We discuss the role of a Publisher at a publishing house, and Jenny's career from Fig Tree to Canongate and now at W&N. She has always published incredible non-fiction and in particular we look at Motherwell by Deborah Orr, The Lonely City by Olivia Laing, The Outrun by Amy Liptrot and Out of the Woods by Luke Turner.

Listeners in London will get the chance to see What Editors Want LIVE on 25th November as part of The Literary Consultancy's 25th birthday celebrations. For more details on that keep an eye on @WhatEditorsWant on Twitter.

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Apologies to anyone waiting for the episode featuring Jenny Lord. Jenny and I recorded a fantastic show in which we discussed authors including Deborah Orr. However following yesterday's sad news that Deborah has passed away, Jenny and I decided to postpone releasing the episode.

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Jacques Testard, their founder and publisher, joined me to discuss starting the press from scratch, taking inspiration from classic French publishers and his belief of publishing authors for their whole career rather than specific books.

‘Fitzcarraldo Editions is probably the most exciting publishing house in the UK right now.’

— Stuart Evers, New Statesman

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We met to discuss the relationship between the bookstore and the publisher, and her feminist project of republishing unjustly out of print women. We spoke about bringing novels including Dorothy Baker's Cassandra at the Wedding back into print, and non-fiction by the likes of Natalia Ginzburg and MFK Fisher. Daunt also publish contemporary fiction including the Pulitzer Prize finalist, In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

Željka also tells us about her time at Melville House - and working on Maggie Nelson’s seminal The Argonauts - and as Co-Editor of The White Review, the amazing arts and literature magazine.

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Tony is also the author of books including Foxy-T and Shackleton’s Man Goes South. His latest novel The Fountain in the Forest is published by Faber and Faber, which the Guardian described as 'An avant-garde take on the pulp crime genre becomes a paean to liberty and a secret history of the 1980s'.

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Hannah joined me to talk about books like Alix Nathan's The Warlow Experiment and the literary phenomenon that is Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent. Hannah also tells us how representing Esi Edugyan, the author of the Booker shortlisted Washington Black, as an agent helped Hannah transition into publishing.

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We're discussing book fairs, the different types of reading and the perceived death of literary fiction, as well as James' amazing list of literary fiction from around the globe including books like:

When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy (shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize),

House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (Winner of the Edward Stanford Prize for Fiction with a Sense of Place, Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Orwell Prize, and longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize), and

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Women's Prize for Fiction).

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Alex is also a former agent and he told me about securing a massive US deal for his very first book to represent, The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell.

But, as always, Alex is on the show primarily as an editor of non-fiction. Alex is a commissioning editor at OneWorld, the publisher who recently won back-to-back Booker Prizes. At OneWorld, Alex has published non-fiction including A Field Guide to the English Clergy by Fergus Butler-Gallie, a Book of the Year for The Times, Mail on Sunday and BBC History Magazine from a young vicar Alex discovered on Twitter, and what the TLS called 'the decade's most important book', The Panama Papers.

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We also spoke about Ben Myers' new novel The Offing and her work on the seminal Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge.

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Mark and I met to talk about the rise, and potential pitfalls, of autofiction, and the importance of prizes to literary publishing.

Mark's first novel to commission was Anjali Joseph’s Saraswati Park while at 4th Estate, and we also talk about books lie the Costa Prize winning The Loney by Andrew Hurley, Olivia Glazebrook's The Frank Business, and my favourite novel of 2018, Sight by Jessie Greengrass. Mark also tells us about his work with the Nick Drake estate.

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To date on this podcast I've tended to concentrate on fiction, so I was delighted to get the chance to talk to Susannah about non-fiction in general and in particular about the art of making cookbooks. Susannah is the editor behind cookbooks like Carbs by Laura Goodman and the Quality Chop House's cookbook. She's also worked with authors like Mel B, Simon Amstell and The Slumflower.

We also discuss the London Book Fair, how Susannah got into publishing, and finding a balance between being a reader and an editor.

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Writers, how do can a publisher know you’re there unless you make yourself available?

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Emma and I spoke about our shared background as booksellers, and in particular at Waterstones Piccadilly. Emma went on to become a fiction buyer at Waterstones head office and then joined the literary agency Curtis Brown.

We spoke about her list including books like THESE DIVIDING WALLS by Fran Cooper, HOMES & EXPERIENCES by Liam Williams and WHEN ALL IS SAID by Anne Griffin.

Authors should always be aware of the market, but not led by it.

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Anne Meadows is the Senior Commissioning Editor at Granta. We spoke about her incredible list of authors including Sandra Newman (The Heavens), Gwendoline Riley (First Love), Margo Jefferson (On Michael Jackson) and Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman).

Anne tells us about the disappointment on missing out on a book she'd have loved to work on, importing novels from countries like American and Japan into the UK, and how seeing your work in translation is like your son bringing home a new girlfriend.

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At the heart of this episode, and this podcast, is that crucial question: is an editor the author’s representative to the publisher, or the publisher's representative to the author?

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This week's guest is Louisa Joyner, Faber's Publishing Director. We discussed her background as an academic and the difference (or rather lack thereof) between publishing commercial and literary fiction.

Louisa's books include some of the most successful novels of recent times like Call Me By Your Name, The Shock of the Fall and Milkman, winner of the 2018 Booker Prize. We also discuss some of her non-fiction, such as working with the likes of Samantha Irby and Jay-Z.

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