A Book Scout ~ A Literary Dream Job?

Aside from being a writer or an editor, what other careers in the publishing industry might be worth while? How about a career as a book scout? Learn more about being a book scout by reading an article I discovered on Bustle titled, What Is A Book Scout? Hanna Masaryk Takes You Behind-The-Scenes Of The Literary Dream Job by Kerri Jarema. In the article, Kerri Jarema writes the following:

"Literary scouts work on behalf of foreign publishers as consultants, helping them find books from the American market that they want to purchase translation rights to and publish in their markets," Masaryk tells Bustle. "Each scouting agency has a distinct, one on one relationship with their clients. We get to know not only the publishing trends in those countries, but our editors' tastes as well. We are their facilitators, their eyes and ears, and their public image here on the ground in New York."

And according to Masaryk, being the eyes and ears requires a lot: meetings with American agents, editors, and foreign rights managers to hear about the books they are working on and attempting to sell abroad; reading everything; and then writing to clients with detailed reports about why she thinks it would work for their list (or why it wouldn't). It's a particularly multi-level, fast paced subset of an industry that is already all go, go, go.

Click on the above link to read the entire article on what it takes to be a book scout!