24, part two

As editors at Select Editions, we’re caught in the same bind as everyone else when it comes to selecting our 24 books a year. Of course, we read books before they’re published, so sometimes a book’s success can take us by surprise, but on the other hand, a brand name is a brand name, and when a big author’s manuscript arrives, we can be pretty confident that it will make the bestseller lists. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a book for SE. We’re not just looking for bestsellers, because lots of bestsellers aren’t as good as you would like them to be. We have to pick and choose. Not only that, but some writers publish multiple books in a year, and we have only 24 spaces available in our series; we have to be choosy.

In fact, our reading program (and we read as many manuscripts as we can get our hands on) is designed in part to go past the big names. We want to see who the new people are, to find those first-time authors or lesser-known authors who are doing excellent work but haven’t made it big yet. We see that as a service to our readers, but to tell you the truth, we also get a kick out of it ourselves. It’s really fun to pull a random manuscript off the pile and find that it’s the best book you’ve read in months and you can’t wait to recommend it for the series. For an editor selecting books for SE, it doesn’t get much better than that.

So we need to balance our program between the bestsellers that are good, and the titles that should be bestsellers. And, somehow, we’ve got to limit this program to 24 titles a year, 4 at a time, making sure each individual volume contains a nice variety of stories. Of course, you can’t please everyone with every book (and we editors often argue among ourselves), but we try.

Choosing 24 books a year for the program isn’t easy. But sometimes it sure is fun.

—Jim

24, part one

We choose 24 books a year for Select Editions. Those books are chosen from the literally thousands published every year, some of which make it to the bestseller lists. Now in a way it stands to reason that the process by which books become bestsellers is similar to the process by which readers can choose what books to read. That is, a hundred books or so make the bestseller lists every year, and since the average reader has enough trouble sorting through a hundred books, much less thousands, it makes sense for readers to limit their selection to those bestsellers. After all, through some mysterious publishing process these have already risen to the top. Why not stick with them?

If it were only that easy! Bestsellers become bestsellers for a variety of reasons. Maybe the author has previously written a bestseller, thus becoming something of a brand name. Since buying a book is, to a degree, picking a pig in a poke, your chances may seem better if you choose a familiar pig. But not all books by all authors, even the very best authors, are uniformly good. Unfortunately you don’t find this out until after you’ve brought it home and read it.

Another reason books become bestsellers is that they are, on their own, really good, although that’s not as easy a process as it should be. As more and more newspapers and magazines eliminate book reviews, it’s hard for a book to be recognized on its merits alone. But it does happen. In today’s era of book groups and web communities, many people look to other people of similar interest as guides to what to read. The only problem is, you have to find the people that you’re most likely to agree with.

More tomorrow…

—Jim

The mix

When you look at the September 2007 volume of Select Editions, you'll probably notice something right away. Two of the authors are among the biggest names in fiction today: Julie Garwood and Jeffery Deaver are old pros at getting themselves at the top of the bestseller lists. But we've also got two authors you probably haven't heard of. Peter Pezzelli and Sarah Allen are new to the game, writers who are just starting to get their work published.

One of the great joys of reading is discovering new works and new writers, especially those with such great promise as these two. And at SE we love to put new people into volumes alongside their more established colleagues. The tried and true on the one hand, the up-and-coming newbies on the other hand. It makes for a fun mix of titles, and that mix is important to us. Variety of styles, variety of subject, variety of authors—whatever mood you might be in, we hope we have something there in the mix.

Is there something else in the mix you'd like to see? Let us know.

—Jim

Welcome to the Select Editions blog

The Select Editions editorial staff and I want to welcome you to our blog! (If you'd like to learn more about the staff, go to our bios posted on August 16 and 17.) We'll be posting behind-the-scenes tidbits about the Select Editions authors and stories, book news and reviews, and random musings about reading and the editorial life. But most of all on this blog we'd like to get to know you better, so please leave comments and questions following any postings of interest to you. Our plan is to make this a fun gathering place for fans of Select Editions and the wonderful world of reading in general, and the more we hear from you the better!

—Laura

Editor's profile: Tom Clemmons

1. Who is your favorite SE author and why?
There are so many! But I’ll settle for Dick Francis. He writes with economy and wit, and I’m a sucker for mysteries set in England.

2. What is your favorite genre?
Give me a cliff-hanger-filled, information-packed medical thriller, like the fiction of Robin Cook, and I’m a goner.

3. How long have you been working at Reader’s Digest?
Twenty-five years.

4. What is the most memorable book you’ve worked on?
Street Boys by Lorenzo Carcaterra. After editing this richly evoked World War II drama set in Italy, I felt as if I’d lived through the experiences of the novel and actually been to Naples.

5. What classic novel did you never finish in high school or college?
McTeague by Frank Norris

6. What is your favorite children’s book?
The Church Mouse by Graham Oakley

7. What other projects do you work on at Select Editions?
I’m the editorial director of The World’s Best Reading classics series (we’re up to Book #110!).

Editor's profile: Joe McGrath

1. Who is your favorite SE author and why?
Michael Connelly because even his minor characters are very real.

2. What is your favorite genre?
Suspense.

3. How long have you been working at Reader’s Digest?
Twenty-five years.

4. What is the most memorable book you’ve worked on?
Lee and Grant: A Dual Biography because it started a life-long interest in the Civil War.

5. What classic novel did you never finish in high school or college?
Mill on the Floss

6. What is your favorite children’s book?
Random House Book of Poetry for Children

7. What other projects do you work on at Select Editions?
I’m the editorial director of Today's Best Nonfiction. We’re coming up on our 100th volume now.

Editor's Profile: Laura Kelly

1. Who is your favorite SE author and why?
Lee Child because good ol' Jack Reacher always saves the day (and the lady).

2. What is your favorite genre?
I like a nice, complicated romance.

3. How long have you been working at Reader’s Digest?
12 years.

4. What is the most memorable book you’ve worked on?
City of Bones by Michael Connelly. It was the first of his books I read and now I've gone back to read all of them. And The Conjurer’s Bird by Martin Davies. Every time I read it, it reveals more hidden clues.

5. What classic novel did you never finish in high school or college?
I never finished Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

6. What is your favorite children’s book?
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Montgomery.

7. What other projects do you work on at Select Editions?
I supervise the many reading series activities here at RD.

Editor's Profile: Jim Menick

1. Who is your favorite SE author and why?
Tough question. Let’s just say I can’t figure out why Michael Connelly is sooo good while being so spare, I get a kick out of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher stories, and I jump on Fannie Flagg books the minute they arrive in the house.

2. What is your favorite genre?
No particular favorite: I like to be surprised. But I do tend not to be much of a fan of gruesome, violent stories. I’ve had enough serial killers to last me a lifetime.

3. How long have you been working at Reader’s Digest?
Twenty-six years.

4. What is the most memorable book you’ve worked on?
Recently that would have to be Dick Francis’s Under Orders, for the joy of seeing a master return at the top of his game, doing what he does best

5. What classic novel did you never finish in high school or college?
Portrait of a Lady, postponed until I was old enough to understand it. No one under the age of thirty should even know Henry James ever existed.

6. What is your favorite children’s book?
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

7. What other projects do you work on at Select Editions?
I manage all the schedules and assignments for the editors, and I tend to be the first one to beat up any new technologies that come our way. Like blogging.

Editor's Profile: Barbara Clark

1. Who is your favorite SE author and why?
Belva Plain, because she sees inside the human heart with laserlike clarity. When she finds the truth, she shows it to us gently.

2. What is your favorite genre?
Family drama, because no two families are alike.

3. How long have you been working at Reader’s Digest?
Seven years.

4. What is the most memorable book you’ve worked on?
Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray, because I love baking and the author writes so brilliantly about chocolate!

5. What classic novel did you never finish in high school or college?
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust . . . I’ll save it for retirement.

6. What is your favorite children’s book?
Herbert Rowbarge by Natalie Babbitt.

7. What other projects do you work on at Select Editions?
I also am the editorial director of our Editor’s Choice book program—a little “something extra” for our longtime customers.

Editor's Profile: Amy Reilly

1. Who is your favorite SE author and why?
It’s a tie between Robert Crais and Lee Child. I’m a complete sucker for their very-tough-guy-with-a-battered-heart-of-gold heroes. I’d say Michael Connelly too, but two of my colleagues have already snagged him.

2. What is your favorite genre?
Mystery and suspense, because I find it the most “escapist” from my real life.

3. How long have you been working at Reader’s Digest?
Seventeen years.

4. What is the most memorable book you’ve worked on?
Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler. She is a literary icon whom I have long admired. It was somewhat intimidating to edit her work.

5. What classic novel did you never finish in high school or college?
Moby-Dick . Call me bored. I just couldn’t get that excited about a whale, although I’m told the book is about much more than that.

6. What is your favorite children’s book?
The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. I can still remember my mother reading it to me on vacation at the beach when I was very young. Many years later I read it to my own kids, who loved it as much as I did.

7. What other projects do you work on at Select Editions?
I’m also the editorial director of our fabulous classic mystery series The Best Mysteries of All Time (we’re on Book #56 of the series). What a treat it is to work on this product.