Sam: Recap of The Art of Editing & Open-Heart Surgery or Just a Nip and Tuck?

I thought this excerpt from What Editors Do was a lot more informative of the detailed work acquisitions editors have to do than Karp’s “follow your gut” advice. Norton enumerates three things an editor needs in order to excel at their job: subject expertise, market knowledge, and the needs of a books target reader. Time and resources seems to be a contention for all editors. They have to decide which projects to dedicate more time to, to model or coach their draft, to skim or read chapters line by line. It almost all depends on their belief in the project’s ability to succeed. 

My question is how Gottlieb was able to manage working for free for Knopf? How was his settlement so big from the New Yorker, and is a settlement like that common when leaving a big magazine or publishing company? 

I think Gottlieb’s take on how the editor should remain invisible is an interesting take. I have always felt they should get lauded by their authors, especially if they made detailed, helpful edits. But, I also see his point. The general interest reader maybe does not need to know that the editor suggested the character they liked get killed off or they encouraged cutting a chapter of the story. 

Authors also react well to him, eventually realizing that even if they initially disagreed, his edits make the novels better. Gottlieb seemed to have a deep comprehension of what authors wanted. He was rare in the publishing world, oftentimes doing read-throughs overnight and giving authors comments the next day. I doubt this is still the case anymore but in rare circumstances. Somehow, he also seemed to know what every individual author needed. The author of The Power Broker for example, was contracted to write a book he didn’t want to and wanted to pursue writing volumes about LBJ. Gottlieb suggested the idea before Robert Caro even approached him. 

My favorite quotes: 

“Your job as an editor is to figure out what the book needs, but the writer has to provide it”

“But I dislike writing: it’s very very hard, and I just don’t like the activity. Whereas reading is like breathing”

“I happen to be a kind of word whore”