Hi everyone, and this afternoon on the blog, I’m delighted to welcome Tina Pietron. Tina works as a Commissioning Editor for One More Chapter’s new crime and thriller imprint called Cliffhanger and I was delighted when she came on the blog for an interview.
Read on for her journey into her current role, what she looks for in submissions and unusually, which I’m thrilled about, the commissioning editor’s perspective on this process.
Over to you, Tina…
1) How did you first become involved in the publishing industry? Was it something that you always wanted to do?
I studied German Literature in uni in Germany and actually didn’t know what to do with my degree. Once I moved to London in 2018, while doing my master’s thesis, I started thinking about what I wanted to do after I graduated.
Everything came down to one thing: I love reading books (both in German and English) and because I was always a curious person and wondered how a book actually got made from acquisition to finished book and everything surrounding it, I began to look into the different roles in publishing and the various companies and imprints and started applying to any work experience and internships I could find.
Because I wasn’t sure what area in the industry I wanted to go with (I had no experience at all) I applied to everything and secured a couple of work experiences. I quickly understood that I wanted to work in editorial more than any other department, so I narrowed my search down further and applied to editorial opportunities.
2) You worked for Collins Learning as a Content Editor. What did this role involve?
I managed to secure a 6 month internship with Collins and then extended my role by becoming a permanent Content Editor, which was great! I learned a lot about the educational publishing processes, which involves a lot of project management and working collaboratively with internal teams and external people.
My role mainly entailed making sure books, ranging from primary to A-Level school textbooks, were on time, within the set budget and executed to a high standard so that teachers and students had useful recourses to work with.
3) You then worked for Severn House as an Assistant Editor. What was your experience like of the role and did you enjoy it?
After working 3 years at Collins, I started to look into trade publishing, especially commercial books, which was something that intrigued me, as I’m an avid reader of genre fiction. I wanted to become an editor, working collaboratively with authors on their fiction books, which is why I applied to the Assistant Editor role at Severn House.
The role entailed different processes and tasks compared to Collins, and especially the privilege of editing books, while still project managing the books’ publishing cycle. I mainly worked on crime and thriller books, with some horror and historical crime titles too.
I thoroughly enjoyed my role, working together with authors on their brilliant manuscripts, collaborating with marketing on campaigns, designers on covers and jackets, sales on pricing strategies etc.
I had a great team who supported me throughout my career there. With time I gained more and more experience and had my own author list to manage independently and was promoted to Editor.
4) What is a commissioning editor in commercial fiction? How did your current role at Cliffhanger with One More Chapter come about?
While working at Severn House, I really enjoyed commissioning new authors and re-commissioning my existing authors – this means reaching out to existing authors to ask them if they’re happy to write us more books and help developing their proposals and keeping an eye out for new writers that could be fitting for our list, either via agent submissions, our submission inbox or research.
But this is why I decided that I wanted to become a commissioning editor as my next step. When I saw the job opening from One More Chapter, I was thoroughly intrigued by their goal to focus more on crime and thriller publishing, which then resulted in the new and exciting imprint Cliffhanger. My background with Severn House was suitable for this role, so I applied and went through the interview process and got the job.
It mainly involves looking after our established author list while also acquiring new voices. And as always it’s about the book’s publishing cycle, collaborating with our authors and working with internal teams to champion our books across the formats and markets.
5) What do you look for in submissions for Cliffhanger?
We’re mainly looking for commercial books in the crime and thriller sphere, especially gritty and regional police procedurals, gripping action and adventure books, standout horror and intriguing psychological or domestic suspense, serial killer/high-concept thrillers as well as spy and military thrillers.
We also love genre mash ups as long as the mystery/thriller is the focus, e.g. it can be interlaced with fantasy, sci-fi, historical background etc. We love to see a strong hook and voice, a plot that will keep readers turning pages and interesting characterisation.
Personally I love all things dark, so the darker the plot the more you’ll have me hooked, but we’re also on the lookout for cozy crime that we don’t have on our list yet.
6) Can you tell me a little bit about the submission process for Cliffhanger and what it is like from the commissioning editor’s perspective?
We have a dedicated portal on submittable where authors (agented or not) can submit their manuscripts to us. I would advice that authors do their research on imprints and their lists and submit to suitable imprints, so while Cliffhanger is a commercial imprint, we’re mainly looking for submissions that are in the above mentioned crime and thriller sphere.
Due to the amount of submissions we get it can take a little while for us to go through a submission and decide if it’s suitable for our list or not, so it can take a bit of time for authors to hear back from us.
7) How do you feel when you have to reject a submission from an author? Do you offer notes/editing advice?
We do get a lot of submissions, so we’re not always able to provide detailed feedback, but we try and reply to as many authors as we can. We try our best to have some feedback for them as well, but it’s not always guaranteed.
8) On a weekend, what do you do to relax? What do you enjoy doing away from your job?
I read a lot during my weekends haha! And no, not just for work. While I love a dark and twisty thriller plot, I also love dark romance and enjoy the occasional non-fiction book. But I also love painting, going on hikes, and plan my next holiday trip.
Thank you for coming on the blog this afternoon, Tina. It has been a pleasure to interview you.
Bio: Tina is Commissioning Editor at One More Chapter’s imprint Cliffhanger. She started her publishing career at Collins as Content Editor working on educational books and switched to genre fiction in 2022 championing Severn House books as Assistant Editor until she was promoted to Editor.
She has worked across crime, thriller, cosy and historical mystery, psychological suspense and horror, and she has a special place in her heart for everything dark and twisty. Tina will be keeping an eye out for more crime and thriller books and tap into the action and adventure sphere.
