Day in the Life (In Office): Cassandra Phan
Editorial Assistant, Disney Hyperion.
Day: Thursday, February 13, 2025
8:30 AM: With Starbucks in hand (crucial), I arrive at the office. The floor is mostly empty, and I reserve this time for settling in, enjoying my coffee, and reading a couple chapters of whatever book I’ve brought. This morning I’m immersed in San Francisco as I read Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (highly recommend!).
9:00 AM: Most mornings, I organize my inbox and look over the emails that have come in as this helps me prioritize my tasks for the day. I respond to any quick and easy questions colleagues may have about projects such as accolades received by a book or updating an author bio.
9:30 AM: My first priority of the day is to go through copyedit comments for a variety of titles. I look at the interiors, paperback covers, and jacketed covers and either agree with, stet, or add to comments that the copyedit team has made. It’s always helpful to get these passes back to production in a timely manner so that everything can run as smoothly as possible, and we make the dates for the book to go to print.
10:30 AM: As a member of the IP team at Disney, we often hire writers and work closely with them on IP projects. To match the best writer with the project, we often audition several and acquire sample chapters from them. I spend some time reading sample chapters for a fantasy book we are working on. I make notes on tone, voice, pacing, and so forth and will share this feedback with the editor of the project.
12:00 PM: Weekly check-in with my boss, editorial director at Disney Hyperion! This is the time when we check in on our work and I ask any burning questions. We talk about an upcoming presentation for one of our IP projects that’s crucial for us to get approval to find an author. It’s also just a lovely time to chat about anything and everything. Today, I tell her my thoughts about A Court Of Thorns and Roses that I just finished. She tells me about the thriller she’s engrossed in (The Examiner by Janice Hallett) and I put it on my Goodreads TBR.
12:30 PM: My boss and I have a meeting with several department heads to discuss a forthcoming IP project and its strategy. We cover topics such as the publishing cadence of the books, the marketing strategy, and what the P&L (profit and loss) statement needs to look like. There’s a lot of excitement building for this project, which is always an encouraging conversation!
1:00 PM: Lunch (today it’s a chicken and pesto sandwich) and yap time!
2:00 PM: Our IP team has bi-weekly brainstorm sessions to come together and discuss potential new projects. Today was the start of a new IP cycle where everyone comes with pitches for books and receives feedback on development. This is one of the most fun parts of the job as everyone’s creativity flows and we fire ideas back and forth.
3:00 PM: I’ve been keeping an eye on email all day in case anything urgent comes up, but this is the time I thoroughly check them all and respond. I also handle a couple of administrative duties such as ordering books or submitting invoices for payment or putting authenticity readers through our contract process.
4:00 PM: Keeping in mind our conversations from the 12:30 pm meeting, my boss has asked me to run new P&L statements for the IP project and the different strategies we are considering. I spend this time plugging in and adjusting a bunch of numbers. It’s an interesting puzzle and I enjoy trying to solve it.
5:00 PM: I wrap things up and head out of the office to make my dance class in Brooklyn on time!
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