'Black Wednesday' at New York Publishing Houses
It was a grim day at several publishing houses yesterday. Following the resignation earlier this week of Becky Saletan, who became publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's adult trade division in January, executive editor Ann Patty and others have been fired, according to Media Bistro. Only last week, the company had confirmed that, as the New York Times said, it is "not allocating as much capital to the consumer book business."
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Yesterday Random House announced a major realignment of the adult publishing division, which will result in a consolidation: where once there were five adult publishing groups, there will now be three.
The Bantam Dell Publishing Group, including Bantam Dell, the Dial Press and Spiegel & Grau, is becoming part of the Random House Publishing Group, which is headed by Gina Centrello.
Much of the Doubleday Publishing Group--the Doubleday and Nan A. Talese imprints--is becoming part of the Knopf Publishing Group. Headed by Sonny Mehta, the entity is being renamed the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Last month, Doubleday cut 16 positions.
The rest of the Doubleday Publishing Group--Broadway Books, Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion and WaterBrook Multnomah--are becoming part of the Crown Publishing Group, which is headed by Jenny Frost.
Irwyn Applebaum, head of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, and Steve Rubin, head of the Doubleday Publishing Group, are leaving their positions, although Random is reportedly looking for another role for Rubin in the company.
In a memo to Random House staff, chairman and CEO Markus Dohle said that the reorganization "aligns existing strengths and publishing affinities and fosters teamwork throughout the company. It will maximize our growth potential in these challenging economic times and beyond."
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In other grim news, yesterday Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy issued a memo stating that Rick Richter, president of the company's children's book division, was leaving the company, effective Friday. Richter started at S&S as publisher of the children's division in 1996. Dennis Eulau, executive v-p of operations, will be leading the division until a successor is found.
Later in the day, Reidy followed up with a memo announcing that 35 positions had been eliminated from areas including "publishing divisions and international, operations and sales. . . . today's action is an unavoidable acknowledgment of the current bookselling marketplace and what may very well be a prolonged period of economic instability. In light of this uncertainty, we must responsibly position ourselves for challenges both near term and long."
Shelf Awareness learned that among those affected were Rubin Pfeffer, senior v-p and publisher of the children's group, who joined the company in 2005, as well as one of the sales reps to Hastings plus three field sales reps in the Washington D.C., Chicago and New York/New Jersey areas.
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The New York Times reported, too, that pay raises have been frozen at Penguin and pay increases have been delayed at HarperCollins while there may yet be some layoffs at Random House and Macmillan.--Jennifer M. Brown and John Mutter
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The Origin of the Species will celebrate its 150th anniversary of publication on November 24, 2009. Would Charles Darwin be surprised to discover that there may well be as much debate now as there was during his lifetime concerning his theory of evolution versus creationism? Lasky (Sugaring Time) suggests that Darwin himself was anxious about how his theory would be received: "Very often when he thought or began to write about how species changed over time, his stomach problems would become worse." If not for a rival naturalist, Darwin may have kept his most probing ideas to himself. Lasky begins, however, with a depiction of young Charles (whose 200th birthday is next February 12, as is Abraham Lincoln's), instinctively curious, who loves to collect things, especially beetles. Trueman (Chickens on Strike) captures the moment when Charles, with a beetle in each hand, two of a sort that he'd never seen before, discovers a "third strange beetle . . . and . . . lacking a free hand, quickly popped one beetle into his mouth and scooped up the third one." The illustration strikes a commendable balance between the comical situation and the boy's passion for science (his various collections in evidence). Throughout, the author and artist leaven Darwin's serious work with such humorous touches. Young Charles earned the nickname "Gas," for instance, because of his activities with his brother in the laboratory ("Explosions were their favorite things"). Trueman depicts Charles holding at arm's length a test tube erupting into flames as his brother shields himself with his arms.
At the Young Adult Librarians' Association Institute in Nashville, Tenn., November 7-9 (for a report on part of YASLA, see below), members of the inaugural 2008 Odyssey Award Committee not only presented a compelling argument for audiobooks as a reading experience, they also posed for a photo op with actress Katherine Kellgren, narrator of Bloody Jack, an Odyssey honor winner (who discussed on the panel her impressive process of preparing for work on an audiobook). From l. to r.: Jerene Battisti, Kings County Library, Washington State; Teri Lesesne, professor of library science, Sam Houston University, Texas; Kellgren; Sharon Grover, Hedberg Public Library, Wis.; Mary Burkey (Olentangy Liberty Middle School, Ohio).