Our very own Editorial Director, Olivia Beattie, shares some invaluable advice and insights into the industry this International Women’s Day.

 

How did you start your career in publishing?

I did a couple of weeks’ work experience at Cornerstone as a first taste of the industry, followed by an invaluable couple of months’ internship at Alma Books, working on the Oneworld Classics list and learning the ropes from Alessandro. After that, there was the usual long, slow process of applying for editorial jobs and trying not to be discouraged by the lack of response! When an editorial assistant job at Biteback came up, it seemed like the perfect fit – and I’ve been here ever since!

 

What advice would you give someone joining the industry?

Don’t be disheartened by how difficult it is to get a foot in the door! It’s not just you – absolutely everyone finds it tough when they’re starting out. Publishing’s a small world, so it is competitive to get into, but it’s also full of lovely people and there’s lots of help available. Do your research – there are tons of online resources that will improve your applications – and take every opportunity to get advice from people in the industry.

 

What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

Ask questions! Lots of people worry about being an imposition, or they worry about admitting they don’t know something, but you’re allowed to take up space, and there’s no reason you would know the answer until you’ve asked the question – and you can learn a lot more by having a conversation than by second-guessing.

 

International Women’s Day celebrates women’s achievements and increases visibility, while calling out inequality. What do you hope will change for women in publishing in the years to come?

I’d like to see more women writing successfully in non-fiction – which means not just more female authors being signed up by publishers but more support for them within the book trade as a whole. Research over the past couple of years has found that non-fiction titles written by women are much less likely to be reviewed in the national press, much less likely to be shortlisted for and win book prizes and much less likely to be included in ‘best books of the year’ round-ups. And the same is true among readers: women are prepared to read books by men, but men are much less likely to read books by women, including in non-fiction. All of that contributes to a situation where women’s non-fiction is seen as being somehow niche – which would be bizarre at any time but is indefensible in 2023.

At a time when trans people in general and trans women in particular are coming under unprecedented attack in the media, I’d also like to see the publishing industry support a trans-inclusive model of feminism, recognising that treating trans women with dignity and respect in no way diminishes the rights of cis women.

 

Which female authors are on your radar right now?

Too many to mention! Natasha Brown’s Assembly was the most impressive debut I’ve read in years, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy and At the Table by Claire Powell were huge highlights of last year. I recently read Faber’s reissue of Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls, which is essentially Revolutionary Road crossed with The Shape of Water and gloriously weird with it, so I need to track down her other books.

In non-fiction, Julieann Campbell’s oral histories of the Troubles are incredibly effective at bringing to life episodes of history that you think you already know – especially last year’s book on Bloody Sunday. And Helena Kennedy is always worth reading, not least on how the justice system fails women.

 

Which new books are you excited about this year?  

Naoise Dolan, Megan Nolan and Curtis Sittenfeld all have new novels out this year, which I can’t wait for, but I’m also intrigued to read Máiría Cahill’s memoir of how her sexual abuse at the hands of a senior member of the IRA was catastrophically mishandled by Sinn Féin, the police and the prosecution service.

 

More than anything, though, I’m really proud to be publishing The Women Behind the Few, Sarah-Louise Miller’s history of the women who worked behind the scenes in the WAAF, collecting vital intelligence that changed the course of the Second World War. It’s a fascinating book by a lovely author, so we’re all excited to see it in readers’ hands when it comes out in March.

 

 

Later in the year, we also have Linda McDougall’s page-turning biography of Marcia Williams, the first woman of real power and influence to work in Downing Street. Marcia had an incredibly colourful life by anyone’s standards, but Linda’s book strips away the misogynist rhetoric of the ’60s and ’70s to reveal who she really was and how she operated in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world.

 

 

If you could have lunch with any three women, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development, among many other things) and the author Mhairi McFarlane both seem like they would be / would have been excellent company. And there’s got to be a place for Nancy Wake, aka the White Mouse, a member of the SOE who parachuted into France in 1944. When a member of the French Resistance found her tangled in a tree, he said, ‘I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year.’ To which she replied, ‘Don’t give me that French shit.’

 

Feeling inspired? Discover more of our female authors changing the face of publishing here