial Assistants (EA) do and how will you be working with them?
In this EA Roundtable video series, our Asian and Latin American Studies Editor Enrique Ochoa-Kaup talks with Editorial Assistants Aline Dolinh and Chad Attenborough, and Naja Pulliam Collins, a former editorial assistant who is now our Environmental Studies and Geography Editor, about what an EA does and their crucial touchpoints with authors.
As the series shows, an Editorial Assistant works with an Acquisitions Editor at the press on a range of tasks that include assisting with manuscript and art preparation, permissions wrangling, managing deadlines, and coordinating conversations around cover art and blurbs. As authors work towards submitting their final manuscript files for production, EAs become their guide through this process and a main contact for communicating what comes next.
These videos will be helpful for first time authors wondering how best to prepare their final files for production and what they should know about the cover design process, blurbs, and descriptive copy. We aim to inform authors about our process, which can often be seen as oblique and daunting, touching on some of the most commonly asked questions EAs field from authors.
Part 3: Permissions
EAs work closely with authors in the permissions process which can be cumbersome and complex at times. Any text, art, model releases, and interviews that are attributed to another person or source have to be granted permission for use. This is vitally important in the publishing process, but also post-publication for marketing and promotional purposes.
The EA Roundtable Part 3 covers the permissions process and how EAs will help guide authors through it.