Pynchon's editor out of work?

[Doug Millison]

from PW Daily for Booksellers from Publishers Weekly, 25 Jan 99:

A New, Leaner Holt: Publisher Cuts Titles and Jobs

Disturbed by the fact that Henry Holt has "not been
profitable for a while," according to new publisher John
Sterling, the company will eliminate a number of jobs as it
cuts its lists and folds Owl Books back into the hardcover
group.

Sterling declined to give an exact number of jobs cut, but
there were widespread reports that they totaled 17, representing
nearly 20% of Holt's approximately 100 employees. Owl associate
publisher Wendy Sherman, senior editor Ray Roberts and Andrea
Shultz, who came aboard only five months ago from Ballantine
to buy reprints for Owl, were among the casualties.

Sterling described the cuts as "painful," but told PW they
were necessary for two reasons. One is that the combined Holt
imprints, hard and soft, which had been doing about 250 titles a
year, were already doing fewer, and that the list would be cut even
further in the future. He envisaged the 1999 total as being closer to
200, and said he'd be "happiest with an ultimate total of no more than
175. A smaller list inevitably means a smaller staff." He noted that
staff cuts did not affect the Books for Young Readers division,
although jobs were eliminated in Holt and Owl editorial, sales and
marketing, and editorial production and design.

As for the return of Owl to the hardcover group, Sterling said the
thinking had originally been, before he came aboard last fall, that it
could be more successful as a separate imprint. "In a marketplace
where hard and soft imprints are commonly working together, and
where sales and marketing are already integrated, it didn't seem to
make sense any longer." Books will continue to appear under the
Owl imprint, he said, but there would be no more reprints of outside
titles. Sterling said no pressure had come from John Sargent, St.
Martin's CEO and senior U.S. executive of the Von Holtzbrinck
group that owns Holt. "He asked me to do what I thought needed
to be done to make the company profitable again, and I've done it.
He's been very supportive."--John F. Baker


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