Today’s guest is Ana Lotts-Nicolau of Nemira Publishing House in Romania. Ana has had an impressive career so far: she currently is the CEO of Nemira, was for many years a member on the Board of the Romanian Publishers’ Association, and if that wasn’t enough on her plate already, in 2021 Ana founded the first audiobook platform on the Romanian market in partnership with her brother Radu Nicolau.
Show Notes:
- The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
Ana Lotts-Nicolau was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. She received her bachelor degree in French and European law at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2010, and a second bachelor degree in Romanian law from the University of Bucharest in 2011. Pursuing a path in publishing, she concluded an MA in Publishing at Oxford Brookes University in 2014.
In 2015 she became the CEO of Nemira Publishing House and a member on the Board of the Romanian Publishers’ Association (AER) – a position held between 2015 and 2022.
In 2021 she founded a second business in partnership with her brother, Radu Nicolau, the first audiobook platform on the Romanian market – AudioTribe.
Today I’m speaking with Yasmina Jraissati, owner of Raya Agency for Arabic Literature. Yasmina and I covered many different topics, including her beginnings as a literary agent and how one particular Frankfurt Book Fair played an essential role, the current publishing and bookselling landscape in Lebanon where she resides most of the time, the challenge brought on by piracy in the Arab-speaking publishing market, the position of audiobooks in Arabic, and much more.
Show Notes:
- Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Yasmina Jraissati has a PhD in Philosophy and Cognitive sciences (2009). She established RAYA Agency for Arabic Literature, which has been promoting high quality Arabic literature on the international scene for translation and adaptation rights since 2004.
In 2020, Yasmina joined Storytel, the Swedish-based audiobook streaming platform, as a publishing manager for the MENA region.
It’s been a while since I recorded and published the previous episode. Landing back on my feet after my 5-week trip to Europe around the London Book Fair was a bit more challenging this time, due to some lingering fatigue after I caught Covid at the fair, like many others. Luckily that’s all behind me now!
Today I’m speaking with Sophie Langlais, literary agent at #BAM - Books and More Agency in Paris. We discussed many topics, including the rise of literary agents in France, where the publishing landscape was pretty reluctant to embrace this role for a long time, bringing new translations of classics to the market, and the upcoming book fair season.
Show Notes:
- Stardust by Léonora Miano
Sophie Langlais was born in 1982 and has been reading a lot ever since. After working for two years in London at the French Book Office, she joined the foreign rights department at Gallimard; then the two independent publishing houses Les Arènes and l’Iconoclaste, where she sold rights (for Adeline Dieudonné’s La vraie vie, for instance) and acquired books (such as M by Antonio Scurati). She is now a literary agent at #BAM in France, with partner Marie Lannurien.
This is the last episode I recorded before traveling to Europe again at the end of March, to attend the London Book Fair but also to visit publishers in Amsterdam and Paris.
I wanted to alert you before you listen to today’s interview with Les Argonautes Editeur founder Katharina Loix Van Hooff that Russia comes up a couple of times during our conversation. We mention it in the context of European literature, and more precisely because Katharina has acquired the French rights in two novels written by Dutch author Marente de Moor. Marente used to live in Russia and one of the two novels is set in there.
Please note that this interview was recorded prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and keep this in mind as you’re listening. Otherwise it may strike you as insensitive and incomprehensible that we do not mention the ongoing war.
While I can’t wait to see many publishing friends and colleagues again in person soon, my thoughts are with the people of Ukraine. I’ve already expressed my thoughts and concerns about the Russian invasion in 2 Seas Agency’s March newsletter, and have published an article on our website, which links a list of humanitarian organizations one can donate to. 2 Seas Agency has made a donation to Médecins sans frontières/Doctors without Borders.
Show Notes:
- The Sweet Indifference of the World by Peter Stamm
Katharina Loix Van Hooff has been working in publishing for twenty years. Born in Berlin, she attended the Berlin Journalism school and went on to study comparative literature and history in Brussels, Berlin, Washington D.C. and Paris all while working for German newspapers and radio, amongst others reporting extensively from Russia and Ukraine.
After important editing projects for a German publisher and her own novel published with Hanser Verlag, she took up a a Master's degree in Politique éditoriale in Paris (Villetaneuse-Paris XIII University) and worked several years as an agent for Anna Jarota Agency in Paris.
In her function as responsible of the foreign literature department at Gallimard, she accompanied authors like Orhan Pamuk, Amos Oz, Ludmila Ulitskaya, Bernhard Schlink and Peter Handke.
In the summer of 2021 she founded Les Argonautes Éditeur, an independent publishing house focusing on European translated literature. She currently develops an innovative and interactive internet project associated with the publishing house and supported by the city of Paris. The idea is to promote European literature to new audiences.
Today’s interview features Penny Hueston, who is Senior Editor at Text Publishing in Melbourne, Australia as well as a literary translator from the French.
Independent publisher Text Publishing has been championing translations from languages around the world since it started out in 1994. And Penny is passionate about her work as a translator.
I was looking forward to speaking with her about these two subjects, that are at the heart of this podcast.
Show Notes:
- Olga Tokarczuk, Flights, The Books of Jacob, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead
- Cory Taylor, Dying
- Akuch Kuol Anyieth, Unknown: A Refugee’s Story
- Fiona Murphy, The Shape of Sound
Penny Hueston is Senior Editor at Text Publishing and a literary translator from the French. Her translations include novels by Emmanuelle Pagano (One Day I’ll Tell You Everything), Patrick Modiano (Little Jewel), Sarah Cohen-Scali (Max) and Raphaël Jerusalmy (Evacuation).
She has translated six books by Marie Darrieussecq—All the Way, Men, Being Here: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker, Our Life in the Forest, The Baby, and Crossed Lines.
She has been shortlisted for the JQ-Wingate Prize, the Scott Moncrief Prize, and twice for the New South Wales Premier’s Translation Prize.
Today I am speaking with Finnish publisher Outi Karemaa.
I personally find the Nordic publishing market fascinating, not least because it is relatively difficult to sell into those markets. I like challenges!
Outi and I speak about those challenges, the state of the Finnish publishing market, and also about the rising popularity, and therefore competition, of English-language books on the Finnish market which we're seeing in other Nordic countries and the Netherlands as well.
Show Notes:
- The Spy and the Traitor (Crown, 2019) and Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy (Crown, 2020) by Ben Macintyre
- The Mitford Murders (series) (Minotaur Books) by Jessica Fellowes
Outi Karemaa (born 1969) is an experienced Chief Executive with a long history of working in the publishing business. She is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused on history from the University of Helsinki.
Outi started her career in the publishing business 1998 and worked at Edita Publishing as a Publishing Manager and then as a Publishing Director. In 2010 she started as a CEO of Metsäkustannus, which is a publisher of magazines and books.
In 2019 Outi started as a CEO at book publisher Minerva. After the biggest book publisher of Finland WSOY (Werner Söderström Ltd.) bought Minerva a year ago, her title has been a Publisher. Minerva is nowadays an imprint of WSOY, so Minerva still has its own publishing list. Minerva’s main areas are fiction, general non-fiction, as well as gift and hobby books and books for children. Outi lives in Helsinki with her family and a very social cat.
Today’s guest is Amélie Louat, whom some of you may know from her time at the French independent publishing house Editions Zulma. Amélie did something that I believe is incredibly courageous: during the pandemic, she quit her job at Zulma, moved away from Paris with her family to a small town in Brittany, and opened an independent bookstore. I had so many questions for her, not only about how this major life change unfolded, but also about her bookstore, since she is the very first bookseller I had on the podcast.
Show Notes:
- Voyage au bout de l'enfance by Rachid Benzine (Le Seuil, 2022)
- The River by Peter Heller (Knopf, 2019; French edition La Rivière, Actes Sud, 2021)
Amélie Louat is the owner and founder of the bookstore La Grande Evasion in La Gacilly (Brittany). She spent 15 years working for independent French publishers, including 12 years for the innovative literary publisher Zulma. There, she acquired French rights of international authors, she created a non fiction series and she developed translation deals for Zulma’s authors all over the world. Among the authors she worked with are Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (Iceland), Hubert Haddad (France), Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès (France), Dany Laferrière (Haïti), Marcus Malte (France), Shoshana Zuboff (USA), Zhang Yueran (China), Hwang Sok-yong (South Korea).
In 2021, she left Paris in order to create her own bookshop in La Gacilly, Brittany: 80 m2, around 6000 titles, book clubs, concerts, writing workshops, meetings with authors and passionate talks with her clients are now her daily life. Among books, La Grande Evasion also exhibits limited printruns of original illustrations from local artists.
La Grande Evasion (in English: The Great Escape) is an independent bookstore created by Amélie Louat in La Gacilly, Brittany. It opened in May 2021. All kind of books are represented in the 80m2 shop, featuring around 6,000 titles: from high literature to comics, from artistic and coffee table books to social sciences, from graphic children's literature to cookbooks.
Along with books, limited editions of illustrations and a small selection of notebooks and cards are proposed. More than a shop, La Grande Evasion aims to be a place to talk, to meet authors, illustrators and translators.
La Grande Evasion is supported by several partners, from public institutions to private companies or organizations: among them are Editions Zulma, l’ADELC and Initiative France.
La Grande Evasion : 21, rue La Fayette, 56 200 La Gacilly, France – contact@lagrandeevasion-librairie.fr
Today’s guest is Manami Tamaoki, Director of Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc in Tokyo. We recorded this interview a little while ago, when Manami just got out of a true virtual meeting marathon that took place before, during and after the Frankfurt Book Fair. I did not envy her!
I just wanted to mention that at some point during the interview, Manami talks about the Swedish bestseller titled Smart Phone Brain, which was indeed as she indicates the bestselling book of the year in Japan, and topped several year-end lists. However, Manami would like to correct that it has won one award, and not three awards as she mentions during the interview.
Show Notes
- The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity
- The New Long Life: A Framework for Flourishing in a Changing World
- The Joy Of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage
- Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words
Manami is Director for Tuttle-Mori Agency, the leading literary agency based in Tokyo, Japan. She oversees the publishing business and relationships for the agency between the US, UK, Europe, Scandinavia and other territories around the world.
Prior to becoming a Director, she was General Manager of the agency, as well as Head of the Nonfiction Department.
As a co-agent selling into Japan, she works on numerous best-selling authors including Carlo Rovelli, Spencer Johnson, Adam Grant, Angela Duckworth, Susan Cain, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Kelly McGonigal, Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, Yanis Varoufakis, Muhammad Yunus, Thomas Friedman, John Carreyrou.
She represents Ichiro Kishimi, Shunmyo Masuno, Thomas Lockley and other bestselling authors from Japan. She has been a featured speaker and panelist at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Japan Audiobook Association, and interviewed by an award winning author for his book about publishing professionals behind the scene, as well as prominent business magazines on being a Japanese agent in the international publishing market for twenty-nine years.
I am very excited to be back with season 3 of the Make Books Travel podcast. I took a two-month break from recording, one of which I spent on the road, in Europe. I actually had in-person meetings again, and drinks, and dinners, meeting publishers in Amsterdam, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in Paris. It was amazing!
Today’s guest, Stella Soffia Jóhannesdóttir, had the pleasure of hosting one of the few in-person fellowships of this year, back in September, in her capacity as director of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival. Besides this role, she is also acquisitions editor for Storytel in Iceland.
I did some homework in preparation for my interview with Stella, and found that Storytel currently has 1.7 million subscribers in 25 markets with around 700,000 titles globally. Those numbers are quite mind-boggling!
- Cemetery of the Sea by Aslak Nore (Aschehoug, Norway; forthcoming in English with MacLehose Press)
- The Mark by Fríða Ísberg (Forlagið, Iceland; not yet sold to an English language publisher to date as far as we can tell)
- The Snow Sister by Maja Lunde (Kagge, Norway; not yet sold to an English language publisher to date as far as we can tell)
Stella Soffía Jóhannesdóttir is the director of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival and acquisitions editor for Storytel in Iceland. Prior to working for Storytel, Stella worked in acquisitions for Forlagið. Stella was a part of the team that organized Iceland, Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2011 and she has been working for the Reykjavík International Literary Festival since 2009. She lives in Reykjavík, Iceland.
- Translation subsidies and travel grants from Iceland: https://www.islit.is/en/grants/
- General information about the fellowship program of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival: https://bokmenntahatid.is/en/reykjavik-fellowship-program-2021/
- Christmas Book Catalogue: bokatidindi.is
Welcome to the last episode of season two of the Make Books Travel Podcast!
I’ll be taking a break for the next month or so in order to focus on my virtual and in-person meetings before and during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
I’m SO excited to be taking part in the fair, and to be back in Europe for the entire month of October after having stayed put in California for the last 19 months.
Today’s guest, Edward Nawotka, is the international and bookselling editor of Publishers Weekly and co-founder of Publishers Weekly en Español. He’d just returned from a trip to the Madrid Book Fair which we’ll discuss, as well as Publishers Weekly en Español, the state of independent bookselling in the US, and the biggest shifts he’s noticed during his many years covering the international publishing scene. We talk about much more but I’ll leave it up to you to discover…
- The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier
- The Passenger & the Compass series, from Europa Editions
- Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler
- Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse
- The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
- Too Old, Too Late Smart by Gordon Livingstone
Ed Nawotka is the international and bookselling editor of Publishers Weekly and co-founder of Publishers Weekly en Español. Prior to that he was the founder and editor of Publishing Perspectives. Ed has covered the book business for more than two decades, for publications including Bloomberg News, the New Yorker, People magazine, and USA Today. Prior to that he was a foreign correspondent working across Europe, Asia and Africa. He began his career in books as a bookseller for Doubleday Bookstores in Boston. He lives in Houston.
Welcome to another episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast!
Usually I give a short introduction on the person that I’ll be interviewing on this episode. However, as you’re about to find out, it is a seemingly impossible task to do so for today’s guest Lawrence Schimel, as he wears a multitude of hats... So I'll just let Lawrence introduce himself!
- Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series
- Alex Pavesi's The Eighth Detective
Lawrence Schimel (New York, 1971) is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, who has published over one hundred books in a wide range of genres. He is also a prolific literary translator. His picture books have been selected for the White Ravens from the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, twice chosen for IBBY’s Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities, and won a Crystal Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and illustrators, among many other awards, honors, and distinctions.
His writing has been published in Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Catalan, Changana, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Farsi (Dari), Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Macua, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romansh, Romanian, Russian, Sena, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Welsh translations.
He started the Spain chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and served as its Regional Advisor for five years.
Welcome to another episode of the Make Books Travel podcast! I’m happy to be back after having taken some time off this summer.
I’m preparing a trip to Europe (I still can’t believe I’m saying this!), we just sent our Fall Rights Lists out, and both my virtual and my in-person meeting schedules are filling up, so it’s safe to say that the fall season is in full swing.
There will be one or two more episodes after this one, and then I’ll take a break while I’m in Europe. Season 3 will be starting in November!
So much for housekeeping announcements...
Today I am speaking with Nadzja Spiegelman. Nadzja is editor-in-chief of Astra Magazine, a new print literary magazine with a strong international focus forthcoming in 2022.
We discuss amongst others what it takes to set up a new literary venture like this, why it is particularly important to do so now, and how her previous job as online editor at The Paris Review prepared her for her position at Astra Magazine.
Nadja's book recommendations:
About Nadja:
Nadja Spiegelman is the author of I'm Supposed to Protect You From All This and the former online editor of The Paris Review. She is the editor-in-chief of Astra Magazine, a new international print literary magazine forthcoming in 2022.
Today I’m excited to welcome my first guest from Scandinavia: Danish publisher Marie Vinter. Marie is founder and publisher of Vinter Forlag, which she started last fall.
Among the different Scandinavian markets, the Danish publishing market in particular has seen many changes in recent years. Imprints were discontinued, publishers merged or were bought by publishing groups, streaming saw an impressive and quite aggressive growth, and several new publishing houses were created, both independently like Vinter Forlag, and under the umbrella of publishing groups.
We’re taking a deep dive into the Danish publishing market, and we’ll discuss the impact of the pandemic of course, but we also talk about how Marie came to found her own publishing house (spoiler alert: it involves one of my favorite authors!), the rise of audio and much more...
Marie's book recommendations:
- The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
- Living Autobiography Book Series by Deborah Levy
About Marie:
Marie Vinter’s publishing career spans more than 20 years working with both bestseller-driven publishers and smaller literary publishers. She began at Borgen Publishers, an independent art-loving publishing house, where she stayed for 10 years, first as editor of poetry and French literature, and then as editorial director and co-founder of commercial imprint S&S (publishing Devil wears Prada). From 2014-2019 Marie was senior editor at Rosinante, one of Denmark’s leading publishing houses, building their list and acquiring bestselling authors, such as Sally Rooney, Rachel Cusk, Maggie Nelson, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rebecca Solnit, Zadie Smith, and Leila Slimani.
In 2020, Marie founded Vinter Forlag, a new independent publishing house dedicated to translated literary fiction and essays. She has taken an active part in the literary scene as board member, festival organizer, co-founder of a magazine and a vibrant live scene, and is always on the lookout for new talented, female voices.
Welcome to a new episode of the Make Books Travel podcast, on which I’m speaking to Lance Fitzgerald, VP, Content and Business Development for Penguin Random House Audio.
On season 1 episode 15, I interviewed Jamie Dupras, General Manager of audiobook producer Deyan Audio. What I took away from that interview was that the audiobook format is an even more important, and explosively growing, player in our industry than I’d already thought.
So I’d been wanting to speak with Lance, an audiobook publisher, to better understand this growth, and discuss what trends he has seen. Among quite a diverse set of topics, we also dive into the areas of growth he and his team at Penguin Random House Audio are specifically looking at, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on audiobook sales and listener behavior.
Show Notes:
Welcome to a new episode of the Make Books Travel podcast!
Today I’m excited to speak with Prashant Pathak, who joins us from just outside of New Delhi in India.
Prashant gives us insights into the current situation of the Indian publishing market and explains how the publishing house he started 4 years ago, Wonder House Books, has weathered the challenges brought on by the pandemic.
He also discusses how the Facebook Group Publishers Without Borders got started, right at the beginning of the lockdowns related to the pandemic, where the group is at now, and what their plans are for when we can all meet each other again at book fairs (hint: it involves some cold beverages!).
Show Notes
Prashant's book recommendations:
- Captain Underpants. The Big Bad Battle of Bionic Booger Boy by Jeff Kinney
- The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak
- Richard Scarry's Best Treasury Ever
- Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry
About Prashant:
Prashant started as an online gaming support executive and transitioned his career into publishing by working with various publishing services companies.
In 2017, he joined Prakash Books to set up a new imprint for children, Wonder House Books, where as a publisher he creates engaging content and attractive designs.
His strong-suits have given the organization grounds to bloom significantly.
He lives in New Delhi and is a father of 2 boys — a 6 year old Human Male and an 8 year old yellow Labrador.
Welcome to another episode of the Make Books Travel podcast.
This time we’re traveling all the way to Moscow, Russia to speak with Natalia Poleva.
Natalia started out on the acquisitions side, and more recently made the switch to selling translation rights to fiction and non fiction titles published by Eksmo Publishers. I was interested in hearing how she felt about switching to the ‘other side’ and what the Russian publishing landscape looks like at what hopefully is the tail-end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
I also wanted to give you a heads-up here, as we ran into some issues with the sound quality. I would suggest that you listen to the interview using headphones, which I hope will make it easier for you to understand. My apologies for this!
Show Notes
In the non-fiction genre,
- Anna Bykova, Lazy Mom (translated in 17 languages so far)
- Igor Ryzov, Kremlin School of Negotiations (translated in 10 languages so far)
In the fiction genre,
- Eduard Verkin, Sakhalin Island (translated in 11 languages so far)
- Kira Yarmysh, Strange Things in Cell #13 (Corpus Publisher) - not yet published in translation
- Blake Crouch, The Wayward Pines Trilogy
- Mikhail Bulgagov, Heart of a Dog
As a teacher of English and a translator, Natalia once cracked open the door to the “laboratory” where books are created, and never left that side. She's always been searching for a new story for over 15 years.
She started as foreign rights acquisition manager with a professional medical publisher, building a portfolio for “GEOTAR-Media Group” who became #1 among Russian medical publishers.
Then she acquired foreign non-fiction for the leading Russian publisher Eksmo Publishers and tried to combine it with selling Russian non-fiction worldwide.
Now she represents and sells adult fiction and non-fiction rights for Eksmo, making Russian voices heard all over the globe.
Welcome to another episode of The Make Books Travel podcast!
Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Sherif Bakr, General Manager of the Egyptian publishing house Al Arabi. To say Sherif is well-travelled is quite an understatement; in fact he explains during the interview how important it’s been for him to participate in fellowships around the world.
We address many different topics, including the increase in popularity of the audiobook in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world, distribution challenges between the different Arabic-speaking countries, the imminent arrival of Amazon in Egypt, and the problem of piracy that Arabic publishers have been facing for many years.
The icing on the cake comes with Sherif describing how he came to virtually visit the White House recently!
Show Notes
Sherif's book recommendations:
- Behrooz Boochani, No Friend but the Mountains. Writing from Manus Prison
- Manon Steffan Ros, The Blue Book of Nebo
About Sherif:
Sherif Bakr (1975) studied in the English school in Heliopolis Cairo, and graduated from the faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, majoring in Economics and minoring in Computer Science.
In 1997 took over the family business, Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing, where he'd already been working during his summer vacations since he was young.
He worked in all fields of publishing, from the warehouse to accounting; from sales and marketing to editorial and foreign rights.
Sherif Bakr is now The General Secretary of the Egyptian Publishing Association and head of the Development and e-publishing committee.
Having spotted the chance of bridging the Arab civilization and the Arab World—which counts over 400 million inhabitants—with the rest of the world, his aim is to build those bridges based on books and culture.
Sherif Bakr has been invited to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2008 as part of the invitation program for international publishers and in 2009 as part of the FBF Fellowship program with 15 other fellows from another 14 countries. He has been invited as well to many other book fairs and publishing events to represent Egypt and the Arab World, as a participant, moderator and speaker. These events include the Turin International Book Fair from 2010 to 2016, the Prague International book fair from 2011 to 2016, the ITEF Professional Meetings Fellowship Program of Turkey in 2012, the MICA|Mercado de Industrias Culturales Argentinas from 2013 to 2016, the Amsterdam fellowship in 2013 and the Sharjah International Book Fair from 2013 to 2016.
In 2019, he was elected member of the Freedom to Publish committee in the International Publishing Association. The same year, he was invited to participate in the IVLP (International Visitors Leadership Program) in the US.
Sherif was member of the Higher Cultural Committee at the Cairo International Book Fair for six consecutive years, is currently member of the Book and Publication Committee of the Supreme Council of Culture in Cairo, and member of the Egyptian Export Council for printing, packaging, paper, books and artistic works.
Today’s guest is Andy Hunter, Founder and CEO of Bookshop.org.
Often referred to as the indie alternative to Amazon.com, Bookshop.org proposes a socially conscious way to buy books online. On the day our interview was recorded, it had since its launch in January 2020 raised close to $14 million for local bookstores in the US.
Amazon has seen an alarming growth in the ecosystem of book sales in the US. Andy explains why it was important to act immediately when he came up with the idea. He also gives us an insight into the logistics and the business model of Bookshop.org, which recently branched out to a few other countries as well.
Show Notes
Randa Jarrar, Love Is an Ex-Country
Andy Hunter is the Founder & CEO of Bookshop.org. He is also the co-founder and publisher of Catapult press, the publisher of Counterpoint and Soft Skull Press, the co-creator and publisher of the websites Literary Hub, Crime Reads and BookMarks, and co-founder and chairman of Electric Literature. His focus is helping books remain a vital part of our culture in the digital age.
Today’s guest is Allison Scott, who works as Senior Acquisitions Editor in the book publishing arm of ASCD, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit education association that provides professional learning products and services for K-12 educators.
That is quite a mouthful! What it boils down to is that Allison works on books that help teachers and school administrators in the K-12 system do their job better. For non-US listeners, K-12 means from kindergarten to 12th grade, and includes children aged roughly between 5 and 18 years old.
This is the first time I’m interviewing a publishing professional who’s not active in the trade publishing world. But not only did I want to interview Allison because we have a special connection that I’ll mention at the beginning of the interview, I also wanted to learn more about her specialty field, which was completely unknown territory for me before I interviewed her. Always be learning!
Curious to hear more? Listen to my conversation with Allison Scott.
NB: Allison wanted to make the correction that her company, ASCD, provided professional learning services in Saudi Arabia. During the interview she had mistakenly said that it was the UAE.
- Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve
- Ling Ma, Severance
Allison Scott is a Senior Acquisitions Editor in the book publishing arm of ASCD, a DC-based nonprofit education association that provides professional learning products and services for K-12 educators. For the past thirteen years, Allison has worked in this area of academic publishing, searching out education experts and developing books that help teachers and school administrators so their jobs better.
Today's guest is Deborah Kaufmann, VP of Literary Affairs at Legendary Entertainment.
Translated into lay, non-Hollywood terms, this means that Deborah is some sort of in-house scout for Legendary, in charge of finding literary properties that can be adapted to the big or small screen. As you’ll find out, such properties can include books, but also unpublished short stories, podcasts, and news and magazine articles.
It was fascinating to get to know Deborah’s work a bit more in depth, and to hear her thoughts on the current state of the movie business and the revolution brought about by streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon.
Show Notes
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
- Weather by Jenny Offill
Since 2014, Deborah Kaufmann has been overseeing acquisitions of literary properties for Legendary Entertainment’s film and TV divisions, and working in New York. Previously, she was a senior editor based in Paris, publishing award-winning and international bestselling authors for 15 years – including Jenny Offill, Howard Jacobson, Claire Vaye Watkins, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Malala Yousafzai, Tana French, Anthony Horowitz, Walter Kirn, Elizabeth Gilbert, Audrey Niffenegger, Jeff Lindsay, and many others. She also ran the Orbit France science-fiction and fantasy imprint.
