Books are my business: Freelance editor and writer Seán Farrell

He grew up in Westmeath and Meath, lived in France for many years, and is now based in Sligo with his wife and children.

How did you get into publishing?

My father [Antony Farrell] is the publisher at Lilliput Press so I’ve been involved with the book business since I was a child. 

Independent publishing is as much about cleaning pigeon droppings off pallets of books as it is about launching writers. 

I got into editing because of writing; sharing my work with other writers, giving and receiving feedback.

I started to do it professionally through word of mouth and it has continued from there.

What does your role involve?

As submissions editor at Lilliput, I read the work that writers and agents send in and choose which projects to share with the commissioning team. 

We have a quite eclectic list so it’s an open-ended mission. 

As an editor, I work with various publishers (including Lilliput) and private clients to develop manuscripts until they are ready for production. 

This can involve substantive structural and thematic adaptations as well as changes to the plot, or it can be just about line edits and polishing up paragraphs.

What do you like most about it?

This weather, I’m very glad I have a job that I can do without having to get out of bed. I love reading and I love seeing how a good writer responds to editorial feedback. 

Some people find it very difficult to accept criticism no matter how constructive, some lack confidence in their work and take too much on board; but others consider even minor things in profound and surprising ways. 

It’s fascinating to watch a great mind at work.

What do you like least about it?

The sheer volume of text out there makes it difficult to give enough time to submissions; people put a huge amount into their work and they deserve proper consideration and responses. 

However, they should also engage with and develop their material as fully as possible before approaching publishers. 

Reading submissions that are nowhere near ready puts the author at a disadvantage as well as taking time away from more considered work.

What are your career highlights?

Having my own manuscript accepted for publication and being offered a contract for a second novel are definitely what I’m happiest about but it’s always a thrill when collaborations are successful.

Three desert island books

I think Moby-Dick is probably my favourite of the ‘big books’. I haven’t read it in a long time but often felt like revisiting it. It would also work as a pillow.

I would take the most comprehensive anthology of poetry I could find; The New Penguin Book of English Verse ,compiled by Paul Keegan, is one of the best I’ve seen. 

Poems are very slow reading for me but they certainly have the most sustenance in them and you never get bored of the ones you click with. 

Norman MacCaig’s animal poems come to mind at the moment, and I was reading some John F Deane over Christmas that I can’t get away from.

My third choice would be Ameliaranne and the Green Umbrella by Constance Heward. 

The physical object of a book can sometimes be as important as the words, and the random nature of how we come to some books and the things they represent in wholly idiosyncratic ways is a big part of the magic. 

I found this book in an old house and it used to belong to a friend. 

It’s very sentimental to me for a number of different reasons, none of which have anything to do with the content of the pages. 

I’d bury this one in the sand and dig it up when I wanted a totem to cry over.