Inside Harlequin: Managing Editorial

We are thrilled to be able to bring you some insights into the life of a Managing Editorial Coordinator, courtesy of Nicole Rokicki, in the second post of our Inside Harlequin series!

What are the overall duties of your job?

The overall duties of my job include keeping track of all the deadlines for the editors. We upkeep all the information in a huge excel spreadsheet that has all the titles for the year and tracks all the materials from back cover copy to final pagination dates. I will note, though, that the responsibilities of a Managing Editorial department are not always the same across publishing houses.

What does a typical day look like?

A typical day looks like lots of emails to and from our freelancers, usually some troubleshooting for our editors with our programs, or having meetings to go over upcoming deadlines.

Where do you fit into the book publishing process?

Managing Ed acts as a middle man between all of the departments. We’re in touch with production, art, sometimes even marketing. Most of the time were trying to push materials through to the next step to keep things on time. It’s a lot of time keeping! If something is going to be late, we work with the other departments to ensure we’re not going to mess anything up further on in the production process. And if we are, we figure out how we can fix that.

What kind of support can an author expect from someone in your role?

I don’t work one-on-one with authors, but a big part of my job is managing the freelancer pool that takes care of line edits, copy writing, and sensitivity reads. It’s my job to find the best fit for the story and manuscript, to help that manuscript be the best it can be!

Do you have any funny/memorable/challenging moments you could share with our readers about working on Series romance over the years?

My whole experience at Harlequin has been memorable. I knew nothing of the romance world before I started working here, and it’s been such a fun couple of years. It’s probably one of the best work environments I’ve ever been in because of the amazing people I work with.

What upcoming Series books are you excited for or what have you worked on lately?

I’m in love with the new Michelle Major series, Maggie & Griffin from Special Edition. It’s a three-book series that I read while I was out sick and couldn’t wait to tell the Special Edition editors how much I loved them.

***

Niki graduated from Gettysburg College in 2015 and joined the Harlequin Managing Editorial team in February 2017. She likes to re-watch episodes of Timeless in her spare time.

Twitter: @nikirokicki

3 replies on “Inside Harlequin: Managing Editorial”

You mentioned you manage the freelancer pool. What is the role of a freelancer? I’ve heard they read from the ‘slush’ pile, make notes, and forward that MS to an editor, but not sure how accurate that is.

Hi Marcie, the role of the freelancer can vary. They help us with a number of things, including copy edits and proofreads. It’s all according to their own professional experience and skill set. Thanks for your question!

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