Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing 2022
Ansa Khan: How to get published and the myths of publishing. P
art of the Bronte Festival of Women's Writing.
Ever wondered the secret to getting published? Want to bust some myths about the process? Senior commissioning editor Ansa Khan is here to give you hints and tips of the trade. Publishing a range of contemporary, up-and-coming female writers, Ansa gets to the root of what catches a publishes eye.
"For many of the books that I’ve published, I was the only publisher that offered. I think there’s an expectation that all editors must be after the same ‘hot’ books, but that’s not the case. What you fall in love with, and what you feel genuinely passionate about publishing is deeply personal. Of course you have to ask, will this speak to other people? But the question you always start with is: does this speak to me?"
Ansa Khan Khattak is a Commissioning Editor at Hutchinson Heinemann publishing both literary fiction and narrative non-fiction. Her authors include Dima Alzayat, Lana Bastašić, Lucia Berlin, Wendy Erskine, Danielle Evans, Mary South, and Éric Vuillard.