Publishers and Editors

Word on the street is that Harlequin is discontinuing its Signature line. This is probably only important to you if you have a clue what the imprint was all about. The rest of us will likely not notice the demise. In unrelated news, a grand total of ten fewer books will be published in 2006, contributing to a decline in market over-saturation.

You know us — we get excited way too easily, and today we’re excited about innovations in publishing. Hmm, that doesn’t sound right. How about this: today, we’re excited about the fact that a major publisher is using technology for good not evil. Or just that a major publisher is using technology. We shouldn’t ascribe intent when we cannot be bothered to do the necessary research to determine if what we’re saying is true or not. The fine folks at Holtzbrinck — home of St. Martin’s Press, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, Picador, Tor, Minotaur, and probably a whole list of

Lewis Lapham is retiring from Harper’s Magazine. Or rather he is becoming an editor emeritus. Which we think means working just hard enough to cover health insurance premiums. Or to justify keeping the corner office despite the fact that it only gets used once a month. Probably we should look this up in the dictionary. All of this is tangental to our real issue. How is it possible that there is enough interest in the life and times of William Howard Taft that a publisher would already have the author (even an author of note) under contract? History was one

The Rumor Mill tells us that Tor is not looking for NC-17 books — they are seeking straight erotica. While you will find many useful explanations of this distinction, in situation like this, we always turn to the Supreme Court: you’ll know it when you see it. For those keeping score at home, there are now exactly three New York publishers who have declined to jump on the erotica bandwagon. Their names are changed to protect their stockholders. Tor (aka Tom Doherty Associates LLC)

While Michael Korda’s imminent retirement from Simon & Schuster is news in and of itself, we find we’re more fascinated by the way the man redefines “retirement”. Our understanding has always been that a retired person gets up at ungodly hours (eventually leading to driving one of the airport vans because today’s youth simply can’t wake up on time) and spends a lot of time puttering around the garden. Or is it putting? We’ll get back to you. Maybe Korda doesn’t own a dictionary (unlikely, but stranger things have happened). His definition of retiring includes adding a new title to

Hard as it is to imagine, we are finding it difficult to get behind this Fall’s time change. Normally, we embrace gaining an hour, but the whole thing started off bad and seems to be getting worse. Hopefully, caffeine will change our luck. In the meantime, we give you activities designed to pull you away from your daily duties (though be warned: goofing off while in costume can be dangerous). MediaBistro talks to Harcourt’s editor-in-chief Becky Saletan about her house’s focus (real writers, define as you wish) and her style. Which she helpfully describes as: I’m very hands-on (read “compulsive”

Rumors have been swirling for some time that Harlequin Enterprises was planning to move into the African American market. In-house development was reportedly proceeding and helpful observers sat on the sidelines, wondering if this was yet another boondoggle. Then the publishing giant (they are more than romance, you know) turned around and did something practical — they acquired an established imprint. Hello? What sort of logical business notion is that? They’ve gone and purchased the assets of BET Books Popular imprints Arabesque, Sepia and New Spirit. For those who haven’t been paying attention, the Arabesque imprint was one of the

While we have made a solemn vow to avoid the podcast train (our voice is not ready for prime time), it seems the rest of the world can’t avoid the next big thing. While publishers were slow to embrace decent websites (slow meaning we are still waiting) and blogs, they have jumped on the podcast like it’s a new double-triple caffeinated beverage. Simon and Schuster add daily podcast to their featured offerings. We never thought we see the day where a major publisher had an RSS feed, but it has happened and now we need another thing we never expect