Publishers and Editors

We start a morning a bit bleary eyed and puzzled. Actually, we start every morning this way, but we are still trying to understand the two desserts we were served last night (we ordered one and were given one with a little burning candle on it — dessert two arrived sufficiently after dessert one and moments after we declared we’d never eat again. Which surely explains why we did.). So we had to read our first item multiple times (sorry, no link at this point). Harlequin Enterprises, which has been on a tear lately, launching so many lines and imprints, […]

Marc Aronson, formerly of Henry Holt and Carus Publishing, will acquire young-adult novels for Candlewick Press. In unrelated news, Aronson wins Booksquare’s first-ever The Dude Has A Website Award. Because we were caught unprepared for such an event, we don’t have a plaque or anything handy. In this case, the honor must be enough — and it is indeed a great honor. Candlewick Press Marc Aronoson

Hmm. It appears we had more to update this week than we thought. We really should scroll down a screen or so before making sweeping pronouncements. Just Us Books is looking for chapter books for middle readers and young adult books. Just Us focuses on black-interest books for children. Review guidelines posted on the Just Us website. Information via Cindi Meyers. Just Us Books Just Us Books Guidelines Cindi Meyers

Three Rivers Press welcomes Katie McHugh as associate editor. Publisher’s Lunch tells us she will be acquiring practical nonfiction (we eagerly await the day someone less lazy than us publishes a cheat sheet of publisher terminology). Though we would argue some titles in her repetoire could verge into the realm of impractical nonfiction, she’ll be seeking self-help, fitness/health, parenting, personal finance, and popular reference. Hmm, we are even more confused on the practicality of all this: there is a Three Rivers Press which is a division of Crown, which is a division of Random House, and there’s a Three Rivers

In our previous career, we often pointed out to motion picture auditors that studios weren’t charities — they were, hard as it was to believe, for-profit ventures (yes, sometimes it’s hard to keep the face straight when you’re possibly saying the words Pauly Shore in the same sentence). The auditors, of course, were trying to squeeze additional extremely large pennies out of the studio. We understood. In the publishing world, it’s the big retailers, the Amazons, the WalMarts, the Tescos (we just love that word; it always reminds us of a Jazz Butcher song), who are squeezing the publishers —

We recently told the story of our mother “discarding” a book scribbled in by that scamp Ray Bradbury (yes, we probably do mention it a lot; if she chooses to go the headstone route upon her demise, her loving children will likely have a summary of the sad episode engraved upon it). In a way, Penguin is doing much the same thing. Except of course, they are not immediately realizing their error and snatching the book back for safekeeping (because a Bradbury autograph obscured by the word “discard”…well, you get our point). In these cash-strapped times, we would expect the

At one point in our storied career, we wrote what we considered a brilliant response to something or other written by William Safire as he lamented our ever-changing language (surely his original piece won’t be that hard to find, given our very specific clues in this sentence). We were young and full of ourselves at the time, but our original belief remains true: language is a living thing. Okay, not so living that you have to go all Cormac McCarthy on us, but it evolves at a nice tempo. And we think that’s just grand — as does Barbara Wallraff.

Alas, we’ve come to the end of our updates. Sure has been fun. We leave you with word that Keyren Gerlach has been named editorial assistant for Harlequin Historicals and HQN. We know a little about Gerlach’s new position — lots of fielding calls from panicky authors, lots of mail to be opened. However, her office is located in the gorgeous Woolworth Building (they really don’t make buildings like that anymore), so it’s not all bad. Harlequin/Silhouette

Abby Holcomb was named associate editor at Avalon Books. Avalon focuses primarily on the library market with an emphasis on romance, mystery, and Westerns. The books tend to be wholesome adult fiction (we think you know what we mean by that — if not, visit the website). Avalon titles tend to run in the 60,000 word range. Avalon Books

We haven’t mentioned our adoration of MediaBistro in at least a week, so we start our next item with a shout out to their Revolving Door feature. While primarily a chronicle of magazine staff comings and goings (and we find ourselves more than a little surprised at how much movement there is in that industry), other editorial changes find their way into the very helpful newsletter (yes, this is a roundabout way of us saying we have no idea if this information is for the public or members only). Fun item from this week’s update: Jodi Davis was promoted to