Publishers and Editors

Before we get into MediaBistro’s interview with Hyperion editor Zareen Jaffrey (whom some of you may remember from Red Dress Ink), we have to puzzle over one of the more odd book titles we’ve encountered this week: Desperate Housewives Cookbook. Now if this were, oh, the fifties, we’d be thinking, ah, a cookbook for a new cook. You know, “Hi honey, I’m bringing the boss home to taste some that good food.” And then the desperate housewife realizes that the pre-made frozen meals from her mother worked, but she’s out! She’ll have to cook from scratch… Anyway, that needed to […]

Wondering what May Chen of Avon/HarperCollins is seeking in a writer? We knew you were. We’ll give you a little hint: it starts with good, ends with writing. It’s really difficult to be specific about what qualities I’m looking for. It’s a synergy of several general components: the writing is clean, the voice is compelling, the premise is intriguing and different and the plot holds up. Then all of a sudden you realize that you have something special. Though depressingly young, Chen is a well-respected editor in the romance genre. While her focus is generally British-set historicals, she’s also desperately

In a move that should strike fear into the hearts of all authors, Penguin in Australia is moving to cut author royalties on second, third, and subsequent editions of their work. Australian authors traditionally receive a 10% royalty on all editions — oddly, Penguin wants to penalize authors for selling lots more copies of books. The Penguin proposal will reverse the Australian publishing trend of granting higher royalty rates, or “escalators”, once book sales exceed a certain threshold. Penguin’s excuse — bringing their agreements in line with other international rates — is a bit precious. This is about cutting costs

Because we love to point out how right we are, there is this: In a deal that will substantially increase its presence in the conservative Evangelical market, Simon & Schuster has acquired Howard Publishing for an undisclosed price. S&S Buys Howard Publishing

As you might have suspected, the publishing industry continued to work very hard this week. We anticipate, barring any unforseen circumstances, that this torrid pace of productivity will continue through approximately next Tuesday with a sharp drop-off around Friday and absolutely nothing happening the following Monday. Anything we missed this week, we’ll catch next week. Duty got in the way of duty or something like that. Lagardere to Buy Time Warner Books: As has been widely reported throughout the blogosphere (and, apparently, traditional media), French giant Lagardere (surely there’s an accent or two we’re missing) purchased Time Warner Books. This

In other Time Warner Books news (yes, we know, we didn’t mention the sale, but not because we don’t care; we are engaged in a new process for such news), MediaBistro interviews Kristen Weber editor at Mysterious Press and Warner Books. We’re going to end the suspense now: Mysterious Press, for those who aren’t reading closely, is dedicated to genre fiction. You may figure out the correct genre on your own. The key to a good mystery is a good mystery, but behind the clues and red herrings and series-building lies the one thing that separates an author from the

Though we do not have time to check our archives (in fact, we are not entirely sure where we keep our archives, though something tells us they’re in that place we’re supposed to “clean out”), we believe we have volunteered to sit down with the brass at Harlequin and offer our free advice. We believe we have made this offer no less than one million times. Do we get a call? No. And what happens? Well, let us suggest that there has been an unholy alliance between the romance publisher and NASCAR. We’ll give you a moment to absorb that.

If we were Scholastic (and evidence suggests we are not), we would be doing everything in our power to build a trusting relationship with the little kids who make our publishing venture strong. We would be squeaky clean and bend over backwards to make sure that parents are not off-put by our very name. We would think about the Harry Potter franchise coming to end, knowing that we need a solid revenue stream to make up for the empty hole. In other words, we wouldn’t engage in potentially misleading billing and fulfillment practices that anger parents enough to file a