Cheryl Klein, a senior editor at Scholastic's Arthur A. Levine Books, took the time out of her day to write a Sir Mix-a-Lot parody entitled "Baby Got Books." She really did this. [PW]

If you haven't read the long, fabulous Q&A with legendary editor Pat Strachan in Poets & Writers yet, well, do! It's full of fascinating, deep-thinky details about the art of editing literary fiction and poetry -- Strachan has worked with everyone from Joseph Brodsky to Tom Wolfe -- but my favorite parts were about what it was like to work in book publishing back in the day. In case you're wondering: It was different and better and somewhat more glamorous!

"I think it was fairly industry-wide that publication parties were expected. I'm not saying it's a huge loss that we don't have as many publishing parties as we used to, but the kids had a lot of fun -- the younger people, I shouldn't say kids -- because you got a lot of free food and you met a lot of people you wouldn't have met otherwise. It was a benefit, it was definitely a benefit. And people did have fun outside the office. Michael di Capua was just a workaholic in the office. You couldn't get him to look up or stop yelling about something that went wrong. But outside the office, we would costume up and maybe go to Studio 54. And you didn't talk about work outside the office. You may have talked about books, but you didn't talk about the office. It was a different time. This was the '70s and '80s."

Yeah, when was the last time you 'costumed up'?

Putnam publisher and editor-in-chief Neil Nyren drops in on the Murderati blog for a chat with author JT Ellison, and says that while the book market has become tigher, publishers are still looking for authors they can nurture over the long haul:

"If I spend $30,000 for a book and it sells 2,000 copies in hardcover... then we have to look at why it sold so few, whether a different strategy is needed, if there's a way we can bump that up next time. If it turns out that there is no bump next time, then we have to figure out where we go from there. Sometimes where we go is to do more books with the author anyway. Maybe the author's gotten the kind of reviews or made the kind of friends or just written such damn good books that we say, 'You know, there's got to be more here, we've just got to find it.' Because, in fiction at least, we're always buying the author, not a particular book. We're trying to establish a career. "

And he's not just talking about his own authors: Nyren calls himself "a great fan" of mystery writer Julia Spencer-Fleming, and says "I do expect to see her on that [NYT bestseller] list some day." Which no doubt makes the folks at Minotaur, who're publishing her latest, I Shall Not Want, in May, that much more optimistic. Unless they should be scared that he's got his eye on her.

PW Daily, 3/5/08: "PW has learned that Riverhead editor Sarah McGrath, who acquired Margaret Seltzer's Love & Consequences for Scribner but brought it with her to Riverhead, was involved in another book, in 2006, that was cancelled because of fabrications and plagiarism. The book, How to Wear Black: Adventures on Fashion's Front-line, was purportedly a memoir of Emily Davies's four years as a fashion writer for London's Times..."

Mixed Media, 3/7/08: "If publishers aren't going to institute fact-checking procedures, then they had better, at a minimum, make sure their bullshit-detectors are in working order. Sarah McGrath's, it's clear, is broken."

Gee, before we start bracketing out McGrath as somehow completely out of step with modern publishing sensibilities, I wonder if anybody else in New York's editorial ranks might have tried to acquire either of those two books because they thought they were well-written and true? Oh, wait, here's an anonymous letter from somebody who claims to have underbid Scribner on the Davies project...

continued...

As news of Sam Tanenhaus's appointment to the NY Times Week in Review section spread over the weekend, kneejerk Tanenhaus haters took the opportunity to celebrate his departure from the NYT Book Review—ignoring clear signals in Bill Keller's executive memo that the Times has high regard for his accomplishments with that section of the paper, intends to keep him on in that position, and is hoping that lightning will strike twice. Because of my own interest in the intersection of book reviewing and the op-ed approach to current affairs—extending at least as far back as the LA Times decision earlier this year to graft those two sections together without a unified editorial vision—I dashed off an interview request, hoping Tanenhaus might open up on whether his "news about the culture" approach to literary criticism might be applicable in some way to his new department, or what possibilities might exist for informal overlap while each section retained its own franchise identity.

Tanenhaus politely demurred, saying it was far too early to speak about such matters. (He doesn't even start on the new section until next month.) "[The Week in Review], like [the Book Review], has a strong staff of pros who know what they're doing and have been doing it successfully for quite some time," he explained when he emailed back. "My first job, as it was when I joined TBR, is to learn how the section works and see how my new colleagues think I might be able to contribute in a productive way."

It's been quite a year for Jason Pinter: He's been fired from Crown for blogging about his job, then snapped up by St. Martin's Press later, and then he had his first novel, The Mark, come out from Mira at some point after that, and now he's leaving his editorial position at St. Martin's to write full-time. "While it has been a pleasure to work with the incredible team at SMP," he tells friends and colleagues in his unofficial email announcement, "I'm excited for the challenge and opportunity that lies ahead." Starting, no doubt, with the publication of book two, The Guilty, next February...

Three years ago, a young editorial staffer at Broadway Books named Rakesh Satyal (left) got some local press by teaming up with Jonathan Burnham, then the publisher at Miramax Books, for a cabaret show called "Rocky and Johnny," with Burnham providing piano accompaniment to Satyal's baritone on an assortment of show tunes and jazz standards. Publishing being the revolving door it is, both performers eventually wound up at HarperCollins—but in his new show, debuting tonight at the Duplex, Satyal (now a full-fledged editor) has the marquee all to himself. Well, okay, if you want to get technical about it, the show's actually called "Roofies: The Songs of Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple."

"I have always been a dedicated fan of both of these individuals, as I think that they are the most talented songwriters of the present day," Satyal says, explaining the narrowcast repertoire. "Musically, their oeuvres are strikingly similar, in that they have an affinity for tunes inspired by the Tin Pan Alley era and old jazz standards, but at the same time, they work brilliantly within a modern framework to keep the songs fresh and unique." That quality enabled him to build a set list around songs that could flow one into the next, and he believes the stripped-down arrangements with Jesse Elder on piano will prove that Wainwright and Apple deserve a place on the great American songbook roster.

So how did Satyal find the time to create and rehearse a new show around his editorial responsibilties? "The people I respect the most are ones who see the enjoyment and practice of their hobbies as non-negotiable," he says; publishing veterans like Burnham, Jon Karp, or David Ebershoff who make room on their schedules for their creative passions serve as his inspiration. "If anything," he adds, "it's a concept that meshes perfectly with publishing, an industry in which it helps to have as wide a viewpoint of art as possible."

In fact, most people in publishing of my acquaintance also do not vacation in the Hamptons, but no matter: this is about Gay and Nan Talese and their year-round residence in Ocean City which they love because, according to the New York Times' Julia Lawlor, "it's the antithesis of the Manhattan literary whirl." The Taleses bought the house 40 years ago after a year's renting and it's the away base for Gay to write and Nan to edit and occasionally entertain visitors.* "It's a place to be away," Nan Talese said. "When we come down, we just stay at home."

*I suppose, in light of this item, there's an extra connotation not only to the above phrase, but to this entire post.

The Washington Post's Bob Thompson tracks down Arthur Levine, who is always more than happy to talk about when he scooped up the rights to HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE (later retitled SORCERER'S STONE) for low six figures after an auction. But the Scholastic editor, who has his own imprint at the company, tries not to let the Potter-as-cultural phenomenon affect his own life. As an editor, he defines his job as finding writers whose work he loves, helping them write the best books they can and publishing them well. "At some point I needed to pay a little bit less attention to the phenomenon," he says. "I'm not responsible for the phenomenon. I'm responsible for the books."

But back to that early auction. Levine was at the Bologna Book Fair and a Bloomsbury rep gave him an early galley of Rowling's first book - not that they had to, because they didn't own the rights, but the match was made. Levine read them on the plane home. When the book came up for auction, he kept bidding until, at $105,000, his last competitor dropped out. "I would have been willing to go further than that if I had to," he says. "I remember loving the humor, thinking she is so funny," Levine continues, "and thinking that here's a rare range of talents in a writer: somebody who can engage me emotionally and yet who can make me laugh. And whose plot is really driving me forward."

So what's it like to be Arthur Levine at this climactic Harry moment, with the last book in the series so close to publication and his job finally done, wonders Thompson? "I feel very, very proud of J.K. Rowling and what she's accomplished," Levine says. "I feel really proud to be associated with a group of such strong books that have brought so many people pleasure." He hopes and expects to edit Rowling again.

With longtime Crown VP and publisher Steve Ross's move to Collins now complete, Crain's decides to profile him and his plans for the business side of HarperCollins. There, he will be tasked with turning a sleepy nonfiction division, mainly known for wellness, business and reference books, into a powerhouse. Though already profitable and sporting current best seller THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS, the house is rarely on agents' lists for high-profile projects or works of narrative nonfiction.

"What we liked about Steve was that he had a terrific track record, both in terms of picking best sellers and in terms of building a profitable publishing company," says Brian Murray, president of HarperCollins worldwide. Murray adds that figuring out where Collins should be in five years will be a big part of the new publisher's job - and all eyes will be watching to see how Ross will go about doing that.