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 CaΓ±as, 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.
