Bulletproof Expert Drops All Charges for Ex-HC Staff

Just a quick update to Wednesday morning’s story about Stephen Viscusi, the resumé-building expert offering his services to laid-off HarperCollins employees: Having initially reduced his fee by half, Viscusi tells us he ultimately decided to forego any compensation after hearing from more than 50 people who’d been dropped by the company (which published his Bulletproof Your Job last year). “I was actually shocked at the quantity of people who contacted me,” Viscusi emailed. “The Collins people who called me for help seemed in ‘shock and awe’ over their dismissals.”

Viscusi also commented on how many of the confirmed layoffs had come from editorial. “It seems that the people responsible for ‘sales’ of our books should be just as accountable as the people who purchase them,” he observed. “After all, if you can’t find a book in a bookstore to buy, whose fault is that? The author, the publisher, or the sales rep who couldn’t get it merchandised and stocked correctly?”

(Note: Writing about the layoffs for The Wrap, former PW editor-in-chief Sara Nelson quoted an anonymous source who estimated that 20 employees had been cut; commenters were quick to dispute the tally: “The cuts to staff, including the buyouts, were more like 100 to 120,” said one.)

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