Natalia Ruiz hosted our Instagram on July 17th for our weekly #SalaSundays series.
Latinx in Pub (LxP): What do you do?
Natalia Ruiz (NR): I am an assistant editor at Holt for adult fiction and nonfiction, so I assist two editors and am just now starting my own list.
LxP: How did you get started?
NR: I attended CPC in 2019 and received a direct referral to the editor who hired me. Prior to CPC, I interned for a semester at Folio Literary Management and had a couple of journalism internships under my belt as well.
LxP: What do you wish you knew before getting into the industry?
NR: On the application/entry front, to relax and have fun with the process! Because it's difficult and time-consuming to get that first job in publishing, and, from what I can tell, a lot of hiring decisions are heavily influenced on personality matches. So being able to ease up during the interviews goes a long way in terms of preserving your personal mental health AND in helping you be a more competitive applicant.
On the long-term front, with a grain of salt as I'm only 3 years in, I've found that it helps to be conscientious about developing my interests and hobbies that don't pertain to my job to prevent burnout.
LxP: What book are you currently working on or reading?
NR: Shameless plug here, I'm working on THE CROW VALLEY KARAOKE CHAMPIONSHIPS, a super fun, pacey romp through small-town Canada. This is the first book I edited, and it's coming out in July 2023!
For personal reading, I like to have a couple of books in the works. Right now, they are THE HACIENDA by Isabel Cañas, NEVADA by Imogen Binnie, and THE MONK by Matthew Lewis.
Natalia Ruiz is an assistant editor at Holt, where she has worked on a wide range of adult fiction and nonfiction since August 2019. She grew up in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.
