Ethics in Ink: A Conversation with Kate Gavino, Author of A Career in Books: A Novel about Friends, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun

Interview conducted by Savannah Aleksic, Content Committee Member, GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing

“No group is a monolith and no group of people want to write the exact same type of story.”

– Gavino on racial pigeonholing

Introduction

The bonds of friendship and personal ethos can be the driving force behind one’s survival. In A Career in Books, Kate Gavino uses her own experience working in publishing as an Asian-American woman living in one of the biggest cities in the world. Gavino uses humor and honest depictions of the publishing industry to confront questions of who gets to tell which stories and how the industry’s structural inequities shape these narratives.

We spoke over Zoom – Kate in France and I in Florida. Kate was sincere as we spoke about her experiences working in the publishing industry as an editorial assistant and an author. The backdrop of the book’s location in New York City mirrors the industry with its charming, but challenging landscape for young professionals to navigate. Likewise, Gavino expertly folds in humor through simplistic illustrations of our heroines to convey the power of sisterhood across generations.

What follows is an edited excerpt from our conversation, condensed for clarity and length.

On Realism vs Idealism in Publishing

GWJEP: How does your novel contribute to conversations on the realities of working in the publishing industry? What do you hope readers gain from reading this novel?

Kate Gavino:  I think it contributes to the conversation just because it was inspired by my perspective as a young Asian-American woman working as an editorial assistant, primarily based on the years I worked in publishing from 2011 to 2016.

The book in that sense is like a time capsule. When I reread it, I am able to gauge how much has changed because I still have a couple of friends who work in publishing. It’s interesting to see how their experiences have changed since we started working together when we were all editorial assistants. Some of them are editors now, some of them have a couple of assistants, and some have left publishing completely.

GWJEP: One thing I noticed while reading the book was the realism, which was refreshing in response to the typical glamorized view of publishing we see in films.

Kate Gavino: I appreciate that you mentioned the realism of the novel, because when you're actually working in publishing, it's not glamorous. The biggest perk for me was all the free books. But that doesn't always make up for the extremely low salary and the grunt work that you're mostly doing day in and day out. I think that's one of the biggest things I wanted to portray in the book. The second equal biggest thing was the friendships the three girls shared because, kind of a common thread even in my non-publishing jobs, what made the work valuable and worth staying was my fellow coworkers and the bond that we had. That was always the connecting thread—my friends, or my coworkers, kind of made the work more bearable.

On Character and Identity

Gavino’s reflections on workplace ethics naturally led to a discussion about creative identity and representation.

GWJEP: A Career in Books centers around three protagonists, four if you include Veronica Vo. They're all very independent, strong-spoken, Asian-American women trying to make it big in the publishing industry. How important was it for you to have these characters represented in the forefront of the book?

Kate Gavino: I think that hearing stories from the Asian-American diaspora is important and it's worth seeking out, but at the same time, when I set out to write this story I wasn't thinking about representation. The three characters were just inspired by my own experiences working in different publishing companies. In the book, Shirin works for an academic publisher, Nina worked for what was, at the time, a big six publisher, and Sylvia works for a small indie press, and those were my experiences. I really just wanted to portray the spectrum of publishers in terms of size and various company cultures.

The character Veronica Vo was inspired by various female authors that I really admired. The biggest inspiration was an English author named Anita Brookner, who I felt like never really got her flowers while she was alive, but now after she's died, more people are discovering her work. If other Asian-American or Filipino readers find the story because of that, I hope that they appreciate it.

GWJEP: On the topic of Veronica, you did touch on this a little bit but what inspired you to focus a book around Veronica, a nonagenarian character along with the three twenty-something roommates. What inspired you to write that dynamic?

Kate Gavino: I mentioned she was inspired by some authors that I really admire like Anita Brookner or Louisa May Alcott or Eileen Chang. But another reason I did want to include a character like her is representation. I feel like as both an author and someone who has worked in publishing, I got to see it from both sides. When you're on the publishing side you think about how a book should be marketed to sell. In that sense representation became a marketing tool which is a way to pigeonhole certain writers to only write one certain type of story. With Veronica's story, her first novel is about the Vietnam War and as a Vietnamese writer that's what her publisher wanted her to continue writing. But she just wanted to write smaller domestic dramas because that's what truly interested her, but at the time, her publisher couldn't find her audience.

I think that more and more people are having this conversation because no group is a monolith and no group of people want to write the exact same type of story. I wanted to not exactly have her as a cautionary tale, but show the frustrations of wanting to write about your identity. The three young girls find that relatable because they too are feeling pigeonholed in their own roles in seeing the limitations of publishing as well. It’s an interesting parallel between the younger and older generation.

On Publishing Ethics

As our conversation shifted more towards ethics, Gavino reflected on the systematic inequalities that define entry-level publishing.

GWJEP: What does ethics and publishing mean to you and have you gained a new perspective since becoming a published author?

Kate Gavino: When I think about ethics and publishing, I think about it 1) in the sense of the publishers and their responsibility about what to, and what not to publish, and 2) their responsibility to their employees, which I think is what my book focuses on the most. When I was working in publishing this conversation [on ethics] was kind of starting to gain more traction, and has much more since then.

Publishing is very insular and closed off. You have these low starting salaries and all the jobs are based in one of the most expensive cities in the country. There is not a very diverse crowd of people applying for these jobs, or who stay beyond the assistant position. As an industry, it seemed like an impossible spot to grow in. When I talk to my friends in publishing now, the salaries are definitely different, and change is slow and hard to come by. As an author, I see how slow it is to get something published and how slow it is to move things along.

GWJEP: That does lend to, in the book, where one of the girls experiences a mass layoff. After that, she decided that she didn't want to work in publishing anymore.

Kate Gavino: I heavily fictionalized most things, but that specific scene where she gets laid off with a group of other editorial assistants, that exact thing happened to me, and that was also my last publishing job. That ultimately led me to leave publishing.

That was just that specific company in that specific time, but it was a very disheartening experience, and the fact that it mostly happened to the entry-level assistants was kind of telling of that company's ethics.

GWJEP: What advice would you give to either new authors or business professionals based around recent ethical concerns that you've noticed in the publishing industry?

Kate Gavino: For those entering on the publishing side, something that I remember as a young editorial assistant is that a lot of times when you're hired, they really appreciate the fact that you are young and in touch with social media. To be in the forefront of what’s new or trending is definitely an asset. That's something you bring to the company that you should not be doing for free or on your off hours. Don't downplay those skills because they are valuable.

In terms of advice for authors, AI came to mind since everyone is worried about it at the moment. I just finished the contract for my next book and my agent is great at being very diligent that none of the work will be fed into AI. Since I am not familiar with either AI or contracts, it's helpful that my agent is.

On Creative Form and Intent

GWJEP: As an illustrator, do you think that using your art as an avenue has allowed you to be more expressive and handle certain topics in an easily digestible way for your audience?

Kate Gavino: For graphic novels in general, I think there always has to be a reason why it is a graphic novel versus a straight up normal novel. For me, it's always because I like the fact that you can be visually rich. You can tell one story with the text, and tell another story with the images. In terms of illustrations, there's always another layer of story that can be told within the illustrations. Graphic novels should be read as slowly as possible because you're basically reading multiple stories at once.

On Upcoming Work

As we wrapped up our conversation, Gavino used the last moments of our Zoom call to discuss her upcoming book, Take Care.

GWJEP: Are there any upcoming projects that you have been working on?

Kate Gavino: My next book Take Care is coming out in 2027 through Tin House. In the same vein of my current books, it also follows a young, restless professional in New York City. Each book of mine gives me a chance to reflect on certain periods of my life. Since I am now based in Paris, this is me really missing New York, and the certain time period I lived in New York. It is part ghost story, part love story, about a young girl who meets her mom's ghost on the G train one day. It's a dreamy, reflective book set in New York with a workplace romance and mother-daughter bond thrown in. It’s been fun to illustrate the city as a means of dealing with missing the city.

Closing Thoughts

Gavino’s experiences in publishing as an editorial assistant and an author provide insight into an industry that is relatively mysterious to the general public. Our discussion helped to accentuate racial pigeonholing, money struggles, and more, as a companion tool to the wryly comedic graphic novel. In an ever-growing industry, Gavino’s simplistic illustrations remind us of how important it is to stay vigilant and authentic in moments of adversary.

Author Bio: Kate Gavino is the author and illustrator of Last Night's Reading, Sanpaku, and A Career in Books. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker online, the Believer, the Washington Post, and O Magazine. Her next book, Take Care, is forthcoming from Tin House in 2027.