Jonathan Galassi
Jonathan Galassi
Jonathan Galassi born 1949 in Seattle, Washington, is the President and Publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, one of the eight major publishers in New York. He began his publishing career at Houghton Mifflin in Boston, moved to Random House in New York, and finally, to Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He joined FSG as executive editor in 1985, after being fired from Random House. Two years later, he was named editor-in-chief, and is now President and Publisher...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublisher
CountryUnited States of America
charge hardcover less means revenue
The price of an e-book is a lot less than the price that we're charging for a hardcover book. It's about the same as we charge for a paperback. And that means a different revenue stream.
business courses mechanics
There are courses you can take to learn the mechanics of the business, like the Radcliffe course, but I don't think they teach you how to edit.
authors great published time
A lot of great authors are published before their time. That's not wrong; it's just the way it works.
believe experience great market people printed romance smell tactile
There's been a fragmentation of how the market functions, but I believe printed books are here to stay. People like the tactile experience, the smell of them; there's a great romance to them.
saw
There's an old saw about journalism that the more you know about a subject, the less sense reporting about it makes.
far positions print sell work
A publisher - and I write as one - does far more than print and sell a book. It selects, nurtures, positions and promotes the writer's work.
couple england studied
After college, I went to England and studied for a couple years.
agent agents amount best determine figured good money rather
I think that a really good agent should be able to get the right publisher, which the agent has already figured out, get as much money as she can from that publisher, and make a deal, rather than have the amount of money determine the sale. That's what the best agents do.
actual continue continuity delivery editor exactly
I think that the continuity of what I do as an editor with what I did when I started out 40 years ago is very direct. The delivery system is changing and will continue to, but the actual interaction between publisher and author is exactly the same.
begin discover enormous involves oneself permission
Giving oneself permission to write to begin with is the first enormous challenge. But you discover that this permission involves a requirement: To write about things that are difficult because they are, in fact, your subject.
life poems
My poems are always about my life in one way or another.
claiming deal feels huge life until
Claiming your life for yourself feels like a huge deal until you do it.
carry close literary love poems poetry primary reading suppose
I love poetry; it's my primary literary interest, and I suppose the kind of reading you do when you are reading poems - close reading - can carry over into how you read other things.
author present wants
I'll tell you - there's no author that wants to give his mother an e-book of his new book. I think he wants to present her with - or she - wants to present her with something beautiful that he or she created.