From BEA to Bake Sales

Here's a bit of irony: we had an editor, happily pregnant and obsessed with all things baby related, buy our working mom book. We figured it was perfect: here's a career woman, as committed to her profession as she is to being a mother, to help shape our book. But soon after coming back from maternity leave, our editor quit to raise her new baby. We were orphaned for a while, left wondering if what we said in the book about it being nearly impossible for working moms to please everyone—or have a single second to themselves—scared her away. A few weeks later, we ended up in the hands of a very capable and smart editor. But it left us curious about the work culture of publishing today.

Back when we were both in-house publicists at book publishing companies, it seemed someone was always either announcing a pregnancy, coming back from a pregnancy or discussing trying to get pregnant (even if we didn't want to hear the details). As two 20-somethings years away from being mothers, we were under the impression that the book world was decidedly family friendly. Leigh Ann Ambrosi, Sterling's v-p of marketing and publicity, told us that's still the case: “Publishing companies today offer great flexible options, with a four-day work week, a work-from-home day, job sharing, telecommuting and just being more open, in general, to making it work for the person. Why would a supervisor want to lose a great employee if they could work with them to satisfy the needs of both the company and the individual?”

But shaken by the sudden departure of our champion, we wondered if the pressures put on everyone these days to deliver bestsellers—or at least solid midlist titles—was beginning to take its toll on already exhausted working moms. Debbie Stier, senior v-p and associate publisher at Harper Studio, doesn't think it's any tougher for working mothers, though. “I find there is more pressure in publishing these days, but I think it's more pressure on working people in general, not just moms.”

As mothers and co-owners of a public relations business that works to promote cookbooks, we know the pressure of trying to keep both our children and our authors happy. Yet what if you work in-house, with less flexibility and more titles to keep track of? Raquel Jaramillo, children's books director at Workman, says, “Basically, we all just learn how to be super time managers, because we don't stop being moms from nine to five: we still plan the play dates, pack the lunches, fill out the school forms, make the doctors' appointments, call the teachers, schedule the tutors, help with homework, shop for school supplies, etc., etc.—we just figure out how to cram all that in before 9 a.m., after 6 p.m., or in that time that used to be set aside for lunch.”

And with a business that relies on happy, productive and enthusiastic authors, when and how do you break the news that your maternity leave coincides with a book's launch or manuscript delivery? Leigh Ann warns newly pregnant publishing women to “let authors know as far out as you can, but only if you have your maternity plan in place! For example, who's covering your titles, who's answering media calls, who's responding to your e-mails, who's pitching the author's book, etc. Having a replacement lined up early can only benefit the relationship with the author, so by the time you leave, your replacement is fully up to speed.” As with any industry, the more advance time colleagues, clients and supervisors have to get used to you being gone, the better off everyone is.

We've learned that in this economy, it's unrealistic for us to think that any publishing gig is going to be cushy for the working mom. Maybe our former editor had it right to chuck it all for freelancing between play dates. But for us, and for the women we interviewed, the struggle to find harmony between work and home is worth every exhausting minute, because we don't want to give it up. Any of it.