Your editor will edit your book!

But what else does an editor at a publishing house do? They’re the first person at a publishing house to get excited about a book and how amazing it is. How do they work with all the rest of the people at the publishing house — their boss, the other editorial and design staff, and the marketing, publicity, and sales staff — to make sure that everyone realizes just how great a book they have on their hands? How much of their job is managing that conversation — what’s involved, and when does it happen? And how important is it for editors to be on top of what other people at the company are planning with the books they work on?

To learn more about how editors advocate for their books with other people at their publishing house, we talk to Connie Hsu, the Executive Editor at Roaring Brook Press. In addition to working at Roaring Brook Press, Connie also edits graphic novels for Roaring Brook’s sister company, First Second Books, where she works with many graphic novelists, including Tillie Walden, Jason Walz, Marcus Emerson, Dan Santat, and Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham.

Want to know more about Connie Hsu? You can follow her on Twitter at @MissConnieH, or learn more about Roaring Brook and First Second Books.