Literary Connections Across Publishing Fields | An Interview with AJ Herlong

An interview with AJ Herlong, publishing studies student at Hofstra University and member of the Hofstra Windmill editorial team

Q: What led you to pursue an undergraduate publishing studies program? 

A: I was always interested in reading and being a part of the book publishing community. I am not a writer, though, and so I was like, “What are some other ways I can do this?” And I decided that publishing—and editing—sounded right up my alley. So I thought, “Publishing… perfect.”

Q: How do you feel your experience working at a literary magazine has impacted you? 

A: It definitely has oriented me towards what to expect—even though the experience is not going to be the exact same at a company. It definitely helps [with] reading things fast, and like, getting to know your gut instinct of “I will like this” or “I won’t like this,” because there’s so many stories that have to go through the “slush”—because that’s the iconic industry thing—so it’s helpful to have a little insight into that throughout this magazine process.

Q: What do you feel is the importance of literary magazines today?

A: I think literary magazines are super important for highlighting all voices. There’s a lot of magazines that focus on very niche subjects which otherwise are not published or are kind of shuffled out of view on the world wide web, if that makes sense. So like, if people post on their blogs, not everyone is as likely to visit a single blog for a single story. A lot of people like those anthology-type [magazines]—reading a lot of stories all at once. So literary magazines tend to foster that sense of like, “Here’s a bunch of stories from a bunch of authors all at once, all in the same niche.” And then a lot more people get to enjoy it and a lot more people get to be published—and to claim that they’ve been officially published—-so it’s really cool. 

Q: Are there any literary magazines that you read on a regular basis?

A: Honestly, no… actually yes, I read Font.

Q:  In your eyes, what is the value of having programs specifically dedicated to book publishing, such as the one here at Hofstra? Should there be more of such programs? Or is the concentration somewhat unnecessary?

A: I think it’s give and take. I think this program is definitely more helpful than a traditional English literature program, which is why we have the different concentrations. I think having classes dedicated to the skills of the publishing industry—such as editing, having the experience of a literary magazine staff credit—having those experiences—such as Book Design—all these classes specifically dedicated to the technical aspect of the industry versus just reading and writing and analyzing texts… having that distinction has made the college experience so much more enjoyable for me. Because I’m not someone who loves analyzing texts like that, and I feel like I just have more practical application. I definitely think more schools could benefit from this program, [but] I also think having it be a little more unique is also a good thing. So I think [there could be] some more, but maybe not like, every single school in the country. 

Q: There are many differing opinions and perspectives (both positive and negative) on what the publishing industry is going to look like in the coming years. As someone who is just now building a career in the industry, can you give some insight into your own personal outlook on the future of publishing?

A: I think everyone and their mother heard about the HarperCollins strike, which has definitely been one of the big worries of coming into the job search… and of course you also hear all these things about just how difficult it is to get a job. When it comes to the next ten years, I think there’s going to be a lot more fights for getting the wage up, like every other industry right now, [and with] all of the other strikes happening. There’s just so many people trying to gain labor rights at the moment. I really hope to see that reflected in publishing… I really hope the industry sees that need because there are so many talented people who are being forced to leave over these issues. So I really hope to see these companies recognizing [that], and giving a fair wage, and giving more rights to workers so that way we can just do what we do best, which is produce amazing stories for the population. 

Q: Do you feel that your time working at a literary magazine will help you as you pursue work in traditional publishing?

A: Absolutely. As I was saying earlier, I’m happy that I have experience with slush now, [and] I’m happy that I have experience working on a team. Even though we’re all students learning, I feel like our sessions talking about, say, the order of the magazine and which pieces we really want versus which pieces we were more debating over… having that experience working with a team and having differing opinions but then still being able to, at the end of the day, respect that they’re a part of the team, I think that has been valuable. 

Q: What is something you’ve worked on, either at Windmill or in your other publishing courses, that you are proud of? 

A: I know I was just mentioning how I came into the publishing program being like “I can’t write,” but I actually have taken a couple creative writing courses and I would say, not every single piece I’ve produced, but there’s a few pieces in the creative writing electives that I’ve taken which I’ve absolutely adored. So that makes me really feel warm and fuzzy and feel like I can be a writer, not in a “publish a bunch of novels” kind of way, but the whole experience in my classes has been like, “You can do other things.” Like obviously there’s poetry collections but there’s also literary magazines to publish short stories, and things like that. So, seeing [the] avenues of a writer and being able to have that slight bit of creativity to be like, “Oh yeah, I actually can write,” is really cool.