Hey Hollywood, Publishing Is Actually Harder Than You Think

by Chloe Joy

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

One of my guilty pleasures is bad romance movies. Bonus points if they are Christmas-themed or feature a person from a big city forced to travel to a small town and fall in love with a local. If both tropes are used? Immediately my favorite movie of the year. I love them so much because they’re not meant to be taken seriously nor reflect our real lives, so I often let my suspension of disbelief hang. The main leads say “I love you” after knowing each other for a few days? Sure! One big speech at the end can wash away the trauma one character brought upon another? I’m eating it up!

However, nothing gets under my skin more than the inaccurate portrayals of the publishing industry in these movies. Many romance movies have a B plot that focuses around the publishing industry (because publishing and struggling writers are just so sexy), and they almost always end with a fairy tale dream success story. I’m tired of this dominant, false narrative prevailing through the media, making publishing look easy, because if you’re a writer or aspiring editor like me, you know it’s anything but easy.

A prime culprit of where the publishing industry is atrociously misrepresented is in the movie franchise After. In the first movie, Tessa is a college freshman majoring in Economics, but by the end of the film, she decides to switch to English. Before she even makes the actual change, she applies to an internship at a prestigious publishing house, Vance Publishing. With no experience other than enjoying reading books, you would think she doesn’t have a chance in hell at getting that internship. 

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​I know it’s not impossible to get an internship at a publishing house with no experience. I mean, you have to start somewhere. However, think of Vance Publishing as the equivalent to HarperCollins or Penguin Random House. With how competitive and selective these companies are, and with editorial being an extremely difficult field to get into, having some type of experience under your belt helps you to stand out. Even with experience, there’s no guarantee you’ll get an interview or even hear back from them. It could take years to get a position at a big publishing house.

​Well, Tessa magically gets the internship anyway and her good luck doesn’t end there. She is chosen to go to a publishing conference after less than twenty-four hours of interning, and offered a position to “do digital submissions” (I assume this means becoming an editorial assistant—I’m shocked they can’t even get the terminology right) in Seattle a month later. The publishing industry works in a ladder system: you start at the bottom as an intern or editorial assistant and gradually move up. Chip MacGregor, an agent, states, “You normally start as an Editorial Assistant, spending one to three years learning the book process.” Years, not a month. You don’t just do one good thing and instantly get promoted. 

I grit my teeth every time I think about this movie series because when am I going to have my Tessa Young moment, everything just handed to me on a silver platter?

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But maybe I should also be asking when I will be getting my Anastasia Steele—from the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise—moment. She has a similar easy-breezy publishing journey to Tessa. Fresh out of college, Ana gets a job as a personal assistant (again, the terminology is off here because she is really an editorial assistant) at the most profitable publishing company in Seattle, Seattle Independent Publishing (SIP). With what experience? Who knows!
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​When Jack, the commissioning editor and her boss, tries to come on to her and is fired, Ana is asked to fill in at the senior editor meeting. She impresses them with her extensive marketing and sales knowledge, which we never see her learn, and is given Jack’s position permanently. Then she receives another promotion to fiction editor while she is on her honeymoon. How does a person even get a promotion when they aren’t around or are barely seen doing their job? Was there no one else more deserving of the role who has been at the company for longer than a couple months?

​​Fifty Shades of Grey, admittedly, does a slightly better job at showing the insides of a publishing house than After, but not by much. If they thought having Ana say a couple lines of publishing jargon, like “make the font size two points bigger,” was enough to make the setting or her qualification for the position believable, they were sorely mistaken. Ana also makes it seem like editors have all this free time, going on trips and leaving the office whenever she wants, when in reality, editors are overworked and busier than ever.

On the flip side of the publishing industry, the movie Your Place or Mine depicts everything wrong with Hollywood’s perception of publishing from the writer’s perspective. While on a trip to New York for an accounting program, Debbie swaps houses with her friend Peter for the week, finds his secret manuscript, and develops a plan to get it published. She meets Theo Martin, a well known editor for Duncan Press, and tells him to read the manuscript because it’s “special.” When publishers are receiving around 5,000 submissions per year, special isn’t enough to make the cut.

​While Theo does mention that he’s not allowed to take submissions unless they are from an agent or editor, this spurs Debbie to lie about being a freelance editor. This was so close to being a small victory to getting one thing about the publishing industry right. It’s not the editor’s job, especially not a freelance editor, to send out submissions to publishers. If you go to any of the Big Five’s submission guidelines page, they will tell you that they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts and writers will need to find a literary agent.

​So does Theo turn her down? If you said yes, like any sensible person, you would be wrong! He takes the manuscript, because apparently he doesn’t have any other important projects going on or dropped them to prioritize this random manuscript he was given, and six months later, the book is published. 

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In reality, these is a long process to getting published that just gets skimmed over in movies. If you want to publish through the traditional route, you have to write query letters, a synopsis, most likely find an agent, and hope and pray someone will believe in your work enough to accept it. According to Jane Friedman, “It’s often said that a writer’s first manuscript never gets published; it’s the third, fourth, fifth (or later) manuscript that gains acceptance by a publisher.” You’ll receive a lot more rejection before you’re handed a golden ticket. The actual chances of getting published are between 1% and 2%.

Additionally, while every writer’s timeline is going to look a little different, six months is nowhere near a realistic timeframe to get a book published unless a publisher needs to have the book out immediately for some reason. Peter’s novel is not time-sensitive. Just finding an agent or editor to work with you could take years and once (if) you get a book deal, there is a series of revisions you’ll have to complete. Then you have to go through the process of making your manuscript into an actual, marketable book. On average, this entire process can take as long as two years. 

​Additionally, while every writer’s timeline is going to look a little different, six months is nowhere near a realistic timeframe to get a book published unless a publisher needs to have the book out immediately for some reason. Peter’s novel is not time-sensitive. Just finding an agent or editor to work with you could take years and once (if) you get a book deal, there is a series of revisions you’ll have to complete. Then you have to go through the process of making your manuscript into an actual, marketable book. On average, this entire process can take as long as two years. 

Like with Tessa or Ana with editing, we never see Peter, the actual author of the book, go through any of these struggles. He doesn’t spend hours searching through the many literary agents or editors out there, looking for the perfect home for his work. He doesn’t spend years getting rejection letters. He’s not even shown talking to the publishers once! He’s alienated from the entire process, spoonfed a book deal, and didn’t even know it. Book deals don’t just fall from the skies and into our laps, nor are authors sitting back, waiting for the editor and publisher to do everything for them. Getting published takes time, grit, patience, and most importantly, hard work, both from the author and the entire publishing team.

​I’m not asking for Hollywood to depict the full and often depressing truth of the publishing industry because I can respect people wanting to escape reality for a few hours. However, I cannot stand it being portrayed as some kind of easy fantasy. These inaccuracies undermine what it truly takes for people like me to become editors or authors. Show the struggle, use the right terminology, and give viewers a better look at how a book is really made or what editors do. Give us the credit we deserve. You can still have a happy ending where characters get their book published, or they finally get the internship, but only after exhibiting they worked for it. Isn’t that more rewarding to see than having everything handed to them?​