A Q&A with developmental editor J.C. Gabel
Inkshares’ developmental editor J.C. Gabel (who just finished development on Kyle James’ much anticipated Not Afraid of the Fall) began his career in publishing at the age of 19. In the mid-’90s, he handmade the first issue of a zine called Stop Smiling, and has been making books full time since 2010 for a variety of publishers (Taschen, Phaidon, Chronicle, Rare Bird, Melville House), and also through his own imprint, Hat & Beard. He contributes regular features, criticism, profiles and interviews for the Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Bookforum, The Paris Review, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Wallpaper.
We recently caught up with Gabel to speak about literary nightstand favorites, common mistakes writers make in early drafts, the importance of physical books, and more.
Is there a book you read in 2016 that stays with you most? Several, but the one that keeps popping up in conversations is Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell by Deborah Solomon, the New York Times staff writer and art critic. This was the first biography of the famously reclusive Cornell, and it got a spectacular reissue by Other Press in New York City.
If you could live a day in the life of a character from any book who would it be? A tie: Ignatius Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces or Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Which books are currently on your nightstand? I am in the midst of re-reading a spat of modernist classics, while finishing up work on a graphic survey book of New Directions, one of the best independent publishers of literature in the world for 80 years and counting. Notably favorites from the canon: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes; Journey to the End of the Night by Louis Ferdinand Celine; Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov; Wisdom of the Heart by Henry Miller; Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West; The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald; Collected Poems by Stevie Smith; Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood; everything by Clarice Lispector and Muriel Spark.
Can you tell us a little about your background? Where did you go to school? How did you get into book editing? What was the first book you ever worked on? I grew up making zines with my friends in Chicago as a teenager. I also used to work at record labels, bookstores and record shops in the pre-broadband Internet era. By 19, Stop Smiling, “The Magazine for High-Minded Lowlifes,” was born, and took off a few years later, as a glossy magazine. We all migrated to New York in the late 1990s, but always kept a big foot in the door in Chicago, and continued to publish regularly for 15 years, before we all made a left turn into books when it was clear that substantive magazines were dying as solvent businesses; everything was becoming gamed by new-fangled internet tricks and advertorial muck. More practically: I’m a print purist; therefore, books seemed like a lot more reasonable a medium to work within and still make money in our Post-Digital Age while still making physical product. Digital books don’t interest me. It’s all about the object. I have been making books full time since 2010 for a variety of publishers (Taschen, Phaidon, Chronicle, Rare Bird, Melville House), and also through my own imprint, Hat & Beard. All in all, I’m what you would call an “accidental editor.”
You have a background in nonfiction, but mainly photo/illustration books that likely have quite different developmental needs than narrative nonfiction or memoir. How would you characterize these differences? I’m morphing into more of a curator, art/literary historian and small publisher. I’ll always write and edit books, but my day-to-day headspace is moving into a new arena, which I think is healthy after 20 years in the trenches of traditional publishing.
I’ve always been a non-fiction junkie: oral histories, biographies, memoirs, a book of letters, cultural histories—these are the titles I spend my off time (what little I have) reading. I also—for many years—wrote about nonfiction books for various magazines, websites and newspapers, including the New York Times, the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Paris Review, the Oxford American, Wallpaper and Playboy, where I was a staff writer for several years.
Nonfiction is now king when it come to sales. This seemed like a natural fit for me to break out of the so-called art book genre. I have also done several other word-driven nonfiction books.
From your experience, how would you explain what a developmental editor does to an author who has yet to dive into the publishing process? A developmental editor is, first and foremost, the person who has to make tough decisions about what needs to stay or go, and how to best tell the story, at any costs. This is hard to accept, but it’s part of “the process.”
What is the most common mistake you've seen new authors make in their early drafts? 1. Not understanding grammar and how it works. 2. Writing a first draft that is longer than James Joyce’s Ulysses.
What's your typical process like when working with an author on their manuscript? What can they expect in terms of feedback? I dive in pretty deep. I usually read the book three times before marking it all up to see what can really go immediately vs. what has to be re-written, per se. This is a long process unless it’s one’s full time job. I usually have three to four months with a book of this length to get it into shape so that it can be made into galleys; then printed in its final format.
If you could give first-time authors one piece of advice on how they can improve their manuscript before handing it in for a developmental edit, what would you tell them? Think about how others will read your work on a first pass when you finish your work. Then, ask yourself: Will the work grab their attention so that you can finish the book in a few sittings? If the answer is “No,” then you have to keep cutting the book down to the most digestible length before turning it into any publisher. This will save everyone A LOT of time and energy and avoid frustration and editorial impasses.