Family of One Celebrates 30 Years in College Publishing

On May 27th of last year, I celebrated my 30th year in college textbook publishing. On that day, I was a little too busy in my current job to properly celebrate it and then, as the year went on, I kept forgetting to mention it or even think too much about it. But, now that I have a chance to breathe again for a week or two, it occurs to me that this is a significant milestone and one that I am planning to ponder, especially which jobs I have enjoyed the most and what I see as the future for our industry that can keep me engaged for twenty more years.

I have worked for eighteen managers at five different companies and been a sales representative (9 years), acquisitions editor (12 years), editor-in-chief/executive editor (2 years), marketing manager (1 year), and custom editor (7 years). I have lived in eight cities with the longest stints in Boston and Miami. The job at which I was unequivocally the worst was marketing manager as it was just, for me, a thankless role of marketing books on which I had been able to have no impact editorially and having to be available to answer questions 24/7 to which I was never all that sure of the answers. I was a good, but not great, sales rep. I was very skilled at procuring the business when the adoption was open to everyone because I was blessed with fabulous books, especially in the late 80s at Houghton Mifflin. But, when I would ask an instructor if he were interested in changing texts and he would say, “oh, I am happy with xxxx”, then I would cheerfully reply, “oh, then you should keep using xxx” and go on my merry way. Thankfully, as an acquisitions editor, I learned to be more aggressive and convince professors to write books who had never thought about it and customers to switch to my books because I could really convince them that they were the best for their courses.

My favorite job is being an editor. I love the combination of sitting in my office, working away on a project that only I can deliver be it a submission or a review summary or a strategic plan along with the thrill of talking to customers and seeing their faces light up when I can offer a solution to a knotty problem in their coursework. I am very lucky to do something that I enjoy so much, especially having done the jobs where I do not look forward to turning on my computer every day.

I could write about the marvelous people I have met, the kooks I have encountered, the passes I have deflected, the affairs that I have enjoyed, the authors that I have nurtured, the projects in which I have delighted, and the fabulous lunches and dinners that I have enjoyed with a plethora of publishers and professors. But, I think I would most enjoy telling you about how I got into college publishing.

After working on my M.A. in English for a year at the College of William and Mary, I had about as much direction as Meg Ryan has an upcoming movie role. I had worked at a fancy clothing store in High Point and was surprised by how much I liked selling and finding the perfect ensembles for my customers. I had a chance meeting with a sales rep for Houghton Mifflin as we both waited outside my Shakespeare professor’s office and he told me about his glamorous life of travel, expensed meals, and free car. But, I had always assumed that, like most women of my generation, I would do something to kill a little time and then get married and produce the what-seemed-obligatory three (always beautiful) children). But, I had hitched my wagon to a star that was not particularly interested in returning the favor, having found someone else to marry and so I was headed back to High Point with a heavy heart. I went back to work at the clothing store and resigned myself to a very modest life.

Then, of all things, Mother heard that High Point College (now University) was hiring an English instructor to run the writing lab. This was at a time when there were thousands of PhDs and MAs in English chasing down the very few jobs that existed. I took my resume over to the college and, while I was at work, the department head called our house and talked to Mother who made me a sound like a cross between Diana Trilling and Diane Keaton. I got the job and taught the 8:00 classes that no one wanted of developmental English and freshman composition and ran the writing lab. I also taught introduction to literature in the adult education program at R.J. Reynolds’ world headquarters in Winston-Salem where I had the dubious distinction of dating the most handsome man in the class, a fact that endeared me to all of the “students’ who were at least twice my age except for the two of us.

Interestingly, during that time, I was courted by some other very nice young men and so the goal of being Mrs. Somebody or Other could have been easily accomplished. But, I had read The Best of Everything and seen An Unmarried Woman and I thought that there had to be another life, one that would not center around being someone wife’s or mother and which would enable me to truly shine on my own. If I had stayed at High Point College, I have no doubt that I could have created such a life, but I thought it would be much easier to find an interesting job that took me away from where I had grown up so unhappily.

I started paying attention to the textbook sales reps that came around and asking them about their jobs. The fellow for Little, Brown was particularly helpful and as he had a brand-new handbook to sell, something called The Little Brown Handbook which promised to revolutionize the teaching of freshman composition, he made sure to spend time with me. Our department had been using the standard for the time, the Harbrace Handbook, since Eisenhower had been president. I told the sales rep that I would convince the department to use the Little Brown Handbook if we would help me get a job with his company.

At the same time, our department head, a glamorous, wealthy divorcee who had a beautiful mane of chestnut hair and resembled the studio chief Sherry Lansing , invited two of the full professors and me to accompany her to a convention of English professors called 4C’s that was being held in Washington, DC. I thought that this might be a good way to meet other publishers although I was, of course, supposed to attend sessions on becoming a better writing lab director. When we got to the convention hotel, I was stunned to see rows and rows of publishers all just standing around, waiting to talk to us, the professors to whom they sold. I was as excited as I would be today at a foie gras festival.

Thankfully, I had on my very best ensemble which was a gray suit that I bought at Saks Fifth Avenue, Floor 6, in New York City from Beatrice Wiener. At that time, it was very popular to wear not only suits, but skirts that had front slits from the knee to mid-thigh. So, I had on what I considered this stunning suit with a faux gray silk blouse and faux pearls. To complete this festival of fashion, I wore my highest stiletto sandals (sometimes known as F*** Me pumps) which are common (in all senses of the word) today, but, back then, were considered fairly daring with gray sheer hose. I felt that I was too short to have any kind of lovely figure, but I often received compliments on my legs which were perfectly proportioned. So, I go prancing into this exhibit hall.

I quickly learn to ask for the sales manager or editorial director who is “working the booth” and tell them that I am an English “professor” hoping to make the switch into college textbook publishing. By the time I leave the exhibit hall, I have three commitments for interviews and five more names to call for possible interviews. I am invited to the Prentice Hall cocktail party where I am more popular than Sue Ellen Ewing at the Cattleman’s Ball. I meet sales reps and district managers and editors and they all say how wonderful it would be if I worked at their company. Until then, I had pretty much thought that I would end up at Little, Brown because of my promise to my sales rep, but I was greeted with mild enthusiasm by the Editorial Director (who many years later became a good friend) who sent me a letter written by his secretary and telling me that I might have a future in the textbook business.

In an interesting twist of fate, one of my friends from high school (and a reader of the blog!), Miss Lynn York, was a sales rep for Prentice Hall in Dallas and we connected after my meeting with the PH people in DC. PH also had territories that were open and available in a number of places that I wanted to live including Richmond, VA which I thought would be the perfect starting point as I ventured away from High Point and contemplated eventually going to New York or Boston. And, so, once I returned to High Point, all of the pieces of the job search puzzle felt into place and I was on my way to Richmond by the beginning of the summer. And, on to a ride that has lasted for more than 30 years.

But, back to the 4C’s in DC. My comrades from HPC were flabbergasted that I was nowhere to be found as they had thought that they would be babysitting me since I could have easily been their daughter. We had dinner one night and went our own way the other night, but before we went back to High Point on Saturday, the “men” wanted to go to the Folger Shakespeare Library while they dropped the “women” off at Lord and Taylor to shop. I was happy as could be in such a sophisticated store while my department head looked on in amusement. After shopping, she took me to lunch in a very upscale bistro and said that she knew that I would be on to bigger things soon and toasted me with champagne. It was all very heady.

When the men picked us up, we had a long ride back to High Point, but she and I curled up under her mink coast in the back seat of her Lincoln Continental while the men sat in front and chatted. We took US 29 back to Greensboro which carried us through the horse country of Virginia and where there was nothing to be seen in the pitch black except an occasional fence and stars in the sky. I lay under the mink coat and realized, for the first time, that I was going to be able to make my future happen and that it was starting right then.