Editor strives for magical bond between texts and readers
From copy editing to ghostwriting, Victoria Petelin gets to do a little bit of everything.
By: Annika Carr
Wise Ink Project Manager Victoria Petelin has always had a special connection to stories. What started as a college internship at a local publishing house grew into a full-time job working with what she loves — books.
Petelin speaks highly of the magical bond between the words on a page and the reader, a bond that cannot be achieved through movies or TV shows.
This Minnesota native gets to wear many hats at Wise Ink, that give her the freedom and autonomy to explore roles that would not be available at a major publishing house.
Q: What are some of your responsibilities as an editor?
A: My main title is project manager, and I work with about 30 projects at a time, making sure they are on the right timelines, helping the author come up with a marketing plan, and then hiring the people who work on the project: editors, designers, proofreaders and anybody else who helps us with publicity or setting up their author website or social media. I am also a ghostwriter, and I work in acquisitions to decide what books we’re going to take on. That’s an overview of my main responsibilities, but I have done some in-house editing work as well. When I get a free moment, I have done some copyediting.
Q: You said that you work in acquisitions. Could you tell me what you look for in books to help your acquisition decisions?
A: A big portion of what we publish is nonfiction. We do a lot of memoirs, self-help books, anthologies, and books that catalog the history of an organization. A lot of our authors are business people or lawyers working in leadership roles. They want to get published to build a platform for themselves as experts to act as speakers or sell courses.
Because our publishing model relies a lot on this kind of author, the entry-level for us may be higher for a person who approaches us with a fantasy book or a science fiction novel. We have found that in hybrid publishing, where the author is the person who finances the production of the book, authors who tend to be the most successful in making their money back are those who already are able to attract an audience based on their expertise.
Q: Could you describe what a typical workday looks like for you, especially since you do so many different things?
A: I start the day by just answering all my emails. I might have a couple of meetings, some of which being coaching meetings, where we’ll meet with an author who has an awesome idea and a solid outline, and we help the person figure out how to best structure the ideas in a clear way.
Another thing that we do is storyboard critique, especially with children’s books. We do content critique with the author, send the critiques to the illustrator and update both parties on the timeline of the project. The same goes with copyediting.
Whenever we have a project that we think sounds promising, we have a phone call to get to know the author a little bit more, and we can see if we are a good fit to work together. We’re also looking for those books that we feel can be commercial successes.
Q: When you’re looking at these outlines and you’re working with these potential writers, where do you determine when it’s best for them to do the writing versus getting a ghostwriter?
A: I would look at three factors: time, interest and ability. Usually, there’s a level of time or interest that’s lacking, so it’s a good moment to bring a ghostwriter. For example, people who are CEOs or people who are in positions where they have a lot of responsibility don’t have a lot of time, so they prefer to have interviews one on one with a ghostwriter who can capture their voice so the ideas are still coming from them. It becomes more of a collaboration on the part of the authors because the ideas are still coming from them.
Q: What would be some challenges about being an editor?
A: I think the hard part about being an editor is that there’s some ego management that goes into it. If you are a copy editor, you want to flag something because it’s confusing and the idea doesn’t make sense. I think a lot of the time there’s fear that the author will misunderstand where you’re coming from or that the author will disagree with you and fundamentally the book is not going to be as good as it could have been. It can be hard to get inside their head and figure out their intentions.
Q: What brought you to where you are currently in your career; how did you get here and what brought you to editing?
A: I went to the University of Minnesota and graduated with a cultural studies and comparative literature degree and a minor in French. I had worked for a newspaper as a writer, and I was interested in learning more about books and publishing because I’m obsessed with reading. I think that’s why a lot of people get into it.
What I found so special about books is that reading is kind of a creative activity because it leaves room for the reader to control the pace at which they’re consuming the content. This differs from TV or movies with multiple sources of stimulation that don’t allow the audience time to fully process the information. There’s especially, if it’s a fiction book, an element of creativity to visualize what that author is saying and what that means to you, and I thought that was beautiful.
I got into this job by being an intern first. I was a summer intern in between my junior and senior years of college, and they hired me in for my final semester to do freelance proofreading work. They hired me part-time and then once I graduated they hired me full time. I basically just worked my way up from there.
Q: What do you like the most about being an editor?
A: You get to know people, especially if you’re working with a lot of nonfiction books where people are drawing from their own lives. You get to know what’s important to people, you get to meet a lot of interesting people and learn about how they got into whatever they’re doing, and we do get to work with some interesting people. We work with people who work in nonprofits. We work with professors. I’m working with a professor right now from Columbia, and it just lets you have these philosophical deep discussions with people about what matters to them. Meeting interesting people is my favorite part of the job.
The beauty of unlocking human imagination that comes from reading is what brings joy for Petelin in the publishing industry.
