Book Editor Visit

We welcomed back Class of 2015 alumna and commissioning editor Nina Sandelson to chat to students about her publishing career.

Nina, who is the Non-Fiction Commissioning Editor at Weidenfeld and Nicolson, joined the current editorial committee of South Hampstead’s student magazine, The Penguin, for a breakfast conversation in the school library about the world of book publishing. Chatting over cookies and hot chocolate, Nina told the girls about her journey into her current role, as well as divulging details of what the role of an editor entails. Nina explained that an editor is essentially an ‘expert reader’ – someone who can look beyond their own experience, interests, and tastes, and anticipate the best potential ways to tell a particular story.

She shared with the girls her most recent success leading the commissioning and editing process of 2024’s Clown World, an investigative book about Andrew Tate and male ‘incel’ culture – this was a project that has become immensely timely and crucial in understanding the current climate of increasing misogyny online. To break into a career as an editor, Nina noted that some essential skills are the ability to work at sometimes a very fast pace – Clown World was turned around within the course of just a year – as well as a genuine love of reading, with an interest across a wide range of different subjects.

Read the latest issue of The Penguin here