How books become succesful

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future.

Just how does a book go from a germ of an idea in one person's head to top of the best-sellers list? How important are the army of proofreaders, indexers, copy editors and publicists in helping an author pen a succesful novel? In this episode of Bridges to the Future, Matthew meets with Rebecca Lee, editorial manager at Penguin, to get the inside track on what it takes to achieve publishing glory.

Rebecca Lee is an editorial manager at Penguin Random House. She's spent twenty years managing hundreds of high-profile books from delivery of manuscript to finished copies, signing off millions of words as fit to go to print with only the occasional regret. Her latest book is, 'How Words Get Good: The Story of Making a Book'.

A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA.

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