Hanne Rask has worked at Lindhardt & Ringhof, former Aschehoug, since 1999. She is editor-in-chief of the non-fiction department at Denmark’s second-largest publisher.
“I have always worked with communication – first as a high-school Danish and French teacher, and later as a healthcare campaign assistant for the Ministry of Interior and Health and The Danish Cancer Society. I’ve worked in the publishing sector for the last 20 years. I have edited large serial works for subscribers to Bonnier Publications’ magazines, headed up the home and lifestyle book club Bolig & Livsstil, and for the past seven years I have been editor-in-chief of Lindhardt & Ringhof’s non-fiction department. Although the circumstances have varied, my job has essentially remained the same: to convey relevant information to a specific target group at a given time.
“Working with non-fiction books and their authors is a privilege and a daily source of pleasure and inspiration. A good work of non-fiction makes a difference to the reader – sets something in motion, gives new experiences. But that only happens if the author has both the knowledge and the ability to pass on the knowledge with enthusiasm and authority. Then the book and its message get through to the reader. Timing is also important. The book should hit the reader exactly when he or she needs it.
“Books are a wonderful medium. You have to take time to read them, and you can always return to them, picking up where you left off or re-reading them – anytime, anywhere. That’s why the information a book contains has greater value: the facts sink in differently from the information we get from television, the Internet and other high-speed media.”
