James L’Angelle//University of Nevada, Reno//
Hachette Book Group
As if written by an aspiring writer itself, the company’s mission statement is full of lofty content, none of which provides a clear cut path for the contributor in achieving success for work submitted:
“To be the #1 destination for authors, agents, customers, client publishers, and employees. To be a respected publisher that values diversity, nurtures talent, rewards success, and honors its responsibilities. To be market focused in all we do, and to lead change in popular culture. To anticipate change, foster creativity, and encourage risk-taking and innovation.”
Hachette employs just under 1400 professionals, with salaries upwards of $50,000 a year. It’s private and unlisted on stock exchanges. Diversity and inclusion for race and gender is fairly equally distributed. The company depends on revenue from book sales. At $3 billion revenue in 2021, Hachette is the second-largest book publisher in the world. Most of the income is from hard copies at just under 90 percent; with the rest distributed over Ebooks and audio books.
Diversity that exists in the staffing of the publisher itself also is apparent in the contributors. Genre range extends from non-fiction to fiction, children’s to teen and young adult, romance to science-fiction, cooking, travel and mind, body, spirit releases. From its authors’ page, Hachette publishes a wide spectrum of topics, genres and styles. That includes the 2014 Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, controversial fiction sensation J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame, and diverse political insights from Republican Newt Gingrich and Admiral William H. McRaven. The admiral was responsible for the success of the raid on Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, the 2001 Twin Towers attack mastermind, who was killed in the 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALS.
How successful will a release be when published by Hachette? According to the Harvard University library, the answer to that question is vague:
“Strange as it may seem, we know of no reliable, publicly-available way to get comprehensive statistics for book sales at this time. The only database with reasonably accurate information is Nielsen BookScan, which reports point-of-sale data, but even that claims to represent only 75% of all retail sales.”
In other words, in spite of an aggressive ad campaign to promote a new release, there is no guarantee that it will perform well on the market; for that matter, even be able to be tracked in the marketplace. To what degree reviews affect sales is arbitrary as well. Along with Nielsen, other services require registration and a fee to track sales; otherwise, it’s up to the media to report success or failure of a publication on the market. In the case of Yousafzai’s book, released in late 2013, early reviews assisted in making the book an international sensation.
Reuters reported in 2016 that Yousafzai’s book sold nearly 300,000 copies in the UK alone and nearly 2 million worldwide; those figures quoted by Nielsen.
Getting a positive review by a nationally syndicated journalist such as Jill Lawless of the Associated Press can do more for the success of a new release than any advertising campaign by the publishing house.
A visitor to the Hachette Book Group website will be greeted by a six-slide scrolling marquis promoting the latest releases, from politics to Black History Month to Clean Air. The front page is broken down into stand alone new releases, genre and author breakdown, blogs, best sellers and news links. To say the page offers the reader more than one can digest would be an understatement. It radiates power and personality. Where to even begin for submissions offers little insight. An email sent to the publishing Down Under arm inquiring about the who’s who in the submission process received the following response:
Hachette Australia Manuscript Submission, Wed, Feb 1, 9:23 AM
Thank you for your submission to Hachette Australia.
Your submission will be reviewed by members of our editorial team. Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to respond to each submission individually, nor are we able to give feedback.
If you have not received a response from us within six weeks of this email, your submission has been assessed as not suitable for our list.
Regards, Hachette Australia
It is no surprise in the modern digital world controlled by artificial intelligence and algorithms that an aspiring writer has to now run not just the gauntlet of acquiring a literary agent, but one of formal responses and rejection emails to even get into the acquisition office of the publisher. This particular inquiry was chosen as Australia did not require a literary agent, as in the United Kingdom and the United States. The chances of success are minimal, but even those odds are better than none at all.
The prospect of employment may be marginal as well. Depending on the educational background of a career seeker at the publishing group, certainly there are a number of opportunities available beyond that of becoming an actual contributor. Those might include at the entry level, one of a reader, beginning with employment at an external literary agency, and with recommendations, full time on the editorial staff. Some of the more complex jobs beyond reading and editing would require a more robust background in business. The choices for the publishing aspect of the company would also depend on background in print, whether hard copy or digital. The Careers page at the group’s website offers various ways to break into publishing, one of which is by becoming an intern.
Requirements include an application deadline, a cover letter, and experience related to reading and writing.
Malala Yousafzai’s credentials were impeccable when her story was submitted to Hachette. The front cover of her book attests to this. Her impressive image stands out where the young Pakistani lady appears to have just enough makeup to appeal to Western readers, but not enough to offend those of her faith. She wears a partial burqa, her face is uncovered. In the top left corner, embedded in a yellow circle, the caption reads, “Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.” Inside the front cover book jacket, she states, “I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.” It was co-written by Christina Lamb, described inside the back cover as “ one of the world’s leading foreign correspondents.” The process by which she won the rights to have her extraordinary tale published by Hachette will remain for another day.
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