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Okay, before you read MediaBistro’s interview with Danielle Durkin of Random House/Ballantine, we would like to remind you (as if you need reminding!) that very few editors meet their authors on the subway. Durkin also notes this, but sometimes people think, well, it happened once…
So did the Ice Age, and you don’t see anyone getting [...]

A bit of publishing-industry desk moves and title changes to end this gray, chilly week. Also, we’re in a listy sort of mood.

Simon & Schuster remains not for sale. Put your checkbooks away for another day.
Jean Feiwel at Holtzbrinck has named her kid’s book imprint Feiwel & Friends.
David Graham moves from Canongate to Granta. Which [...]

We’re admittedly bad at tracking all the editorial movement going on — but who could keep up with all the comings and going? But since we have a nice slew of desk changes, we’ll share a few:

Farrin Jacobs has moved to HarperCollins Children’s Books as executive editor. She was previously editor at Red Dress Ink.
Ballantine [...]

In the interest of scientific inquiry, we did a quick poll of our peers to gauge interest in the impending arrival of Judith Regan. Angelenos are, quite obviously, fascinated by celebrity and when a high-profile editor arrives on our fair shore, well, giddy is not too strong a word.
Except, and perhaps we can blame the [...]

We are, quite understandably, enthusiastic about the idea of publishing giants using new technology to reach readers. Simon & Schuster, or rather Simon & Schuster Spotlight Entertainment (makes one wonder, no?), has officially entered the cell phone promotion market.
The new program will send text messages, excerpts, cover art, and whatever else fits on a cell [...]

Sheesh, barely a half cup of coffee into the day, and already we’re ranting. Tina Engler’s story is well-documented — girl can’t find a publisher for erotic stories (because, let’s be honest, good girls don’t), decided to strike out on her own, becomes publishing phenom while turning the model on its head.
Also, if you’ve been [...]

It is an interesting concept, targeting publishing efforts toward major audiences. Rayo, an imprint of HarperCollins, is focused on providing good books to the Latino community — in both English and Spanish. Yes, yes, we know, such radical concepts require more warning before being dropped in your laps.
That fact that it wasn’t until the year [...]

In what is an apparently radical move, Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau will call their new Doubleday imprint “Spiegel & Grau”. After noting that publishing houses often name imprints after the male founders, the new name feels “both old-fashioned and radical”.
Definitely beats some made-up feminine sounding word that makes no sense at all.

Spiegel & Grau [...]

The best thing you can do to Kate Nitze of MacAdam Cage is give her a stomachache — you now, the kind of pain that says a story is good, really good. The worst thing you can do? That thing about drinking no wine before its time? Same for stories — don’t submit until the [...]

Before we get into MediaBistro’s interview with Hyperion editor Zareen Jaffrey (whom some of you may remember from Red Dress Ink), we have to puzzle over one of the more odd book titles we’ve encountered this week: Desperate Housewives Cookbook.
Now if this were, oh, the fifties, we’d be thinking, ah, a cookbook for a new [...]