Nonfiction and books featured on cspans book tv. Well, over our 25 year plus history book. Tv has covered thousands of authors and hundreds of those authors have been published by simon and schuster. Jonathan karp is the president of simon and schuster. Mr. Karp, congratulations on celebrating 100 years in publishing. Who are some of the favorite authors that youve worked with over the years . Oh, my gosh. Well, i guess ill start with bob woodward, because i do think hes hes a classic simon and schuster author. And the funny thing is, i actually met bob years ago when i was a summer intern at the Washington Post and he came in and he talked to us and he told us a story about being published by Simon Schuster at the time. And he he actually told the head of Simon Schuster that he had an idea for a book. He thought that he should write his next book as an expose on the Publishing Business and the ceo, Simon Schuster. Snider said, ive got a great title for that. My last book and i never forgot that joke. And bob didnt write that book, but he has written many other great ones. And and ive ive had the pleasure of working with him for a long time now, and he has such integrity as a report. He follows the facts wherever they lead them. He he obviously is assiduous in cultivating his sources. And he he finds he finds things out that that nobody else does. Hes an extraordinary reporter. Walter isaacson is another authorouve worked with. Walter isaacson is a truly convey veal writer. I would follow walter anywhere and the thing that i think elevates walter above a lot of other writers is his mixture of curiosity and expense sense of intelligence. Walter obviously has written about some of the most remarkable people in civilization, whether its leonardo or Benjamin Frank lindh or steve jobs and he hes able to. Einstein. I think he i think that walters ability to traverse the worlds of science and culture to to find the artistry and imagination and genius in his characters is whats made him a really extraordinary author. I Read Everything he writes. Susan orlean. Susan orlean is well, i love susan orlean. I think susan orlean is one of the greatest literary journalists alive. And and what i mean by literary journalists is that its not just that shes a really terrific reporter. Shes got a great eye for detail. But what makes susan orlean special is that she is she is funny as hell. Shes got a great sense of humor. She loves people. She loves what she writes about. And i had the joy of working with her on the orchid thief, which is a book really about passion and obsession. Its about orchids, but its but its really about passion and obsession. And susan follows her obsessions to extremes. And she she takes a while to write her books. Theyre theyre elegy that we crafted and and i look forward to every one of them. We published the library book. We published a book on rin tin tin, everything she writes is just an absolute pleasure to read. And Doris Kearns Goodwin. Well, Doris Kearns Goodwin is a national treasure. And shes been called americas historian in chief. You know, its interesting. I think that doris has a lot in common with susan orlean because they both take their time to write their books. And i think one of the reasons why is because they really get to know their subjects. And i think doris loves people. And, you know, because doris is writing about politics so much, about politics is about people. And she understands the way people fit into the contours of history. And her new book, an unfinished love story, is her most personal book. Its a personal history of the 1960 years as she lived it with her husband, goodwin, who was one of the great speechwriters of that time. And and and what was so interesting is that in the course of their marriage, they had this prepared sexual argument about who was the better president. Lbj or jfk. And shed worked for lbj. So it he but he also worked for jfk. And and, you know, and throughout their marriage, this is an argument and and its so interesting to read this book to see them relive those years in the sixties and then come to different opinions. And their dialectic about these two president s and others in the sixties changes as as they grow older. And so its kind of doris is year of living historically and shes and shes really keeping the memory of her husband alive but also telling a story about the remarkable people who they both worked with. Simon and schuster has put out this book in honor of its centennial. Simon and schuster, a century of publishing,. 1924 to 2024. For people interested in publishing. What are they going to get in this book . Mr. Karp they are going to get a cultural history of america through the sweep of the books that weve published. And we actually went and we we got a committee together and we picked out the ones books we thought best represented simon and schuster. I mean, weve published, you know, ten, you know, weve published more than 14,000 books. So, i mean, weve got more than 14,000 print. I think weve probably published, you know, a lot more than 14,000, actually. And but these 100, we think, are emblems of what we represent. And so its fans. It spans, you know, works of, you know, Award Winning works of history, great works of fiction, but also books that had an influence on popular culture. You know, like hes just not that into you or Arnold Schwarzeneggers guide to bodybuilding or, you know, and then weve got weve got great memoirs. And i one of the books that i edited that i, i only have one book in there that i edited. Its, its Bruce Springsteens autobiography, born to you, born to run, which is just a, you know, a great story, brilliantly told you know, and hes a true artist. But we have we have our classic novels, Lonesome Dove catch 22. We have we have wonderful Childrens Books. You know, Chicka Chicka boom, boom. Are you there . God, its me, margaret by judy blume. And and and then weve got, you know, the books that had an impact on the culture, like all the president s men and steve jobs. So its its a the book goes into how those how those. Simon schuster books came to be the people who produced them. How the company grew and changed through the years. So its its just sort of a way of talking about the influence that simon and schuster had on america, on american publishing, but also how how we as a Company Changed through the years and in this book, you also tell the story, a short story about how David Mccullough became a simon and schuster loyal author. Yes, David Mccullough. We published david for over 50 years. He was a beloved author. And he my favorite story about David Mccullough. Im not even sure its you know, im not sure its the one you were referring to. But ill tell it to you, because i i think it really exempt defies. You know what we are as a publishing company. David was under contract to us to write a book about picasso, and he he spent about a year on it. And he came to the conclusion that he didnt want to write the book because he really did not want Pablo Picasso in his life any more. He didnt like the guy and david david had a really terrific literary agent named mort janklow. Mort came to Simon Schuster. He said david wants to give his money back. He wants to give his advance back. He doesnt want to write this book and the people at Simon Schuster at the time, i believe it was snider, said, keep the money, dont return it. We want to publish whatever david does next and hell come up with a better idea. And the book that he came up with was truman. And obviously that changed the trajectory of davids career. It became it was it was really a massive bestseller. It also was a book that a lot of people were reading in the cycle of that years president ial election, because all the people running for president , when that book came out wanted to be thought of as the next harry truman. The guy who could make the tough decisions, who was, you know, who had tenacity and and so it was an influential book for the for the time. But david was just such a class act and didnt it didnt waste a word on the page. He was he was not a verbose writer. He he was he was an artist himself. He literally he he he made watercolor illustrations. And i often thought that his his artistry extended to the page that that he was writing like a painter. And you could you could see the characters in his books. I loved working. I got to publish his book on the wright brothers. And and that was a kind of a classic David Mccullough book, because he could. It allowed him to write about the optimism of the american spirit and, you know, the can do nature of americans as told through these these brothers. And that was a story, the truman picasso story that i wanted to get out there. Mr. Good. Mr. Karp, how much time do you have to work directly with authors and edit them since youve been ceo and president for the last four years . Well, i still get to do it. I dont get to do it as much as i would like, but i do get to work with Doris Kearns Goodwin. Im still working with bob woodward and john irving, who is my favorite novelist of all time. And ive worked with john on three of his novels, the first one, which i think is really a classic, is called in one person. And it was years ahead of the curve on on transgender rights. And and then i did abc mysteries and most recently, we published the last chairlift and john, i think is one of the greatest novelists alive and and for all time and ive been reading him since i was in high school. I think hes a pure storyteller and somebody whos been able to write about the changing the changing nature of our culture, the the the mutable city of gender and the and the way we love and regret and love again. Janet and karp, is it his topics or his style that attracts you to john irving . Both. I think that he he has i think he has written about politics and sexuality and. And liberal values and in a in a really compelling, emotional way. But i also think that its his sense of humor. John irving is a very funny writer and when i read the world according to garp, you know, in high school, i was laughing, but i was also crying. Over the hundred years, how many honors has simon and schuster had and how independent is it today . Weve had, i believe weve changed ownership. Seven times and it did start out as an independent company. So i buy something from simon and schuster. They were two guys. They were as independent as you could get. And then, you know, they were sold and ultimately wound up as part of a media conglomerate, gulf and western paramount. Cbs viacomcbs paramount. And and i think that as part of a media conglomerate, that independent spirit wasnt quite as pronounced. And im very happy to report that last year we were sold to kkr, and kkr has spun us off and made us truly an independent company again. And one of the biggest independent companies, in fact, the biggest independent publisher of adult and Childrens Books in the usa. And we hope to two to grow even further and become even better than we already are. How many titles are you planning to publish this year, your centennial year . Its about 1200. I havent i havent counted and that number is a little bit ambiguous because sometimes we first of all, we publish all over the world. So were publishing in the United Kingdom original books and in canada and india and australia, in addition to those in the usa and also sometimes well do two editions of a book. So a Childrens Book might be a board book and also a hardcover. So thats why the number is an exact. So how many . How many books will you sell in a year. About . Well, i know that we sell about you know about 1,000,000,000 worth of books, but i actually dont know how many units that translates to. Mr. Karp if somebody picks up a macmillan book or a Scribner Book or an atria book, those are all simon and schuster is right. Well, the macmillan is a separate Company Owned by holtzberg. Its a little bit complicated. We did buy some imprints from macmillan years ago, but yes, we have 50 different imprints. Atria is one of them. Gallery we started a new imprint five years ago called Avid Reader Press that has had a tremendous track record. I think a third of their books have become New York Times best sellers. Same is true for simon element, which is more of a practical, all lifestyle nonfiction imprint. We scribner is our oldest imprint. They are the publishers of Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton obviously has a great backlist of classic writers, but also modern classics by by anthony dore. Although we cannot see Jennifer Egan and and don delillo and stephen king. So a wide range of authors and a wide range of imprints. The idea is that you want to have people who have a certain sensibility for a certain kind of book, and atria right now is really the home for really big commercial fiction. They publish Colleen Hoover and Frederick Bachman and sister soldier. Then theres gallery, which is really the home for pop culture. They had the biggest nonfiction and memoir of of the fall. Last year it was the it was britney spears. So, you know, Simon Schuster is sort of a home for topical nonfiction, political books, history, serious, serious topics that people are discussing. So theres theres theres a little bit of everything for everybody since you joined random house in 1989, by the way, when you were at brown university, did you want to be in publishing . Was that your plan . I did not have a plan. I will say that i was interested in journalism. I was interested in writing and my father, this is true. My father said, you know, theres this guy named Michael Korda and he is an editor at Simon Schuster. Hes the editor in chief of Simon Schuster. But he also writes books. So why dont you be like Michael Korda . Why dont you get why dont you have a real job and write on the side . My dad my dad is a very practical guy. And so and i and the amazing thing is i wound up at simon and schuster and working with Michael Korda. He he continued to edit for us. Hes a great guy and hes still writing works of history today. And, you know, i get email from them regular daily and im hoping hell be coming to celebrate our anniversary with us. And Michael Korda, of course, has been featured on booktv as well since 1989. When you started in publishing, what are two or three of the major changes in how books are published . Well, certainly audio books are a much bigger part of our business. I think when i started, they they barely existed and now they might be 25 of our sales. And so thats a big change. And its also a very exciting change because there are a lot of people who will never buy a book, but they will listen to one and and and thats that could mean that were going to be getting our books to an entirely new audience of readers and also a much bigger one, because i think that only about half of the people in the country actually buy a book in a given year and that other half they might be willing to listen. To an audiobook. So thats a big change. I mean, obviously the other big changes is amazon and have the the apotheosis of of Digital Online bookselling and the fact that people can order a book and have it pretty much instantly either as an ebook or an audio book or the next day or a couple of days later. Thats a big thats a big change. And its not just amazon, of course. I mean, other retailers are selling ebooks online. Theres a theres a wonderful new independent online bookselling Organization Called bookshop dot org, which which i think people are using barnes and noble, which is which is really flourishing under the leadership of james daunt, a Great National bookselling chain once again. So, you know, there are a lot of ways to sell books. Mr. Karp finally, publishing is often thought of as kind of a dusty, stodgy profession. How do you respond to that . I think that were more dynamic and entrepreneurial and and, you know, its so funny because the original simon and schuster would have been considered the equivalent of tech bros when they started in 1924. And i think that, you know, were right at the cutting edge and, you know, the tech brothers are calling us and, you know, they want to work with us and people still are influenced by books. Theres still theyre still animated by them. Theyre inspired by them. And we are amplify by some of the most important voices and writers in the world. And and i think that the expression and expressiveness that comes in a book is still unique. Theres only really one place where you can focus in. And here an individuals voice straight on in depth in exactly the way that voice wants to be experienced and thats why i think books have a singular or an enduring place in our culture. Jonathan karp is the president and ceo of simon and schuster. Congratulations on on your 100th anniversary this year. And we appreciate your joining us here on book tv. Thank you. And thanks for joining us on about books, a program and podcast produced by cspan. Booktv booktv. We will continue to bring you publishing news and author programs. And a reminder that you can get this podcast on our cspan now online any time all of our book tv programs at booktv dot org