This article was originally published on our sister site for young book professionals, Publishing Trendsetter.
There is a dearth of publishing blogs for young people, but one of the most spirited and celebratory accounts of ambitious young publishers comes from The League of Assistant Editors, a group dedicated to connecting young agents and young editors to ensure that they aren’t missing out on a piece of the publishing pie. They launched onto the internet scene in August and have since then hosted a sold out Dealmakers event at Housing Works Bookstore and Café, held public “office hours,” and written impressively honest accounts of their time in publishing for all to see. Trendsetter had a few questions for Meredith Haggerty, and Allyson Rudolph, the two women behind the League:
Publishing Trendsetter: If you don’t mind, give the folks at home a little background on each of your respective paths into publishing:
Allyson: My first publishing jobs were in my hometown, Washington, DC—I worked in managing editorial and editorial at academic and association presses before deciding to move to New York and try my hand at trade publishing. I started in NYC as an intern at Markson Thoma, then worked at Hyperion as an editorial assistant, and now I am an assistant editor at Grand Central Publishing.
Meredith: I went to college in New York, and interned at a literary agency. After graduating I got a job at another, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, where I worked for two years. From there, I became an editorial assistant at Grand Central Publishing, eventually being promoted to assistant editor. I currently work as the Associate Features Editor for HowAboutWe Media where, among other projects, I help to secure excerpts.
PT: What made you two decide to start the League?
Allyson: The decision to start the League actually followed the decision to host the Dealmakers speed networking event. I had been playing with the idea of nonromantic speed-dating for agents and editors ever since she moved to New York and began to understand that building a professional network can be a slow and inefficient process. Meredith is a master of Making Things Happen and got in touch with Housing Works about hosting a speed networking event, and then all of a sudden we were on the Housing Works calendar with a bunch of event tickets to sell. We didn’t want to be hosting as just Meredith and I and it seemed like there was a bigger professional support need to fill—there are a lot of challenges for young editors and agents that we think can be addressed with a little ingenuity and persistence—so we picked a name and started a Tumblr and the League was born. Our goal is to provide the agent/editor community with events that solve problems. Read More »
