Goldin: How did you get from doing those Five Spot original paperbacks at Warner (Grand Central) to this? I see new imprints from editors all the time, but honestly, they aren't usually this successful right off the bat. Even Jason Kaufman's followups to The DaVinci Code didn't follow in Dan Brown's footsteps, thought folks may not know that he was the editor for the Darkly Dreaming Dexter series, which has won many fans through the spinoff cable series.
Einhorn:
Yes, I was at 5 Spot at Warner. But I had a long career before/after/during including stints at FSG (where I started), Washington Square Press, etc. I started 5 SPOT at Warner but that wasn’t really my own thing. The company wanted a trade paperback program and I was given marching orders to run it. Warner (Grand Central) was a commercial house, more so than what I’m doing now, but while I was there I published some very good titles/authors: Robert Hicks’ Widow of the South, Lolly Winston Good Grief, Amy Sedaris’ I Like You, and Min Jin Lee’s Free Food For Millionaires.
Goldin:
Oh, that makes a lot more sense, although of late, Washington Square Press is pretty similar to Grand Central in what they publish (meaning, when it became a feeder for Atria instead of for all of Simon and Schuster). The FSG start is interesting--did you acquire or just work "at the knee of." In a sense, I see what you are doing as FSG + Washington Square Press + Grand Central. Does this seem fair?
Einhorn:
FSG was my first job in publishing—I was a lowly assistant. But I got to be around Roger Straus, Jr., Jonathan Galassi, Rick Moody (then the managing editor)– pretty cool people to be around when you’re 22 (or 62, actually). I’m not sure your equation works, but yes, my imprint aims to hit that sweet spot between literary and commercial and I think we’ve been pretty successful at that.
Goldin:
It's almost like you picked up a new skill everywhere you went. I'm quite jealous of that. I don't really like change, but could have had a few more stints to get ideas. Fortunately (it didn't seem so at the time) I got to do some new things in the last years of Schwartz, or when our stores closed, all I would have known how to do was be a good buyer, and that ain't gonna keep a bookstore going.
Einhorn:
One of the good things about moving around is that you do pick up something from every place where you’ve worked. I think I’ve been able to put what I’ve learned into practice.
(Editor's note--I lost the transition here, but Ms. Einhorn wrote something to me about starting a bookstore, which is why I start yapping about it here. I can't find the comment that led me to this, but the point was that we were both jumping into change, but many would considered it old-fashioned change, behind the times.)
Goldin:
I'm generally in a panic about the opening the bookstore, but when I step back, I'm fascinated...which customers followed us and why, which publishers seem most interested in our success, how my booksellers have responded to a change in ownership and attitude--let's just say that they aren't always that thrilled with my disorganization, but running a bookstore on the cheap means less time to write up lots of rulebooks. That said, I promise to everyone that I will try to do better in 2010.
I did some shaking up at the beginning (mixing new and used, painting and fixture change, ramping up events), but now I feel like you have to keep moving along and throwing out new ideas. Last year we had a tango concert and an in-store farmer's market--now what?
Einhorn:
What about things like open mike readings like KGB does here with The Moth? Have you heard of them? I think they’re pretty successful.
Goldin:
I would like do to that. Stacie! Where are you?
I just came back from Winter Institute and my head is spinning. It was E-everything. I read the general media stories and think, "Who needs us?" I know we need to social network so we do it all, but some better than others. Our Facebook is ok, our Twitter sucks. Is email social media? I guess not because there're no comments. I am happy with that, though I break all the rules--way too long. I think the blog is our best thing, but I am more proud of some posts than others
Einhorn:
I’m not as up on the internet stuff as I should be. Recently six top bloggers started an “Amy Einhorn perpetual challenge” where they’re reading all the books I’ve published (or will publish) at the new imprint, and are then going to discuss them. It’s very flattering, and a great way to reach people. But I’m not sure that Tweeting (as some have suggested) or having a Facebook page is the way to go for me. I’d much rather have my authors be
the ones out there in public, getting the attention.
Goldin:
OK, back to the books. It's just amazing how customers buy The Help. A couple years ago there was no hardcover fiction book selling like this--for years it was all nonfiction with Eat, Pray, Love or Reading Lolita in Tehran. You get a book like this and think, oh, it can be done--that mix of reading tastes that all coalesce over one thing, though admittedly, at least in our case, the taste has been decidedly female. (A note from the dinner party I recently attended. One writer asked me whether memoirs were still hot, the way her agent told her. I'd have to say no.)
Einhorn:
Yes, it’s been incredible how well the book is doing, thanks in big part to the handselling of booksellers, and the word-of-mouth recommendations from readers. It’s nice to see that at the end of the day, with all the marketing bells and whistles that we all try, this is w
hat it all comes back to.
Einhorn:
What about things like open mike readings like KGB does here with The Moth? Have you heard of them? I think they’re pretty successful.
Goldin:
I would like do to that. Stacie! Where are you?
I just came back from Winter Institute and my head is spinning. It was E-everything. I read the general media stories and think, "Who needs us?" I know we need to social network so we do it all, but some better than others. Our Facebook is ok, our Twitter sucks. Is email social media? I guess not because there're no comments. I am happy with that, though I break all the rules--way too long. I think the blog is our best thing, but I am more proud of some posts than others
Einhorn:
I’m not as up on the internet stuff as I should be. Recently six top bloggers started an “Amy Einhorn perpetual challenge” where they’re reading all the books I’ve published (or will publish) at the new imprint, and are then going to discuss them. It’s very flattering, and a great way to reach people. But I’m not sure that Tweeting (as some have suggested) or having a Facebook page is the way to go for me. I’d much rather have my authors be
the ones out there in public, getting the attention.Goldin:
OK, back to the books. It's just amazing how customers buy The Help. A couple years ago there was no hardcover fiction book selling like this--for years it was all nonfiction with Eat, Pray, Love or Reading Lolita in Tehran. You get a book like this and think, oh, it can be done--that mix of reading tastes that all coalesce over one thing, though admittedly, at least in our case, the taste has been decidedly female. (A note from the dinner party I recently attended. One writer asked me whether memoirs were still hot, the way her agent told her. I'd have to say no.)
Einhorn:
Yes, it’s been incredible how well the book is doing, thanks in big part to the handselling of booksellers, and the word-of-mouth recommendations from readers. It’s nice to see that at the end of the day, with all the marketing bells and whistles that we all try, this is w
hat it all comes back to. Goldin:
It’s all about the book. Hey, The Postmistress is just starting to pick up. We did a feature in our last email newsletter. Rebecca, who read it, liked it, but was curious about the focus on three protagonists when she thought it was really only about one.
Einhorn:
I think it is really about the three women, Frankie, although maybe it’s more about Iris and Frankie than Emma. Some reviewers have taken issue with the title, but I wonder if they’d be reviewing, or even reading it, if it were called "The Journalist."
Goldin:
As a publisher, you probably had more say in that than you would have back when you were just editing. Ever have a book leave your hands and then go in a direction you hadn't intended?
Einhorn:
Well, I think we (editors and publishers) have had books we love that go out into the world and don’t find their way—that breaks our hearts. The hope is that if we love it, the transitive property
will apply and everyone else will too. I think one of the nice things about the success of The Help is that it worked exactly as I dreamed. You love it, the company loves it, and then it turns out everybody else loves it too. If it happened like this all the time, you and I would have much easier jobs!
Goldin:
And even more competition. It’s a good thing our careers are also filled with frustration.
It’s all about the book. Hey, The Postmistress is just starting to pick up. We did a feature in our last email newsletter. Rebecca, who read it, liked it, but was curious about the focus on three protagonists when she thought it was really only about one.
Einhorn:
I think it is really about the three women, Frankie, although maybe it’s more about Iris and Frankie than Emma. Some reviewers have taken issue with the title, but I wonder if they’d be reviewing, or even reading it, if it were called "The Journalist."
Goldin:
As a publisher, you probably had more say in that than you would have back when you were just editing. Ever have a book leave your hands and then go in a direction you hadn't intended?
Einhorn:
Well, I think we (editors and publishers) have had books we love that go out into the world and don’t find their way—that breaks our hearts. The hope is that if we love it, the transitive property
will apply and everyone else will too. I think one of the nice things about the success of The Help is that it worked exactly as I dreamed. You love it, the company loves it, and then it turns out everybody else loves it too. If it happened like this all the time, you and I would have much easier jobs!Goldin:
And even more competition. It’s a good thing our careers are also filled with frustration.
Some of you may know that my family name on my mother's side is Einhorn. To my knowledge, we're not related. Oh, and at the end, I asked her to give a plug for a book that might not have reached the audience it deserved. Einhorn chose Kate Ledger's Remedies, a novel about a couple whose seemingly perfect marriage is scarred by grief from the death of their firstborn. The book came out last fall in hardcover. Perhaps Penguin will break out the paperback.
Next post: Daniel buys more plexy signholders!
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