Publishers and Editors

Let us, for a moment, ponder the act of editing books. There are many in the publishing ranks who complain that they don’t so much edit as administer. Oh sure, every interview you read with an editor talks about the hands-on approach and collaborative process. . .given the continual output of major label publishers versus available and experienced staff, just how much care and feeding can an editor do? Jonthan Karp who is running Warner’s “Twelve” imprint thinks he knows how to change the business model. Note: there are two critical steps: I love books. So even though I thought […]

We often find our curiosity piqued by clever names. We gaze upon them in wonder, trying to understand deeper meanings and whatnot. Some are obvious, some require the use of the dictionary. Such was the case of young adult publisher (or rather sub-division of Penguin, etc) Razorbill. Surely it had some catchy, oblique connection to the target market. So, according to Dictionary.com: razorbill, n : black-and-white northern Atlantic auk having a compressed sharp-edged bill Okay, the above definition is not helpful. Surely there is more to the young adult experience than obscure birds. Let us turn to Kristen Pettit, of

Before we begin, we must say something of rather major importance: ouch. Jason Pinter is 25. Is that even legal drinking age? Driving age? Shouldn’t he be off backpacking through mountains or finding himself or something? Or has that golden age passed? We feel so out of touch sometimes. That being said, he knows what he likes: But when I turned the first page, all of a sudden it was four hours later, I’d forgotten about lunch, finished the book, and was yelling to anyone within shouting distance that it was the best novel I’d ever read on submission. We

Jill Schwartzman of HarperCollins is an editor just looking for a good time. Hmm, that didn’t come out right. Jill Schwartzman of HarperCollins is an editor just looking for a good read. Yes, much better. She’s looking for unusual perspectives on life (though not, necessarily, how to live it). Now that the Da Vinci craze is waning, she’s eager to get back to discovering great reads. . .if she can only get agents to play along: Also, maybe this is just me, but sometimes an agent seems to insist on reading a very long pitch letter over the phone, even

We’ve had the link to Dan Wickett’s latest interview with literary journal editors in the queue for almost a week because, as it turns out, there is an award for laziest blogger ever, and we’re in the running. However, our sense of public service has won over our desire for glory — and we know there are readers who are interested in this important information. Thus we bring you Dan’s conversation with Eli Horowitz – McSweeney’s, Thom Didado – Failbetter, Ravi Shankar – Drunken Boat, Steve Erickson – Black Clock, Bradford Morrow – Conjunctions, Charles Valle – Fence, Steven A.

In their continuing series of editors, MediaBistro talks to Julia Cheiffetz of Random House. And Cheiffetz talks about her current project, a book with the controversial title of This Is Not Chicklit* and why she believes it’s important for diverse voices in literature. One day when I was out for a jog, I started to think about all of the big literary novels that have been championed in the past few years: Middlesex, Motherless Brooklyn, The Corrections, Everything is Illuminated&151all great books. But it dawned on me that, more or less, these were all guy books. I started to wonder

Just this past weekend, we found ourself in a bookstore, lost in the Young Adult titles. We remarked, quite casually, to the mother that the YA craze was bigger than we’d believed. She, being the smug type, assured us that we don’t know everything. Well, we know this: Dorchester is stepping out of the YA game. The Smooch line is no more. No word on why, though we’ve heard rumors of slow sales, possibly due to less-than-optimal distribution. This is only a guess.

If, perchance, you’re looking for clues about the legitimacy of your publisher, may we offer up the following: For one thing, some e-mails from Ivery were riddled with misspellings and bad grammar. For another, when Geniesse asked [Martha] Ivery to fix some typos in his manuscript, she told him it wasn’t worth bothering about, since it wouldn’t help sales. Yes, it’s true. Typos don’t matter. Readers hardly notice them, and they rarely form judgments based on the fact that a book is virtually unreadable. After all, people purchase books to put on coffee tables. What’s contained between the covers is

Okay, we don’t know that for sure, but it does remain a fact that editors are human, just like most of the rest of us. MediaBistro, in its continuing series of editor interviews, reminds us of that fact. The series also lets us peek inside the publishing business without the painfully awkward conversational lulls that often accompany office tours. For example, we can leapfrog the large piles on Brant Rumble’s desk: If a number is what you’re looking for, then let’s say twenty-five manuscripts and proposals a month. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but whatever the number is, it’s