As the senior editor for social science books here in the European office, my role is to seek out the most exciting and important new book ideas and work with authors to help them develop their work into proposals and eventually books. My list is incredibly varied as I work on all different kinds of books across the social sciences, and I am particularly passionate about books that tackle key societal issues such as justice, inequality, and the climate crisis.
It’s a sunny Monday morning after a wet and windy weekend which makes getting up and tackling the inbox much easier. This is the week of our biannual Launch Meeting, during which editors like myself present and discuss forthcoming titles with our colleagues in sales and publicity across the press, so I spend some of the morning prepping my notes and deciding what’s most important to share with everyone about my upcoming books. We’re always looking a long way into the future in publishing and the books we are talking about today won’t actually publish until Spring next year, but the authors have nearly finished their manuscripts and in some cases, we have already been working together on a project for a couple of years before it gets to this point, so there’s lots to talk about!
I’ve received reviews from some external peer reviewers for a book that was submitted last month, so I grab a coffee (and investigate the kitchen for biscuits) then read through the feedback and summarise it before sending the reviews over to the author. Peer review is a fundamental part of the work we do as a university press to ensure the quality of the books that we publish so an important part of my job is finding the right readers for every title and working with authors to help them understand and apply the feedback to their book.
In the afternoon I get to escape from behind my laptop to do my favourite part of the job—meet with an author. I am always on the lookout for writers whose work I think would sit well on my list, and it’s so exciting to meet with them for the first time and discuss how we might work together. It is an enormous privilege to be able to speak with scholars who are doing the most cutting edge and impactful research and play a small part in bringing that work to a wide audience. In this meeting we’re discussing a project in its very early stages, so we talk a lot about how to present academic research to a broad readership, and how PUP supports authors throughout the writing process. Being based in the middle of Oxford means it’s easy for authors to come to the office to see me, which is always lovely. We have a coffee in the conservatory to make the most of the sunshine—it’s my favourite spot in the office.
I end my day with a virtual meeting with an author in the US and our publicity team, where we discuss the imminent publication of their book and the events they will be taking part in when they travel to the UK to promote the book. At that time, they will be visiting numerous bookshops and universities, and already have a talk scheduled at the Oxford Literary Festival, which we’re all really looking forward to.
After work I get the bus home and spend the journey reading, of course. I always have a fiction and a non-fiction book on the go, I’m currently reading Horse by Geraldine Brooks and More Than a Glitch by Meredith Broussard, both deal with issues of race and inequality, just in very different ways. I’m always thinking about how what I read relates to the books I want to commission moving forward, and I’m a hugely fortunate position at Princeton where the aims of the Press align with my personal goals to publish more diverse authors and books. I have titles under contract looking at how feminism can transform the tech industry, exploring social justice through the politics of neurodiversity and disability justice, and re-examining the history of international thought without men and I’m excited to continue to sign up books from across the social sciences taking on these and other issues.
Becca Brennan is Senior Editor for Social Sciences and is based in Princeton University Press’s Oxford office.