Sunday, February 10, 2019
Workshop:
Topic
What I Want to Know from a Big Five New York Publisher
with
Gary Fisketjon
Knopf Vice President and Editor at Large
Sunday, February 10, 2019
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Miramonte Resort and Spa, Indian Wells
45000 Indian Wells Ln, Indian Wells, CA 92210
Directions
Schedule: Beginning at 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Lunch served at 11:30 a.m. Ample time for questions at end. Workshop over promptly at 3 p.m.
Workshop Description:
What I Want to Know from a Big Five New York Publisher.
Everyone in this Guild wants to see a hardback copy of their book in Barnes & Noble, with their name on the spine above the trademark of one of the Big Five publishers. Right?
What does it take to get there? Who are the gatekeepers that guard the publishers and what does it take for an author to get past them and into the inner sanctum of a big publishing house?
You can’t drive a car without a license. To get a license you have to read a manual, practice driving, then pass both a written and driving test before you can get behind the wheel.
The NFL and NBA have farm teams that take talented people and train them until they are capable of being in the big leagues. Like them—if you want to be in the big leagues with your writing, you need to study, practice and work hard to find the road to get you there.
In addition, you also need to know what they, the gatekeepers, including top editors, are looking for. Which are the manuscripts they buy, which are the ones that get their hearts beating faster – and why? What are the elements that make them want to say “Yes”?
Gary Fisketjon is a current Editor and Vice-President of Knopf Publishing. Fisketjon created the Vintage Contemporaries line of paperbacks at Random House. He was the editorial director for the Atlantic Monthly Press from 1986 to 1990. Fisketjon joined Alfred A. Knopf in 1990 as editor-at-large.
He has worked with a number of acclaimed writers, including Pulitzer Prize Winner for fiction, Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, Kent Haruf, Patricia Highsmith, Tobias Wolff, Julian Barnes, Pulitzer and National Book Award winner, Cormac McCarthy, and Haruki Murakami, while also picking out and fostering new talent. He’s one of those top acquisition editors who can tell you the answers.
Some of the most well-known Penguin Random House publishing groups are Random House Publishing Group, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Crown Publishing Group; Penguin Group U.S.; Dorling Kindersley; Mass Market Paperbacks, Penguin Group U.S.; Random House Children's Books; Penguin Young Readers Group, U.S.
Gary is going to show you that road to success. From a finished manuscript through the process to that hard cover book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble with people standing in line to buy it when it launches.
You can’t afford to miss this in-depth study of information from a Vice President/Publisher of one of the big Five publishers in the world. Think of the success, the prestige, the promotion, a BIG FIVE PUBLISHER can put behind your own writing, giving you the best chance at big prizes and world success.
Register for Gary Fisketjon’s workshop NOW and put it on your calendar.
About this workshop facilitator:
Gary Fisketjon is widely known in the literary world both for his hand in revolutionizing the modern book publishing industry in the US, and for his reputation as a meticulous and comprehensive editor. After graduating from Williams College, with a BA in history and literature, he entered the Radcliffe Publishing Course at Harvard University. He joined Random House Publishing in the late 1970s. As a young editor with many contacts among emerging writers, Fisketjon saw that the literary market lacked a proper format in which they could be published, and in 1984 he founded Vintage Contemporaries, “a line of high-quality trade paperbacks” that created a new forum with much better distribution through independent booksellers. Its immediate success transformed how contemporary fiction was published in the country; it also helped authors including Jay McInerney and Richard Russo to become well-known with their first books, and brought new readers to established but underappreciated writers such as Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. Mr. Fisketjon joined the Atlantic Monthly Press as editorial director in 1986 but returned to Random House in 1990, where he settled at Knopf. As Knopf’s vice president and editor-at-large, Fisketjon has worked with a number of acclaimed writers, including Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, Kent Haruf, Patricia Highsmith, Tobias Wolff, Julian Barnes, Cormac McCarthy, and Haruki Murakami, while also picking out and fostering new talent. Since 1986, he has also become one of the few regular American editorial presences at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Fisketjon divides his time between New York and Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee.
Click here to register for this workshop
Registration Details:
- PSWG Members: $130.00
- Non-Members: $260.00
- Payment in Full is confirmation of seating.
- Online payment via PayPal or credit card only.
- Includes lunch.
- Workshop attendees cancelling their attendance and wishing a refund will be handled on a case by case basis by the PSWG Board.
- Day of workshop sales available ONLY if workshop is not full. Bring check. Workshop events are limited to 40 participants.
- Park in Ballroom parking spaces for free parking.
- Click here to register for this workshop
Event Contact: Jim Misko: jim@jimmisko.com
