This afternoon, GalleyCat joined Bloomberg News book review editor Laurie Muchnick, Library Journal book review editor Heather McCormack, and Publishers Weekly children’s book editor Diane Roback on the Book Reviewer Panel for the Young to Publishing Group. We wanted to follow up with some helpful links for all authors, publicists, and publishing folk contacting GalleyCat.

Kate Childs (the executive assistant to the president & publisher of Random House Publishing Group) tweeted the entire event and took the picture embedded above and the panel was moderated by Newmarket Press sales & marketing coordinator Haley Pierson-Cox.

Most importantly, we urged everybody to use GalleyCat’s “New Books” page on Facebook. We use this page to create our Coming Attractions features and organize our book review coverage.  Want to include your book? Just follow the easy directions on our Facebook Your New or Upcoming Book post.

We also stressed GalleyCat’s constant push for inclusiveness, from to sponsoring the Book Pitch Party next month to our new book  giveaway contests to our massive Book Reviewers on Twitter list–we hope to keep the GalleyCat community growing.

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As our redesigned site launched yesterday afternoon, GalleyCat readers around the literary blogosphere shared their thoughts. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about the new layout, share them in the comments.

Andrew Shaffer liked the change: “Did you lose weight, GalleyCat? Lookin’ good.”

Mike Cane voiced observed: “I’m still seeing a distinct lack of CAT.” However, we’d like to remind all the feline-lovers in the audience: GalleyCat will bring the cats back for the holiday season.

Dana Trombley tweeted simply: “NICE!”

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As revealed in a recent feature about the best books for toddlers, this GalleyCat editor is about to become a new father. I’ll be taking a week off to adjust, and my posting schedule will be sightly reduced for the next few weeks.

During this short break, the site will be in the capable hands of GalleyCat contributors Maryann Yin and Jeff Rivera. Email them with any story ideas or releases.

I will resume our normal rotation shortly, but bear with me as I get the hang of fatherhood and struggle to regain control of my email inbox. Share any parenthood advice in the comments section–I could use it!

Good morning, GalleyCat readers. My name is Maryann Yin and I am the newest correspondent to join GalleyCat.

Books have always been my passion, everything from Laura Ingalls Wilder to Mitch Albom. I am a fresh face in the book publishing industry with aspirations to do good work and add positive value. I just completed the Summer Publishing Institute at New York University. I feel very blessed to be in a position where I get to work in this field.

Read more at my Linkedin page. If you have any news tips, ideas or thoughts about the book publishing industry, please email me.

It’s been a great five months, but it’s time for this GalleyCat writer to step back from the fine arts of third-person opinion-making, hyperlink humor, and of course, publishing industry coverage. I’m leaving to pursue a few different projects: Mostly, I’m going to keep makin’ whiskey and drinkin’ beer. And hating on vampires, but we all know that’s nothing new. Stay cool, GalleyCats.

Along with our digitally obsessed sibling eBookNewser, we’re honored to be included on the Huffington Post‘s 50 Best Book People To Follow On Twitter list. We’d like to say hello and welcome to all the new readers visiting our virtual home today.

If you want to subscribe to our newsletter, just sign up in the upper right hand corner of the site. Here are more of our weekly features:

GalleyCat Reviews for book reviews
How to Find an Agent for writing advice
Weekend Reading for a summary of our favorite book-related headlines
GalleyCat Videos for interviews with some great writers
Book Deals for news about the latest deals around the industry
Publishing Jobs to find yourself a literary career

Also check out our lists: the Best Book Reviewers on Twitter and the Best Editors on Twitter. Finally, we wanted to add a few Twitter feeds that we read every day that weren’t included on the list: Publishers Lunch, Book Beast, Michael Orthofer, Edward Champion, Digital Book World, Jose Afonso Furtado, and Ron Hogan.

Hi, folks. My name is Mark Byrne and I’ll be joining the GalleyCat staff, starting today.

I’ve been working in and around the publishing industry for a few years, in a couple capacities: first, as an associate editor at Featherproof Books, a small press in Chicago; then at New York Magazine, where I worked under the books editor and literary critic; and currently as a graduate student in the Literary Reportage program at NYU, where I’m writing a book-length, reported thesis on the independent publishing industry.

I’ve been reading GalleyCat for years and I’m excited to be on board. Please send any tips and ideas my way.

Update: Follow this link to listen to an interview with Mark.

Senior editor Ron Hogan dropped by the Market My Words blog earlier this week to offer some advice on author self-promotion, warning that they shouldn’t get caught up in feeling like they have to blog or Twitter or get on the Facebook. It’s not about the tools: “It’s about having the passion to share your story with the rest of the world, and recognizing that you can’t just expect people to stumble onto your book, or count on somebody else to do the marketing for you… The important thing is that you’re there to be social, not just to wave your book in people’s faces and ask/tell them to buy it. Get people to like YOU, and then they’ll become curious about your book.”

Hogan also showed up at Farrar Straus Giroux‘s The Best Words in Their Best Order to discuss his plans for National Poetry Month at his literary website, Beatrice.com—and while he was there, he explained why the current economic turbulence in publishing isn’t likely to have any significant impact on poetry:

“Poetry is easily the most marginal facet of mainstream commercial publishing… At New York publishing companies, working on poetry collections is probably the purest labor of love the industry has to offer, and the advances, print runs and so forth are minimal compared to the most other types of books. And, sure, you could run the numbers and say, ‘Hey, look at all the money we’d save if we cut these books out,’ but taking poetry away from editors would be like—oh, like pulling all the water coolers out of the building. Whatever you’d save financially, it’s not worth the hit to your staff morale when you take away the projects that give them that sense of doing something culturally significant.”

Smaller indie presses, he continued are “acutely aware of just how economically marginal poetry is to what they do—and they don’t care. They publish poetry because they love it, and they’re going to keep publishing as long as they can afford to stay in business. (And though independent publishers may be at risk in this economic climate, publishing poetry isn’t what put them there.)”

Good morning, GalleyCat.

This is Jason Boog, the newest reporter on this excellent blog. For the last three years I’ve curated a little site called The Publishing Spot, and it is a real honor to join the MediaBistro family.

I’ve been a freelance journalist in New York City since 2003, writing for The Believer, Peace Corps Writers, and The Revealer. You can read more at my personal website.

At GalleyCat, I’ll be chasing book news and shooting video stories. If you have any tips, ideas, or need a rowboat captain, email me.

It has been a lot of fun to read about reading and write about writing with you all for the last two months! As I turn my attention to other projects, I am happy to be officially handing over 100% of the reins to Ron and Andy, secure in the knowledge that they will continue to keep you informed about what’s new in the secretly exciting world of book publishing. (NB to publicists: Please don’t stop sending me free books).