Latinx in Publishing (LxP) : What do you do?
Chris Gonzalez (CG): Right now I manage ebook production and distribution for Macmillan Publishers. But I'm also a fiction editor at the literary journal Barrelhouse and a writer myself.
LxP: How did you get started?
CG: I was the EIC of the college newspaper my junior year after holding several editor and writing roles—I loved the process of assembling the 20-page paper every week, from writing and editing to laying out each section and proofreading the whole thing. This led me down a path of trying to find a job in publishing, though I wasn't sure how close to the actual books I wanted to work, so I tried out a few internships. I held an editorial internship at Orbit Books and Yen Press, then the following summer I interned again with Hachette Book Group, in manufacturing and digital production, where I enjoyed the work a little more. What I loved most was how it seemed I could have this creative life that was separate from my office job. After the production internship, I got my full-time start at Macmillan doing ebook quality assurance. Been there for over 6 years.
LxP: What do you wish you knew before getting into the industry?
CG: How many people it truly takes to make a book. We talk a lot about editing, marketing, and publicity, which are all important.. But there are so many jobs in any given publishing house: bookmakers like production and managing editorial, audio, sales, subrights, contracts, ebooks, metadata management, business systems, IT, the mailroom and facilities, and the list goes on. There's this glitzy and glamorous side to industry, but it takes the hard, poorly-compensated labor of so many players to uphold it and keep the machine running.
LxP: What book are you currently working on or reading?
CG: Currently reading Melissa Lozada-Olivia's Dreaming of You (Astra House) and Dave Housley's The Other Ones (Alan Squire Publishing).
Christopher Gonzalez is a queer Puerto Rican writer and the author of I'm Not Hungry but I Could Eat (SFWP 2021). He is a recipient of the 2021 Artist Fellowship in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and his writing appears in the Nation, Catapult, Best Microfictions, and Best Small Fictions, among other journals. He currently serves as a fiction editor at Barrelhouse magazine, manages trade ebook production for Macmillan Publishers, and lives in Brooklyn, NY but mostly on Twitter @livesinpages.
