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BY JACQUELINE SMALL

In print | Published February 25, 2010

When Michael Pietsch, the executive vice president and a publisher at Little, Brown and Company, spoke Tuesday night in the Scheuer Room, he said that he hoped his talk would bring talented people to the field.

“I’m always looking to offset the impression that the [publishing] business is dying or difficult and convey all my enthusiasm and optimism. We’ve gotten some very good candidates as a result of these talks,” said Pietsch, who was invited by the English literature department and Career Services.

In his lecture “e-Books, iBooks, p-books, Books!”, Pietsch discussed his own career path, his advice for aspiring editors, the history of book publishing and his predictions for the future of the industry.
Unlike many who believe that physical books — now called “p-books” by publishers to distinguish them from e-books — will be replaced by technology, Pietsch expressed excitement about the new developments.

“The best thing about the digital world and books is that people buy books when people they trust recommend them, and the internet has accelerated word of mouth a millionfold,” he said.
He added that because physical books have a great deal of sentimental value, and because digitalization does not improve the reading experience, he expects that they will continue to coexist with electronic books “for a long period in the future.”

Pietsch said that being an editor is “the most fun job in the world. It’s an honor and a constant surprise and you’re always learning new things.” He started as an intern and worked his way up over the course of many years at different publishers. Over the course of his career he has edited both fiction and nonfiction, by new authors and by high-profile authors including James Patterson, Ernest Hemingway and David Foster Wallace.

One of his most important lessons was that authors do not necessarily follow the suggestions of editors.

“The writer’s voice is the writer’s voice, and your job is not to change it, but to make it as good as you can — to help them reach the Platonic ideal of what that book can be,” he said. “Relationships with authors evolve over time, but you have to earn their trust. You have to show that you know what they’re trying to do, and you get what authority you have by that discernment.”

He also said that it was important for editors to have a clear idea about how to improve individual books and be willing to communicate that tactfully with the authors.

During the lecture, Johanna Bond ’10 spoke briefly about her experience as an intern at Little, Brown and Company this past summer.

“Honestly, I couldn’t imagine a better experience for an internship. It’s really about what the interns would get out of the experience,” Bond said.

She was able to sit in for several different assistants, who were on summer vacation. Her biggest project involved working on the end notes for “Eating Animals,” a new book by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”  

“It was really cool to see the books I had worked on come out,” Bond said.

Professor Nathalie Anderson, the director of the creative writing program, said after the lecture that, while a great number of students usually do not go into publishing, there nevertheless is a steady flow. “We have a lot of students here who are eager to write, and I think some of them see working for a magazine or a press as a way of understanding more about how they might get published. But they are happier when they embrace publishing just because it’s publishing and that’s what they enjoy,” she said.

Pietsch warned, however, that it is not as easy to be employed in editing as this talk might make it seem. “I didn’t mean to say it was easy to get a job in publishing — it’s not easy to get a job anywhere — so there might not be as many openings but if you’re open to … casting your net broadly there are more opportunities,” he said. He encouraged students to look into sales and marketing, as well as editing.

Laura Sibson, assistant director of Career Services, said in an e-mail after the lecture, “In our experience, students resonate with hearing from a person who is currently working in a field the student is considering. … Careers in writing, including book publishing, magazine writing and journalism, continue to be popular interests of Swarthmore students as they consider how best to parlay their skills into paying jobs after college.”

Eleanor Glewwe ‘12, who attended the talk, said in an e-mail, “I really enjoyed all his anecdotes because he has worked with some amazing authors, and I liked hearing what he had to say about the dynamics of the author-editor partnership. I also found his comments on the future of publishing and the rise of e-books useful, because it’s something to keep in mind if I actually do pursue a career in publishing.”

This was Pietsch’s third time discussing this topic at Swarthmore, as he does at other schools. He is especially familiar with Swarthmore because he has two children who are current students here, and is married to an alumna.

“A few years ago, when his daughter was a first year student, Michael heard that we’d invited an alumnus to speak on the world of publishing. That alumnus was retiring from the field and Michael offered to speak to students about his career and his perspective on publishing,” Sibson said. “I think he enjoys being connected to the college.”

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