the future of publishing, or why Jonathan Karp’s imprint 12 is something to get excited about
Writing by Jana on Monday, 30 of June , 2008 at 2:02 pm
I was directed to Editorial Ass: Less is More via Nathan Bransford’s blog, and I can’t believe I missed this the first time around.
Jonathan Karp’s imprint 12 revolves around a very basic concept: 1 book per month; 12 books a year:
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That means a given catalog has only four books in it, tops. This means more focus on quality, where only one book is getting an editor’s complete attention at a time. It also means the slashing of arbitrary initiatives (many publishing companies incentivize their departments and employees by the number of acquisitions and books published, which makes sense in a quantitative way but in a qualitative way inadvertently encourages editors to acquire books they don’t care about in order to scrape their margins together).
Jonathan Karp brings with him 16 years of experience from Random House, so my assumption is that he knows what he’s talking about.
More focus on quality. Not quantity. What a revolutionary concept, eh? And 7 of their first 10 published books have become NYT bestsellers.
Less crap published, and deserving novels and authors getting the attention (and money) they deserve.
I think this is something to get very excited about.
With so many seemingly in a tizzy about the future of publishing and the drastic ways the industry has (and must) change, here’s something that actually makes sense.
I hope this a business model others start adapting.
Category: the business of writing
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Comment by Soleil Noir
Made Tuesday, 1 of July , 2008 at 1:14 pm
Quality over Quantity. What a concept, huh?
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