Carol Kaufman spoke with Altie Karper, the 73rd National Jewish Book Awards Mentorship winner, on her storied career. They discussed the editors who shaped her, the apprenticeship nature of the business, and some of the writers she had the joy of working with.
Carol Kaufman: It’s not an overstatement to say that you’ve worked with some of the greatest Jewish writers of our lifetime; it also happens to be an amazingly diverse group: Aharon Applefeld, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Deborah Lipstadt, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Elie Wiesel, and Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, among many others. Different subjects, genres, styles of working … How did you approach editing these gifted, distinctive authors? Was it ever intimidating?
Altie Karper: Thank you. It was an honor and a privilege to work with and to publish these incredibly gifted and important writers. Every author is indeed unique, works in their own way, and has different editorial needs. The first thing an editor has to do is figure out what the working relationship with this particular author is going to be and what type of editorial work will be required. Some manuscripts may need line-by-line editorial comments and/or suggestions. Others may need chapter-by-chapter suggestions that are not quite as detailed, or (for nonfiction) suggestions for how much needs to be explained to readers who don’t know as much about the subject as the author does. Some manuscripts don’t need very much, if any, editorial work at all. But that’s rare. Yes, it certainly was intimidating at first, but when I saw how receptive my authors were to the work I was doing and how appreciative they were, that gave me the confidence I needed to proceed. However (and this is a big however), an editor must never lose sight of the fact that you are working on the author’s manuscript. It’s not your manuscript; your job is only to provide respectful suggestions that may help to make a book that is already very good perhaps a bit better.
CK: You worked at several different publishing houses, including Viking and Greenwillow, before landing at Schocken in 1989. Please share a few stories from along that journey.
AK: I’ve been extraordinarily lucky in the publishing houses I worked at. The editorial team at The Viking Press during my years there included my boss, Elisabeth Sifton, as well as Alan Williams, Corlies (“Cork”) Smith, and Malcolm Cowley – four of the most brilliant editors of their time. I just kept my eyes and ears open and – for the most part – my mouth shut. I was determined to learn as much as I could by observing how these editors worked their editorial magic. You never knew who you’d run into walking down the hall: Arthur Miller, Irving Howe, Peter Matthiessen, Stephen King, Jimmy Breslin, Nadine Gordimer, Bruce Chatwin, William Kennedy; it was a magical place. The team at Greenwillow (a children’s book imprint) consisted of my boss, publisher Susan Hirschman, as well as editor Elizabeth (“Libby”) Shub and art director Ava Weiss. Each was absolutely terrific at what she did, and I learned a great deal from all of them. Our Greenwillow authors included Kevin Henkes, Peter Sis, Robin McKinley, Jack Prelutsky, Don Crews, and Ann Jonas. I was — and continue to be — in awe of all of them. We didn’t publish Rumer Godden or Astrid Lindgren, but they were friends of Susan, and when each of them showed up at the office for tea, I thought I was going to faint. When I arrived at Random House, to work at the Schocken and Pantheon imprints, my good fortune continued. André Schiffrin hired me, but I spent most of my thirty-five years there working for Sonny Mehta and working with Bob Gottlieb. How I got to be that lucky, I still can’t figure out.
The first thing an editor has to do is figure out what the working relationship with this particular author is going to be and what type of editorial work will be required.
CK: Mazal tov on being the 73rd National Jewish Book Awards Mentorship winner! What’s the role of mentoring in the publishing industry? What makes a good mentor? Please share some interesting experiences you’ve had as both mentor, and mentee.
AK: Thank you! It’s an incredible honor! One of the things I love most about publishing is that it remains an apprenticeship profession. Before there were medical schools and law schools, you learned how to be a doctor or a lawyer by working for one. This is still true for publishing. You can take courses in line editing, but that will not make you an editor. You learn how to be an editor by working for an editor as their assistant — i.e., doing all the scut work — and watching what your editor does, day after day. That’s how any editor worth their salt has done it – including Elisabeth, Susan, André, Sonny, and Bob. And that’s how I did it. I don’t know that I would describe these people as “mentors” in the classic definition of the term. It was more like, “Okay, kid, watch me and see how it’s done. After a while I’ll let you have a try at it, and we’ll see if you’ve got the right stuff.” My great mentor was actually the late Dan Frank. He was an editorial colleague at Viking and, years later, at Schocken and Pantheon. He was the one I went to if I needed advice or help in solving a problem, or if I just needed someone to talk to when I was feeling low. He was always there for me, unfailingly kind and generous and supportive. He was that way with everyone in our department – an extraordinary person. I tried to be the same way with my younger colleagues, and I loved that they felt they could come to me with their problems the same way that I used to go to Dan with mine.
CK: Do you see editing as a kind of mentoring?
AK: Editors are whatever their authors need them to be. In addition to wielding the red pencil on the author’s manuscript, an editor can be required to be the author’s therapist, parent figure, banker, older sibling figure, cheerleader, confessor, drinking buddy, jailer, executive chef — in other words, whatever it takes to get that manuscript out of the author. John Steinbeck famously said about his editor, the legendary Pascal Covici, “Pat Covici was more than my friend, he was my editor.”
CK: For the last question, kindly put on your mentoring hat. How should someone prepare for a career in publishing? What will help them land that first job and then move up?
AK: Go to the best college you can get into/afford, major in English and/or comparative literature, and immerse yourself in the best books of all time and of all genres. That’s the only way you’re going to learn what good writing sounds like. Do whatever you can to get an undergraduate summer internship – preferably at a publishing house, but a literary agency will do as well. If you’re not getting that entry-level job at the house you’ve always dreamed of working at, just take whatever editorial assistant position you are offered (even at a literary agency), stay there for a while, and then try to laterally move to where you want to be, working for the best editor you can find. With a little luck and a great deal of hard work and persistence, you’ll get there.
Carol is the executive editor of Jewish Book Council. She joined the JBC as the editor of Jewish Book World in 2003, shortly after her son’s bar mitzvah. Before having a family she held positions as an editor and copywriter and is the author of two books on tennis and other racquet sports. She is a native New Yorker and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a BA and MA in English.