Ask An Editor: Judith Long, fiction editor at Simon & Schuster UK

How did you get into publishing? Slowly! Publishing wasn't something I was thinking about when I graduated, which is for the best as I wasn't in a position to work for free then. I was so sure I wanted to be a lawyer, and I took the LSAT and got into law school even though I was never in a million years going to be able to afford to go. There were a couple of grad schemes I considered, but I graduated in 2007, and within not many months those companies either had massive layoffs or went out of business. I got a not-well-paid financial services job close to home and saved up for a few years, until I decided it was time to do something that I was more interested in.