President. Its the greatest job in the world but still he knew by the end of the 30s that the new deal was sputtering out and there was new opposition to him and people did want a third term or any president. Once the war broke out i think he really did believe that he had the experience and therefore the capacity to lead the country. This was in 39 and 40 before we are in it but he already saw the danger that hitler posed to the world. I think you wanted to be the one who would be there and as long as he could tell himself, and thats why when he didnt go to his own convention in 1940 because he wanted to make it feel like he was being drafted, they wanted him rather than he was looking for a third term, and in fact that is where the word no ordinary time comes from. The convention was kind of restive because they wanted him to want it but he meanwhile wants them to want him. Finally they were getting kind of grumpy so he sent eleanor to the convention and she was able to come. Everybody said he would love to be here by the cans with world affairs. This is no ordinary time so that is where i got the title for the book. Finding titles for these books is a difficult and finally that one came. I think then the real question is then of course he runs for a fourth term even though by then he knows hes not well. I think he just figured i will stay in this presidency until the war is over and then maybe he could leave it and not even serve out that fourth term. But i think the third term decision absolutely have to do with the state of the world and his concerns about nazism and fascism. 30 seconds. If you could asked jfk about his affairs. That was kind of a stupid answer to the question to be honest. Its not a stupid answer, just a trivial answer to that question so i wish i had thought about that. The question came pretty good up to me but i didnt answer too well. I was just wondering what you think his answer would be. What you know i think what happens to our president s to follow for one more thing is when they get into power i think they think they sometimes are not bound by ordinary rules and that if they need relaxation in certain ways that they should Teddy Roosevelt by manically running around in the park every afternoon are wrestling or boxing and i think he found his relaxation through women to some extent. That might be his answer that he needed a break from the pressures. They all find pressure. In fact theres a funny story that does relate to that. My husband started working for jfk he was a young speechwriter on the plane. Jfk brought him into the oval office and he said, showed him all these pockmarks on the floor and he said what do you think they are . [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] who was Simon Schuster . Max says shuster and excitement word to you gentlemen or friends with one another and back in 1924 they decided to start a Publishing House on their own. They were working in Publishing Houses but thought they could begin one of cells. So they set out and went to space and put up a sign. Host did they recognize what you do today . I think they would. What is interesting is reading through the history is how many things go in circles. Just as an example, the reason they would today is the job has not changed at all which is to find great work. We have always been a conduit between the artist and the consumer. That has not changed but it is becoming popular again. So running an advertisement called the inner sanctum they would talk about why they looked at that book. And is no longer just corporate advertising but more personality. Entry to get to the consumer purpleheart edition the first crossword puzzle and she said we need a book they were fairly new then. They did of book with a little pencil. And it was a runaway success. But the second book was the history of philosophy. That was a best seller over two years. With the work of high intellectual capacity that is the same range of publishing today. Host and as president and ceo what is your job . Make it possible for everyone to do their jobs and do them well. I often considered my job to ask the people on the line asset the question they had not thought of themselves. So they are confident in their decision. Ive been involved in little things. I am involved in the acquisition but i look over what everyone is doing. With the things that the Company Provides help them do their job better. With the marketing it to oversee the berthing of the book into the world. Host sub editorial duties also business duties . Absolutely the idea is to publish each author as successfully as they can be. They want their books to reread by the vast multitude that is our job. Host new publisher about 100 books per year . This imprint we are the Flagship Division we will publish 130 this year it is a kaleidoscopic range of authors. And a major writer of Matthew Thomas to meet carter, Hillary Clinton in a comic john mccain, notable personalities in terrific general nonfiction biographies of everybody from sally ride ailment john wayne to literary memoirs. I have one that will attract a couple with daschle little attention. Wire their different imprints . To table c savage schuster but then they may also see others that are owned by seven and schuster . Right. The ada is you want to get people passionate so the Publishing Houses are broken down to smaller groups their to be humorous imprinter divisions all putting their Energy Behind the project their the most excited about host one of the big books is silvery clinton spoke this year so what is the role of the process to get that to the bookstore . She has been the teeeighteen author 18 years. You could say she has been moonlighting as first lady and secretary of state during those years. Requiring the first book many years ago publishings hard choices on june 10th which is her fourth book. I was the editor so i would oversee all assets to work closely with the people at the company. Host as the editor is there a lot of emails back and forth . Every case is different. I tried to give just as much attention to her book as the other authors provide should mention were also publishing james webb as a senator and his book is out right now. I dont want to favor one over another. Host at what point do you get involved . So the editors will come to meet and they have their justification for doing so. And other people here are equally enthusiastic we usually make an offer. Host what is an advance . The amount of money and author receives itd finance of publishing of book. It is what the author is living on while writing the book. Host that is paid by the Publishing Company . Host the degree to bit . Vivid that of course, is the rub. We hope to. Actually only a small percentage of books tend to be profitable. That is true with most businesses period behans the money sometimes it comes back sometimes it does not. Host overall how is the health of the Publishing Industry . This stage of the union is strong we are publishing successfully and publishers are doing well right now because people read and they have and i am confident. There are major changes in terms of said Digital Publishing but it still seems to be a case that theyre willing to pay for it as well as they are in a dramatic and compelling way. Host are the scribes and amazon help will . Now they are. The challenges to continue to find ways to attract attention. I am more concerned there is so much video on demand that is a serious form of competition i hope people will of sorb information in so many ways. Qc video as a competition . Host on the airplane or trade uc people with tablets that has been the case there is mass forms of a statement that is the challenge to publishing. And that is the case today. Can we make the of books known and have them be discovered when there is diminished presence in the culture. And the other thing that has changed is when some which is available instantly very little seems to be rare or special anymore. When somebody wrote to a new novel it was an event or if they released an album so it does make a harder to get people excited about things but is good that the books are much easier to get now and distribution is omnipresent so with every disadvantage there is the advantage. Host what is the verbal timeframe of a book to hear about it to publication date six years or two months . But it is hard to ride a great book did one year. You could write a good book in one year with a recurring character you know, the contours of the characters and the settings but i think it takes about 18 months to write a book that has the authority and ousted the books can take much longer we published a book recently that is about the history of nutritional science and that was 10 years in though works in that one was five years. Host was scheduled for five years . Absolutely i signed it up that many years ago. Host is on demand printing . That is another thing. It is true we to make books available on demand. One of my former colleagues from random house started a company where there is on demand printers. If you want to get a book you can get it within hours if you want. They can make paperbacks available relatively easily within a couple of. What are the physical books today . That is a great question. I can tell you right now the percentage of books that we sell fiction could be 50 physical books or ebooks of the same title but nonfiction is more to the printed physical book selling 70 percent of those is seattle printed book but for those and are available in that format that information is not known widely because amazon has a lot of that information so i dont know and there are publishers that do that. Host what about International Markets . It is growing that is the opportunity for us. Because people all over the world read in english so there is a real opportunity. Especially like kidd tied our india. Host can you give us one example of this suggestion he made to an author as their editor . It is obvious not worried by having every detail in there. I have been in publishing 25 years and nobody has ever complained to me about a book being too short. So sometimes telling is succinctly is the best things they can do. Host who owns Simon Schuster how many imprints you have and why you have 70 . We are the only publishing parts of that corporation both the supporting of their productions but we do a lot with the local stations and radio and television stations so we have seven adult imprints there is more than that but many are within others i dont know the total number. And have seven children imprint. And the reason is it is the group that has some publisher its own Publicity Department editorial department. And marketing to barbara. It is very intensive you have to define what that book is the design, said the jacket, the publicity plan what type of of my marketing you can do all those questions need to be answered by a people which theyre only sold mini in the day. Sova multiple imprint because different publishers with different strengths that is a definable that scribner imprint as different publishing ban teeeighteen and gallery. Those are the adult once. They have the personality of the publisher. That means they acquired that book because they had the vision of how to publish it to so that is a handson business that is to that process to finding an audience for the author. Host how do acquire a book . There are a million ways. One that is not often talkedabout is you come up with the idea you trying to find the perfect writer for the idea that matches yours. That is one way to make a book have been. And another way is to make sure to talk to agents as much as possible they raised your hand to hope they said a good proposal. Sometimes to cultivate authors you adore and play and ideas with them and help ids over time they come up with a project they want to spend five years with. Host have you ever read a newspaper article and said that could be a book . Yes. I read an article 10 years ago about how shortly in the early 20th century more households will be supported by women and that is said giant change. 81 to explore it the implications of that for men and women, and marriages, raising children, love, gore ship, and i got a great book out of it. It was called the richer sex. It is now at the new american foundation. It landed on the cover of Time Magazine and how did we all need to adjust our lives . To the economic new reality in this is good for men and women . So yes anything that makes them stronger to live up to their potential is a good thing. Host of those authors was the president s clubhouse what was the process . I wish that i could say that because they have been working on that for quite some time they had written a great book, and billy graham. So how much that club helped to shape the presidency itself. That gave the idea to explore in a faraway it is the very modern idea. And practical raised reasons to be possible. So what they found the presidency was made stronger it was the challenge inside the club. Said to have over one dozen characters that had a relationship going to the past and the future so that big challenge is how to structure it. Said to have the introduction into certain partnerships all along though way that helps to keep track of who the characters are it helps them to move along chronologically while honoring history and the relationship as it happens. Host what was your role . It is to help structure the of books that makes it so accessible that they forget there of these multiple characters to not feel overwhelmed to if you are bored as an editor there is a big chance your readers will be also. But my role was to make sure that inside knowledge was completely transparent to the reader so they knew how you knew things. But authors as talented as nancy and michael to get up in the morning and skip to work. Host what did you do when you first got the of manuscript . It comes it in sections. The first thing you do is leave the office. And then completely immersed herself there is time seven leave the book to go out and still be in the living in the middle of the nixon administration. That is what you want is the ability to sink into a story to see the beauty to make it more beautiful t72 take a red pen . I take a pencil. As a newspaper and editor and allows me to move back and forth it easily to give it back to them so they can look at the notes to a source them as they would on their own terms. Host you worked with karl rove did he choose you . I had to audition i got a call from my publisher asking me to go down the first book that was asked to edit them as a journalist for 30 years. And he had read up on me and what stories i covered and it covered him as an editor for many decades. So basically the argument is this is my first job and i cannot screwed up. It worked. [laughter] is it different work gave with a personality than maybe nancy or michael who are more wellknown . Every writer has to put themselves of the page. It is the process by definition to make writers feel vulnerable. The job of the editor is to protect them but make them feel comfortable with what they say. One of the first conversations is that you cannot start the book at age 30 but the pain of your childhood including your mothers suicide earlier father leaving the home are finding out later their father was not your father. All of those issues has to be off the page as difficult as they are to talk about because that is part of what makes you you. As a biography of these to conclude that. She told me later that readers bring up the childhoods tough because they had experiences like his. So that is one way you make a personality more accessible. Host because of your background to work on lot on nonfiction . I do only nonfiction. Some of the books are not so much political but journalism a book on Afghanistan War veterans or the industry of meat that is the oligarchy. A lot of books that spent many spend in the years of their lives digging into the issues that we face to make them readable. And to spend a lot of time with. Simon schuster has revenues of 800 million last year. 809 million. Host how many books . 2002 books per year worldwide but if you say the average book is 10 figure would add 8 billion books that we shipped and sold to somebody. Host what are the largest retailers you work with . Barnes noble is the largest state in the country followed by books of million primarily based in the south bend hastings which is also in the south. I also work with the independent booksellers across the country and theyre doing fabulously well. What about costco. Guy you work with traditional book sellers bet mass merchants are under another group. Host do they read a book to say yes we want x number of copies are do you say this will be big . We always go live with a list and it the sales reps are fabulous. They know the booksellers so then they read and to send and it goes from there so that is how we get them excited about it. Host with the advent of the big box like walmart or costco the significance of the independent bookstore is less . Gimmick may be the past to three years they have made it up point to address community with the Community Outreach from the shop local movements they have basically taught the customer if you dont support as we will not be here so they are so creative to get the customers into the bookstore and the fact they Read Everything if they recommend a book they know what they talk about. They have been doing very, very well as a channel because of that theyre focusing on a community. Does the size of the of retailer can barnes noble affect the marketing of the book . Absolutely 680 locations with their web site with millions of customers so absolutely they can. Host how did you get into this business . I started out of college at random house as an assistant and i would grow from their bellies retail and sales side. To some automatically get orders . Absolutely. Host what kind of Marketing Strategy goes into that . With Walter Isaacson he is his own best supporter and champion he is a great storyteller so we try to have him speak with our customers he has come in to speak for us and definitely can help us. He is our best weapon to sell his book. Host how do you sell a first time author to a bookstore . We try to do it early it is all about the reading that package and the seller of books that it to decide if it will jump off the shelf for if there customer will respond. That plays in what we have lined up and. What percentage comes from digital . Approximately 28 or 30 percent however on individual titles as high is 70 or 20 or 15. So those figures reported dont give a true picture the way certain types of writing clearly have move significantly into the Digital World and others have not. Host 70 percent is what . Meant commercial fiction is largely digital now but it can also be literary novel extended general is more highly detailed because you read a review you dont have to go anywhere you just push a button. We found a commercial and a memoir often that reads like fiction it is wittier to start at the beginning then go to the end. Those that are the least digital other their childrens books or cookbooks is serious nonfiction and their articles how you read it is on the bottom of the lefthand page proposal referring back and forth is much more difficult to do. It seems to be the highest digitals sales. I am Vice President of visual content development redesigned interiors for our digital products. What do you mean the interiors . Just the inside. Do you picked the font . We worked with art for the author we do of layout that is a little more involved started here working only on digital and i recently took over the print interior work it is more involved than you would take. Host why doesnt matter what the form is . Readability how heavy the fund is affects how well you can read it. An end to before i would just work on digital but it seems like they say this tiny thing is just that there. And he said that does not look any different to me than i change the font anyway. Host can you translate a hard cover back book into new digital . You can. It is the 121 design transition. But that is not necessarily to make the evoke it is both simultaneously so from the very beginning when jury how that will work if digital and the print books. Cuban example of how theyre different so whenever margins we chose so if we chose that those of some of the differences. Host to the covers change . Guest no. We usually keep the same cover unless it is Something Like that price. Host is your background and publishing or designed . To make it is publishing but specifically works. I focused computer add a literary study and to study how different pieces of language with that human subjective analysis with the computer aided literary analysis so whether though whole purpose to do that kind of steady we need the ebooks effectively so we tag hours that we had pulled from online and who knew that every skill would ever be useful in the real world but at some point teeeighteen was a keen for someone who knew how and i was a temporary employee and then i worked with people who knew how to make ebooks how was that sophistication changing . 10 years ago there were a lot of star trek fans the now is people like you. [laughter] so instead of making a something for someone who is happy to have it with expectations higher that allows people to get the product they paid for that is including a font. Host we are talking several people today about the themes of hard choices. Hillary clintons book. Have you got to and influence . Is the marketing is different from your digital side. So when we but to ask there is anything we could do specifically and we brainstorm idea is so when we act on those ideas may think about as a digital project from the beginning the marketing is different but as far as making the book which each cost is much care. Is there more context . More photos we will add photos and color even if it is blackandwhite. For extra of material as a guide or a sneak peek at the next book. But once. What do you mean . Period the editor finishes the manuscript is done. It is done. That is not necessarily a stage that we think of it being it has done. If we do the ebook only with no counterpart we will design its copyedit comment go through the spirit the stages with the author because we care about it just the same then we can publish it quickly because we dont worry about printing time or if we make a mistake to reset pages. So maybe with the finished manuscript we had one such instance early on since 2007 and there was a book about one wanted out quickly and was a hollow we a story it was 48 hours and she sent the team cupcakes. [laughter] cspan foresee more books being published only digitally . Yes. Look around us that is a larger portion of the books that we publish it is the nice way to test content we do a lot of romance we will do more Science Fiction and many are then later. With no barrier to entry. Host how did you get started . I came to new york. Actually i wanted to be a College Professor but i got married because the husband went to colombia and that was a really good typist and i had a friend and i said i would try that. And instead i went to and fell in love. So the job is to confine to . I went to Montgomery Blair high school then after all millbury i went to indiana for might advanced degrees. Are you an anomaly you are not from new york. There are a number of people who were born and raised. Now that i think about it but i think there is said equal number of people coming from other places as people are attracted to publishing because they have the love of books and my experience is not unusual but i got into the business and i fell in love with it. Even at a very low level, as a beginning job you are given a responsibility that has an effective how it sells. So i would sell after publication and feel that i actually had an effect on how the authors book sold and how many people knew about it is very people intensive there is a raid always that. By overseas and design the site rin schuster imprint and the others from the trap or a cowberry with a fine art portraits for those. Q. Do the covers of books . What goes into a cover. The first thing that we hereabouts is from the editor we find out what the book is about there is a manuscript or sometimes there isnt you get a flavor of the voice. From that we had a discussion with the editor to find out the of preconceived inert notions of what they are looking for it is a lease good to hear that the front. You have the sense of their aesthetics to do research at the of bookstores what the books are facing on the bookshelf space. Host want to start with this one. How did this develop . It was straightforward this story of his fathers years so to give it a nostalgic feel so was a cookie said. What about your medicine in the gift . This is a new book is medicine that calls for having his. On it but the subtitle the five partnerships have to wonder what does that mean . So if and this case it worked out of the five people that mattered. One of the other books that you worked on but that is the finished product. Where was this . With out we would do a little bit of exploration. So we are grateful that said two of them are together. We thought that was a great opportunity to decide something with us. It did not have that big epic feel that we wanted. But photography has that historical film. But then we think maybe it needed to go classic. So we tried it different fonts that is how we ended up. Host did dorris had any say . May can they say yes or no . Absolutely. Obviously an author they will go out on the road well but it is with the full fare very appreciative. But she wanted to see if they did get more of their faces. To color schemes come in and out of fashion . Sure. Sometimes even fashion as health is have of the of runway can affect. Obviously read is always a sure shot has always been known greene unless you are about money and i think lou said that went well . Senator mccain has set theory about that. That is a work. And that they would like to see some historical treatments. Guys to kit the ever but if you feel that better than you should market. Host you respond to an ad as well . Sometimes we dont change it gore sometimes redo it is set to the publisher to make that decision. Is there our work you are extremely proud of that you worked hard on . Steve jobs book is one that i thought was striking we worked closely with the hardcover and that was a classic photo. We are fortunate when we went to paperback i guess he likes that those because it is the exact same pose as 30 years before. That was of marking opportunity to give the book a fresh look. Why black and white . It all hasted do with the photograph. It is not a conscious decision with the fantastic total you let it shine. Jimmy carter here is. He takes it to heart. We did it. It is his passion about womens rights. We need to be very straightforward nothing embellish. That blue color is done to soften the tongue. When a book goes to print and forever reason the caller asked the cover has to be changed . Yes. I am running a blank right now but yes. Absolutely but that happens they usually it is not at that point. So that transformed the industry, and there have been things like that that Simon Schuster has been at the forefront. Seventyfive years ago it created the first us massmarket publisher starting with ten books, charged . 25 apiece and created an industry that ruled the country for decades. With the inventive digital massmarketing has been decreasing. But 20 years ago we used to sell ten mass markets for everyone hardcover. The market was huge. Hardcover publishers got wise. Then hardcover started increasing. Nevertheless, massmarket is now tied with digital and the way to be able to put a lot of great books in the hands of people for an inexpensive price. Host what is an effective Media Campaign . Guest it depends on the potential. What i like to think of as topdown campaigns like Hillary Clintons that begin with National Media and breakout from there. They sort of create themselves. Then there is bottomup. The majority of the books week publish our bottomup. Groundswell, review retention. From there things will expand to create opportunities that we might not have had out of the gate you cannot predict it, but you can created after one are reviews important, print reviews . Guest they are, but they dont have the same impact that they once did. While we still rely upon our friends at the times, the post, we now find that you need a congestion of reviews to happen at one time for the books really to penetrate. One review wont create the impacted did has recently or five or ten years ago. The old business rule of three is now more like nine. Host why is that . Guest i think people are distracted. They do not spend as long online. It is it is important we have many reviews, and maybe at the end of the campaign what drives someone to purchase a book is everywhere they turn around they see something about this book. That is the goal for us. Host does three minutes with Robin Roberts sell the book . Guest of course it does. Three minutes with any book is three minutes we treasure host not all authors are coveted for interviews, as Hillary Clinton would be. Guest it depends upon what the book is and where our focus is. We have a feel for who we think the readers for each book might be. We might begin with review campaign, target Regional Radio as the book covers a certain part of the country. It is difficult to talk in the abstract because we try to build a specific and unique campaign. Certain things are fundamental. Every book we publish will be sent to trade publication for early reviews so that booksellers are aware. Those are common to everything we publish, but from their we focus on specific goals. As early as the time of publication. They may shift. We may not find a certain amount of traction we expected. Really realize we realize it is this aspect and not that and i just. Host a lot of people look for books online. What is what is the importance to you of reviews on amazon . Guest the focus in publicity is more on Media Outlets than the bookseller. Customer relations on amazon we do place great weight on online media. There are certain kinds who function for us. We would treat them just as we would the Washington Post or new york times. Then there are blogs and other people and different people in house who focus on different types of online voices that matter because they are a part of social networks, can go viral, reach people looking at the kinds of publication we might be distracted by. That should not be at the expense of other outlets who are less visible but have the potential to be no less impactful. Host are the outlets you can go to getting fewer and fewer . Guest it seems sometimes like more and more, and that can be overwhelming. I tend to focus on a few, few and well. I think that is a better strategy than more and poorly, but we have a big group year. And we can divide up responsibility. Again, there might be 100 people reading a blog i have never heard of, but they might be 100 book buyers. And that can be more impactful than a bad review and a major publication. Something that other departments focus on more than we do, but social media, a robust social Media Program, but we tend to think of it in terms of the authors social Media Program and this goes back to something that i think is new. Not merely as much about our media view. Direct to consumer relationship, often more effectively managed by an author than by us. If you have some feeling that you have a personal relationship with the author , that might mean something more than my outreach. Host author tours sell books . Guest it depends on the author. There is no reward in sending an author to a a bookstore where five or ten people might come. That said, their are writers we do travel where we think it is most effective. Generally generally having to do with whether we can get local media or the author has an audience in the area upon whom we can count on to show up. It is not as common to travel and author as it was a few years ago. Host cary goldstein, what is your background in publishing . Guest i started in the winter of 96. Why . Because there was an opportunity and it was a house or a friend of mine had done an and the house i did not no much about but turns out was publishing a a number of poets i had just been studying in school. Right place, right time. Accepted. Accepted an, and it position opened up in sales. Three weeks later a job opened up in publicity, and i took that. I was at fsg for four years. Barnes noble. Com for on the editorial side running poetry, fiction, literature section. From there the ketamine of national poets, and found my way back to fsg in 2,002, winter and stayed until 2006 , at which time i left to join the current president of Simon Schuster. Now we are similar, i i am wearing two hats, the publicity and editorial hats host some of the authors you have worked with our audience might no. Guest Christopher Hitchens is the first person i think of for your audience. Lucky enough to be involved with ted kennedys memoir, a number of fictional writers. And then of course, the s and s list, when are talking about nonfiction, there is Walter Isaacson, bob woodward, david mccullough. The list of nonfiction writers is kind of mind blowing. Host do authors like doing publicity . Guest some more than others. Some are better at it than others. Some come for play. Some come for work. It is the most fun for us if someone comes to play and has a bit of creativity and humor about it. Then we can really have fun. How do you do publicity for a man like Christopher Hitchens . I said, you get out of his way. Host how would you describe the health of the Publishing Industry today . Guest in Better Health than it had been in for some time. When Digital Publishing first came into the world, i would i would say there was a certain amount of fear and trepidation, but it has actually added a lot of energy, new capabilities. Advertising, but they used to chat to consumers. We can get them to agree to go back and get emails and former conversation or Community Command that is a watershed change then no longer always through a thirdparty but to communicate directly and constantly with consumers. So i think the Digital Transformation has actually you know, now that we have had enough of it to feel confident we can respond to it and retain our business in the face of it and i think it has given a whole new energy to publishing. Guest i oversee the marketing campaigns. My role with the clinton title has been to work on the marketing side which has involved a website, a facebook page, promotional videos, release of content on the web. My my role has been very much a Digital Marketing role, and it has been a fun one. We dont have much that go up on the homepage of aol or that yahoo picks up instantly. That has been my role here. Host do you find some authors are more willing to make the videos and do the promotions than others . Guest absolutely. It is a different skill set. A solitary person and then suddenly are asked to perform which is very much an external thing. Some are skilled at both, and others are not comfortable with it. Our goal is to find the comfort zone where they can excel. Some are good on twitter, some are good on camera, some are good on camera