Blatantly Commercial, And He’s Okay

January 17th, 2006 · No Comments
by Booksquare

It is no secret that publishing is a commercial endeavor, but often editors like to pretend it isn’t. If you had to publish a roman a clef written by Nicole Richie, you’d want to live in an alternate reality, too. Jeremie Ruby-Strauss has skipped the inner turmoil that marks an editor’s rite of passage, and is wholeheartedly embracing his commercial mandate.

Kensington’s new imprint, Rebel Base Books, is targeted directly, well, at guys like Jeremie:

The imprint comprises books based on humor websites. We didn’t set out to exploit an underserved demographic, we just ferreted out opportunities where we could, and the genre emerged. The fact that they overwhelmingly appeal to emotionally stunted, immature males like myself was a happy accident. Several of these books worked, so we decided to start Rebel Base Books.

For those bloggers who thought they missed the wave, never fear. Sure, there’s a strata of editors who don’t get the internet, but there’s also a growing understanding in the publishing industry that it’s not just potential authors out there, it’s a whole bunch o’readers.

It’s not even something they think about, it’s the air they breathe. The Internet is such a revolution, I think even my mother is now more likely to go online first to find content. But that’s not a death knell for printed books, it’s where we will find our readers, and in many cases, our writers.

Ruby-Strauss, by the way, doesn’t publish fiction except by accident.

File Under: Publishers and Editors