Indie publisher talks editing, writing, and the stuff in between
Anne J. Hill has published an anthology in two months, written children’s stories, and is editing her debut novel. Every day looks different for Hill, the founder and owner of Twenty Hills, a small publishing company.
By Elizabeth Caneday
A self-taught publisher, Anne J. Hill founded a publishing company shortly after graduating high school. She is now its primary editor and has published several anthologies, with her own debut novel among Twenty Hill’s forthcoming releases. Hill’s flexibility, eagerness to learn, and love for her job have served her well as she manages a lifestyle most couldn’t fathom.
Q: How did you get from high school to founding and operating Twenty Hills?
A: I’ve been writing [since long before high school]. … It was almost accidental. I always planned on self publishing my own books. We went to the Realm Makers conference. And you can sign up to meet with an editor, and I did that. After talking about all the stuff that I plan to do with self-publishing, he said that he usually doesn’t encourage people to self-publish. But he said, “I think you could do it.” I said, “Alright, I guess that’s all I needed.” So really, we just started with an anthology, What Darkness Fears, as a practice run, because I [had] no idea how publishing works. So we really just did it to try it out, then it blew up from there. We published that one in two months from start to finish, which is not advisable.
It was a crash course in how to publish. We really wanted it out in time for Halloween because it’s a darker book. We either could do it [that] year — that would be crazy — or we could wait a whole year. So I was like, “Let’s just do it this year!” The Realm Makers conference was helpful with that. A lot of what we learned at high school was helpful with that.
Q: What is your main role at Twenty Hills and what responsibilities does that entail?
A: I pretty much am Twenty Hills. I started it. So technically founder/owner and I also do a lot of the editing. Now we do have contractors; we don’t have employees because — tax reasons. But we have a lot of editors and then I outsource a lot of [the work]. So the big thing I do is — everything. So far, we’ve mostly done anthologies. We have a few novels in the works though. For novels, I’ve set up the guidelines for submissions, accept submissions, edit them, communicate with the authors, find covers, find a formatter. There are things that just pop up that you don’t even think about [at first].
Q: What does your average day/week look like?
A: Yeah, I actually have a rather unique experience. For my full time job, I work as a DSP [Direct Support Professional] taking care of adults with autism and doing in-home care. But I only work Sunday to Tuesday. And part of it is a sleep shift. So I’m asleep half the time I’m getting paid, and I purposely picked that shift so I’d have a lot of the daytime and the rest of the week. People who have normal jobs probably couldn’t do as much as I do.
But honestly there’s not such a thing as a normal day. I’ve tried doing different routines and they never work. A lot of it is editing and then getting overwhelmed with how much I have to edit and then asking someone else to come and help edit. So it’s still a little bit of a learning curve, trying to figure out how to run that and work on my own [projects]. Sometimes I have to say, “Today is just a Twenty Hills day,” or “Today I’m just working on my book.” Or even just do an hour of this thing and then I can go do that thing. It’s all over the place.
Q: What is the greatest barrier to entry for editors? Advice for young prospective editors?
A: For me, it wasn’t an entry but getting started. I think the hardest part is — especially since I didn’t actually have a degree or anything — don’t ever pretend you have a degree if you don’t; my website says [I’m] self-taught — I think mentally the hardest part is like, “Should I really be doing this? Do I know what I’m talking about?” And then every time I get a book in to edit, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I could fix that.” And do a lot of research before you start. And don’t be afraid to give harsh edits. A lot of people I’ve worked with are scared to offend an author. But they don’t know if it needs fixing unless you tell them. Be nice with how you word it. Be thorough and take your time.
“The more I read, the better I get at editing. Sometimes reading does feel like work, but sometimes it’s exciting work. Other times I don’t want to look at another book for days.” — Anne J. Hill, editor
Q: What makes a good editor?
A: Being good with time management. If you can get stuff back faster, you’re more likely to get more clients. Which can be difficult. I usually say three months, even if I could do it much faster, but life happens. Know the genres that you’re editing, because they’re all very different. Know the different types of editing. Copy editing, that’s going to be the same for all genres. There are general story structures that are good for all genres.
Q: Do you still enjoy reading despite editing all day?
A: Yes. And sometimes, no. There have been times when I’ve been editing for hours and I’ll sit down to read a book I absolutely love, and I’m immediately like, “This author’s not as good as I thought they were!” And then I get a few pages in and I realize they’re great, I was just looking for all the possible editors. You get to shut off your editing brain and just enjoy reading. On the other hand, the more I read, the better I get at editing. Sometimes reading does feel like work, but sometimes it’s exciting work. Other times I don’t want to look at another book for days.
Q: What are some “expectations vs. reality” moments you have experienced?
A: Whenever I have an idea — [I think] this is great, but we can do this ten times more. When I was a kid, I thought, “I could be a teacher or I could start my own school!” And that’s basically what I did. I also have very realistic expectations, at the same time. I think I would have more thoughts on it as an author, not just an editor. For the first series I was writing, I mapped out eight books. And now I’m working on the first book of a different series, and I realized there’s no way that could happen. There’s so much work that goes into writing a novel, and the same for editing. It’s less work than writing, but it’s still a lot of work.
Q: What kind of experience did you have before starting Twenty Hills? What kind of editorial training have you received?
A: I haven’t taken any official editing courses. I’ve thought about it, to make sure I’m still going the right way… I have done MasterClasses by authors like Neil Gaiman and David Baldacci and Dan Brown. We were watching them for writing stuff, but a lot of the same advice helps with developmental editing, dealing with good stories.
Q: What will the next three years look like for Twenty Hills?
A: I actually have the next five or six years mapped out. Though I’m assuming things are going to change. We never intended to publish anthologies. The first book was supposed to be our practice for editing, and that was supposed to be it. But it did so well! So we just kept doing them, and I keep coming up with new ideas. I’m kind of trying to fizzle out the anthologies, but there’s a handful lined up that will last for the next two or three years. There’s a few we’ve announced already. This May, roughly, Hannah Carter has a book of mermaid short stories coming out. It’s still in the same vein as an anthology, but it’s all one author. So I feel like that’d be nice to transition to just doing one-author things. Next fall, Moriah Chavis is doing a mystery, Sherlock Holmes-vibes thing with ghosts, and Life and Death are characters. I was excited about that.
We have a few more novels lined up in the next few years. Including mine; I’m hoping to have it out by next December. That is a learning curve — if you’re going to announce projects as a publisher, it’s different than as an author. From a publishing standpoint, my new rule of thumb is to not publicly announce anything until it’s done with developmental editing because then we know “Okay, this is going to take another year,” or “We should be fine in six months.” So that’s the new game plan for all the projects we haven’t announced yet.
“Sometimes, authors don’t have voice yet. If you bring in a strong voice, either they get on board with it and it morphs into its own thing, or they hate it and they go the opposite direction, and then start finding their own voice.” — Anne J. Hill, editor
Q: Since you’re both a writer and editor, how do you deal with inserting your own writing voice into your editing?
A: I think the big thing is really in how you phrase your feedback. I never hold back from pointing something out ever. I say, “I could be wrong about this, or it might not be what you’re going for.” But I’m going to say it anyway, just in case. I really think it’s in how you word it, making sure they know this is how you could change it.
Micro editing might be one of my favorites too, because you can get a little bit of developmental happening and copy at the same time. It’s a nice middle ground. If I’m making any suggestions in the text, if it’s an obvious one I’ll just [fix] it. But if it’s a bit more complicated, I’ll put an explanation in, or say, “You could do this, this, or this. This is the issue with that sentence, fix it however you want.” And sometimes, authors don’t have voice yet. If you bring in a strong voice, either they get on board with it and it morphs into its own thing, or they hate it and they go the opposite direction, and then start finding their own voice.
Hill didn’t let a lack of experience stop her from a risky but rewarding jump into editing and publishing. She learns as she goes, takes advice from others, and has the flexibility to adapt her plans — which are long-term, with several more novels on the horizon for Twenty Hills.
Speaking as an author and an editor, she advises young editors to be honest with their critiques. “They don’t know if it needs fixing unless you tell them.” Her thoughts on writing and editing voice surprised me. Editing in a strong voice will help authors decide on their own narration style? It’s an unusual approach to a common problem; I’ll certainly experiment with that idea myself.
My final takeaway: Take risks, gain experience as you go, and always be ready to learn.
