Jacket Copy Sells Books, So Make It Good.

Laura Hazard Owen | May 2009

Would you rather read a “splendid, funny, lyrical book about family, truth, memory, and the resilience of love” or a “powerful novel” about “the strength of love and loss, the searing ramifications of war, and the mysterious, almost magical bonds that unite and sustain us”? A “poignant celebration of the potency of familial love” or [...]

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Book View, February 2009

February 2009

PEOPLE
There are so many changes to report this month that we are highlighting only some of the moves and, where available, contact information. Rebecca (Becky) Saletan has been appointed Editorial Director of Riverhead, reporting to Publisher Geoff Kloske. She was most recently SVP and Publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Her appointment is effective March 2; [...]

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Second Annual Publishing Industry Survey

Laura Hazard Owen | October 2008

It’s polling season, and PT’s not exempt! This year, 385 people who work in publishing took our survey; 86.5% completed it. The largest group of respondents were literary agents (26.8%), while the majority of respondents at publishing houses work in editorial (40.6%), followed by rights (6.3%) and sales (5.7%). 10% are 22–27, 25% are 28–35, [...]

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When we checked in with publishing “ink slingers” just over two years ago, Sara Nelson’s move to Publishers Weekly was imminent, and Jerome Kramer was in mid-launch of VNU’s The Bookstandard. Today, most of the industry stalwarts are still chugging along (including yours truly), many with expanded offerings. We’ve [...]

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PEOPLE
March brought some big announcements from industry veterans:
Teri Kelly, President of the trade and reference division at Houghton Mifflin has announced that she will leave the company where she has worked for twenty five years, once a replacement is found. And after seventeen years with the Walker Group (most recently [...]

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Considering the contrasting audiences — one a collection of small publishers and publishing students, and the other a pride of publishing elite, the mantra at NYU’s Center for Publishing Management Forum for Independent Publishers and PW’s Summit was the same: It’s the consumer, stupid. At NYU, this theme was picked [...]

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Book View, December 2003

December 2003

PEOPLE

November brought some big moves in the industry, with Bill Barry going to DK as President, after a hiatus of two years (he had been at Hungry Minds when it was sold to Wiley) and Jim Jordan, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Press moving to Columbia University Press as President and [...]

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Book View, September 2003

September 2003

PEOPLE

As summer winds down, it’s been unusually quiet in publishers’ halls, but look to an interesting Fall, with new positions being created, even as more rounds of layoffs are rumored. Meanwhile:
Holt’s Maggie Richards has hired Richard Rhorer as Marketing Director. He was previously Director of Marketing for the Rayo imprint at [...]

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