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SPI Insider: “What Books Mean to Me”

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“What is different about books?” asked Dominique Raccah, CEO and co-founder of Sourcebooks, as she launched into the keynote address for the book session of the NYU Summer Publishing Institute. She then went on to discuss the many ways that books can be formatted, produced, and delivered to readers. Raccah was not only full of energy and ideas on how to help the book industry continue to thrive, but inspirational in asking us to focus on the fundamentals of making a book a success. After all, she pointed out, we are already hooked on books. Now we need to know how to deliver them into the hands of readers. “Statistics show that millennials read more than older generations,” noted Raccah, urging us to turn our passion into a commitment to the future of publishing. She also explained that while ebook sales have steadied and even plateaued, the popularity of hardcovers continues to increase from 2016 to 2017. It was a great and encouraging start to the three-week book session. Books still mean something. And print still reigns. We all listened up, pleased to be hearing from those we admire and aspire to emulate professionally.

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Dominique Raccah, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sourcebooks, delivers the Book Session Keynote at the 2017 NYU Summer Publishing Institute.

And the upbeat mood continued. While hearing from a panel of leading experts including Madeline McIntosh from the Penguin Publishing Group, Jonathan Karp, from Simon & Schuster, Margot Schupf from Time Inc. Books, Bob Miller from Flatiron Books, and Reagan Arthur from Little, Brown, we were excited to engage in conversation about the future of the business. Surprisingly, instead of focusing on the numbers, the publishers talked about content and noted that the way to really generate the best books for readers is through exclusive and unique content. They spoke of finding a book that sets trends for other authors and publishers to follow such as Gone Girl.

What is also exciting for me is the prospect of collaboration and dynamism within the industry. Libby Jordan, Book Director of SPI, said, “Book publishing is very much a collaboration, so the roles aren’t so clear cut.” A professional world in which you have freedom to try different things and work as a team definitely draws in young professionals and millennials who are seeking less structured career  paths.

 

 

Another aspect of book publishing that excites many of us is all those formats  mentioned by Dominique Raccah.  Publishing houses are working tirelessly to make sure that each format, whether it’s an e-book, streaming audio, podcast or hardcover, is strongly promoted to make as many readers as possible aware of it. We learned the importance of  starting off with a strong book, inventive publicity and marketing plans, and savvy sales strategies. We also heard about the need to position the title correctly, hyper-focusing on the content and cover design, and analyzing the market to gauge when a book is ready and marketable.

SPI student Anne Mulrooney represents many of us when she talks about the kind of content that she hopes to work with someday: “Book publishing is all about making sure good ideas are created and shared with passion and intention.”

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Students learn how to write a reader report from Vicki Lame, Senior Associate Editor for St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books.

Hearing the words of our panelists and guest speakers at SPI, we are coming to the conclusion that the publishing world seems to be heading in the right direction. Publishers and editors alike (not to mention the sales, marketing, and publicity teams) are working relentlessly to deliver the very best quality and content to readers. With this in mind, it is no surprise that the New York publishing world is one that many of us millennials are trying to break into. Justin Chanda, Vice President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, said it perfectly as he moderated a panel of top children’s book publishers: “Books touch and change lives.”

By Abbi McKall Mills

SPI Stories: Recent Grads Sound Off

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As potential SPIers frantically prepare their applications for the NYU 2017 Summer Publishing Institute, we thought we’d ask some members of last year’s class to give you an inside peek at life during and after. Read on to hear from a sales assistant for SHAPE, a member of the production team at Thrillist, and an assistant to a literary agent. Their candid comments are a great way to learn more about NYU’s renowned six-week summer program for recent college graduates interested in careers in books, magazine and digital media. If you haven’t started that application, there’s still time! The final deadline is March 13th. For more information, or to download the brochure and application, click here.

  [Read more…] about SPI Stories: Recent Grads Sound Off

SPI’s Message in a Bottle

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It only took six weeks for our Summer Publishing Institute (SPI) students to become industry experts, to change career paths, to expand their networks—just six weeks to transform from “SPI Students” to “SPI Alumni.” As we say “see you later” (never goodbye!) to our 2016 Class, we wanted to give them a chance to reflect on everything they learned this summer and pass their newfound wisdom on to the next generation. Read on to hear their from-the-heart  advice:

[Read more…] about SPI’s Message in a Bottle

Getting Real: the Making of a Nonfiction Imprint

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One thing we are learning quickly here at the NYU Summer Publishing Institute (SPI) is the importance of diving in. In our magazine and book projects—and in our careers!—we’ve had to continually just go for it.

A little advice from Chris Guilfoyle, SVP and Group Publisher, Meredith Corporation, sticks in my mind. She spoke at the end of the magazine session of SPI and shared secrets of how to be great in our future publishing jobs. She stressed how important it’ll be for us to take initiative and figure out how we can help. Among other tips, she said, “Do more than your job description,” and “Proficiency is more than just learning.” When in doubt, figure it out.

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Chris Guilfoyle, SVP and Group Publisher, Meredith Corporation, (center) gives students advice after her presentation at the NYU Summer Publishing Institute.

We have now successfully completed the magazine session of SPI and are assigned to specific  groups of ten students to create hypothetical book imprints  in the book session. When we first met together in our groups,we knew it was up to us, just as Guilfoyle said. We received some instructions about what we had to create—a book imprint and three potential titles, including a lead title. Okay, but  the how of doing that, at least initially, and the what of the content, were up to us.

Our group was assigned to create a hypothetical nonfiction imprint. (Other groups were assigned to categories such as illustrated books/graphic novels, children’s, entertainment, mystery/true crime and more). In our group, we started out with  a lot of ideas scattered across a wide range of politics, news, history, and memoir. As we began talking, a few specific ideas stood out.

One of our strongest ideas was a memoir by a popular comedienne. Judging from recent bestsellers by her famous contemporaries, we knew the memoir would sell really well; we also liked the things the comedienne had to say about self-love and self-acceptance. We liked her strong voice, and her interest in speaking to people who may not always be  considered a primary audience… in other words, those at times under represented. We also identified a compilation of personal essays and an exploratory look at the phenomenon behind Trump’s ascension as top ideas to present for review.

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Book session Keynote speaker John Sargent, CEO, Macmillan Publishers, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, introduces students to the world of book publishing.

 

Next, we knew we needed a point of view—a coherent message and feel for all of our books. One of the book session speakers, Charles Ardai, Founder and Publisher of Hard Case Crime, emphasized the importance of having a unique and consistent vision.“All our books have a very specific DNA. When you pick up one of our books, you know it’s a Hard Case Crimes book” he said. So what was our imprint about and how would our books telegraph that specific message to readers?

We started to see a common thread: voices. All of the concepts we were most passionate about involved strong, unique voices with something to say. We decided our imprint should feature diverse voices that may not always have safe and broad forums.

Our executive editor, Hannah Neuman, said it best in our initial pitch to the program directors on day one: “We want to feature really distinct voices. Our authors say: ‘This is my story and this is how I see the world.’”

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Students review manuscripts and learn how to construct a reader report with Lucia Macro, VP/Executive Editor at HarperCollins Publishers (center).

That first pitch meeting went better than we expected. Two of our book concepts were approved, and we just had to do a little more work on our imprint title. The program directors suggested that our proposed imprint name didn’t really communicate the human element we were so passionate about. Our early Trump idea also didn’t make it through the pitch meeting. The program directors helped us see that it wouldn’t sell really well long-term.

With that advice, we did some digging and found cool options of unknown powerhouse women in history. Alas, as much as we loved “A Tank Named Fighting Girlfriend,” the program directors pointed out that a biography about a Russian woman in WWII—regardless of what she named her tank—might not garner the sales and exposure we need as a new imprint.

Back to the drawing board we went, this time with the advice to go broad. We needed to find something people were talking about, something currently relevant. We brainstormed and researched some more and pitched an investigative look into a US crime trade not often talked about. Heavy stuff, but certainly broad, relevant, and giving a voice to the voiceless. The program directors agreed that this had potential, and with that we started digging deeper into our  subjects  and creating our imprint—now aptly named to invoke voices.

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Jim Levine, Principal, Levine Greenberg, (left) acts out the roles of literary agents, authors, and editors with fellow agents (l to r) Josh Getzler, Literary Agent, HSG Agency; Kate McKean, Literary Agent, The Howard Morhaim Literary Agency; Andrea Barzvi, Principal, Empire Literary; and Seth Fishman, Literary Agent, The Gernert Company.

Now we are  9 days away from presenting our hypothetical nonfiction imprint to a panel of industry experts. We are learning about the constant refining and zeroing-in required in the creation of a book imprint. With more and more insights each day, we are excited to see where we go—both in our imprint and in our future careers.

by Jill Hacking

NYU Media Talk of the Town: Long Live Long Form

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NYU’s Kimmel Center was buzzing with excitement. The 2016 Summer Publishing Institute class mingled with M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media students, faculty, and publishing industry insiders while watching the sun set over Washington Square Park and anticipating a talk on the new ways print media is being reborn. The latest installment in the NYU Media Talk series, NextGen Editors: What’s New, Different, and Daring, began with an introduction from moderator Michael Calderone, Senior Media Reporter for The Huffington Post. “When I first graduated from NYU, I had one job at a newspaper, where I wrote one column,” Calderone explained, emphasizing how simple things seemed when he was a student himself. “No one can get by doing that now.”

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NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute Alumni: The Inside Story

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So many of you interested in NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute ask us what happens after the six weeks are over. Do you get a job? What’s that like? How did SPI prepare you for the real world? What’s the real world, anyway?  We figured the best way to respond was through the reflections of three recent SPI grads who are now, yes, gainfully employed in publishing.

[Read more…] about NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute Alumni: The Inside Story

Meet the Publishing Press

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Moderator Brian Stelter (far left) of CNN with panelists (l-r:  Bill Brink of The New York Times; Sarah Weinman of Publishers Lunch; Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post; and Sarah Ellison of Vanity Fair) [Photo: NYU Photo Bureau/Elena Olivo]
Moderator Brian Stelter (far left) of CNN with panelists (l-r: Bill Brink of The New York Times; Sarah Weinman of Publishers Lunch; Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post; and Sarah Ellison of Vanity Fair) [Photo: NYU Photo Bureau/Elena Olivo]
“The sky is changing colors,” claimed Bill Brink, Media Editor at The New York Times. This intriguing comment was more metaphoric than meteorological, referring to the current shifts in media. It was delivered during a panel discussion entitled “Meet the Publishing Press: How Media Editors and Reporters Cover an Industry in Transition,” the latest in the NYU Media Talk series sponsored by the NYU Center for Publishing. The panel, which was directed at an audience composed of NYU M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media students and the NYU Summer Publishing Institute Class of 2015, featured a diverse and highly experienced group of media professionals from multiple platforms. The moderator was Brian Stelter, Senior Media Correspondent for CNN Worldwide and host of Reliable Sources. On the panel, in addition to Bill Brink, were Michael Calderone, Senior Media Reporter at The Huffington Post; Sarah Ellison, Contributing Editor, Media, at Vanity Fair; and Sarah Weinman, News Editor at Publishers Marketplace where she reports for Publishers Lunch. [Read more…] about Meet the Publishing Press

Reflections from 2014 SPI Alumni

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ClassEvery spring, our inboxes are clogged – in a good way! – with emails from all of you, prospective students of the Summer Publishing Institute checking in. You are talented, eager, full of great questions. So what is SPI really like? Can I hear from alumni? What kind of career help will I get? We understand: It’s The Dream of every word and book lover. We had (and followed) that dream too: Move to New York. Make friends. Learn the industry. Land my first publishing job. It’s all possible at SPI. But don’t just take it from us. Hear what members of the Class of 2014 say about their experiences: [Read more…] about Reflections from 2014 SPI Alumni

Silver Spork is Golden: From SPI to the Web

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The original SPI Silver Spork team collecting an award.

Silver Spork was never supposed to happen. How often do you think about any class project after you turn it in? Truth is, we dedicate hundreds of hours to assignments, present them in a classroom setting, and then leave them in the rearview mirror.

And that’s exactly what happened with Silver Spork, a full plan for a hypothetical new print and digital magazine created as a team assignment at the 2014 NYU Summer Publishing Institute (SPI). Our team of 11 students was even awarded a first-place prize by the judges, a group of heavyweight publishing executives. After the exhilarating 24 hours following our star performance, the team split up and we went our separate ways. Silver Spork became this myth in our minds that we would discuss after a few drinks. “What if?” That was the question.

“What if Silver Spork was a real brand?” We joked about returning to the idea years later after we were all successful publishing executives. However, it was never something that was actually going to happen…at least until I realized how painful the publishing industry can be. I won’t lie; Silver Spork came about because I looked around and saw extremely talented people struggling to find employment. And there I was with an extraordinary idea that needed talented people and an action plan.

I started talking to people from the original team and a few others from SPI who had shown excitement about the idea. I was fishing for interest, and the hook caught less than I had hoped. Still, we built a small team and established some arbitrary job titles. We began with a website. Then we started writing material for the site.

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Bailey James and Ian Sims of Silver Spork News

The beauty of an idea is how simple it can seem on paper: “I’m going to create [a digital version of] Silver Spork.” That was pretty much the pitch I ran with in the beginning. So when I found out that SilverSpork.com would cost me a few thousand dollars more than I had to spare (about ten dollars), it was back to the drawing board. My SPI colleague Bailey James (Executive Editor) and I (Editor-in-Chief) tried out a thousand new names: Silver Spork Brand, Silver Spork Food, Silver Spork Media, etc, but nothing rolled off the tongue quite the way we wanted. After a dozen more terrible names, we stumbled onto Silver Spork News. And suddenly, we knew we had it.

The funny thing about establishing a brand is all the new information you need to take in. If starting a website has taught me anything, it’s that I used to be an idiot and might still be. Let’s talk about some of the issues and solutions that we worked through:

  1. Contributors: Who was going to write for this site? We had a bank of posts built up from before the site launch, but blew through them pretty fast. After that we had to write articles by the seat of our pants (see 2). After the loss of the original team, we sought out friends from the program and from our lives to help us. Most of them didn’t work out, but some of them did. And those who did are still working with us today. Our contributors are the real heroes of the site. I might manage some stuff here and there, but they are the people who made Silver Spork News something to be excited about. They did this, not me. And I owe them everything.
  1. Writing by the Seat of Our Pants: If you’ve spent time reading articles on our site, there’s a good chance you’ve read something I wrote three hours earlier. Whether it’s because someone missed a deadline or aliens abducted our contributors, it falls to me and (if I’m trapped under a car or some other calamitous event) Bailey to keep our publishing schedule. We post at least one article a day. And you can quote me on that. We have not missed a day since we launched on September 4th, 2014. I’d miss my mother’s funeral if Silver Spork News needed a post. She’d understand.
  1. Art: This brand was started by a bunch of writers. But news flash: art is important. We’ve had two amazing artists (Angeli Rafer and Molly Johanson) working with Silver Spork from the beginning and they’ve been nothing but incredible. Our Facebook ads have the highest click-through when accompanied by an original Silver Spork drawing. Writing is worthless if no one reads it, so we need art to draw in the consumers. You can’t just draw a grasshopper in Microsoft Paint either. It’s gotta be real art that people want to see.
  1. Facebook Advertising: Wow. I’d be better off trying to understand Naked Lunch. Facebook Advertising is a simple interface that sets you up with everything you need to be successful. And then what? “You wanted college students 21 and up? Here’s an eighth-grader checking out your weed articles.” I will say this for Facebook: it gets us likes and page views, but not always from our sought-after demographic. It also puts everything into convenient charts to show how it didn’t do what it said it did.
  1. Management: I’m learning, okay? I became the leader of Silver Spork News because I had the most passion for the project and knowledge about working in the kitchen, not because I knew how to herd cats and communicate. I am in charge of scheduling projects for art, editorial, and marketing. I’m also the voice of the brand when speaking externally to restaurants and performing interviews. The only reason I can do any of this is by having a kickass second-in-command. Along with working another publishing job, Bailey James writes, edits, and posts material for the site, and she works as our Marketing Executive. Without her, all of my ideas would be nothing. She keeps me in line so that I can keep the brand on point and on time.

Silver Spork News is currently a 10-person team operating across the nation. Check us out at silversporknews.com or, if you’re looking to join the team, contact us at silversporknews@gmail.com.

by Ian Sims, Editor-in-Chief, Silver Spork News

The Wonder-factory: Down the Rabbit Hole

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Link and students outside the “hidden door” to The Wonderfactory
David Link and students outside the “hidden door” to The Wonderfactory

“We want our brand to hit you in the face when you get off the elevator,” said David Link, Co-Founder and Creative Director of The Wonderfactory. This Manhattan-based advertising, design, and app development company creates interactive experiences for Fortune 500 brands in the publishing and media industries. [Read more…] about The Wonder-factory: Down the Rabbit Hole