What Will Our Own Neil Nyren Talk About?

[Jack Getze]

One of Crimespace's most illustrious members, SVP, Publisher, and Editor in Chief of G.P. Putnam's Sons, Neil S. Nyren will address the New York Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America April 6th.

 

The MWA mailer says, "The Nyren Eye has become the stuff of whispers and legend, the unseen force behind a string of publishing greats. What we call remarkable editorial vision --after surviving over twenty-five years in the industry -- he calls business as usual. But there's no doubt about his record...Among the authors benefitting from his acute perspective are: Clive Cussler, Patricia Cornwell, Tom Clancy, Jack Higgins, W.E.B. Griffin, John Sandford, Dave Barry, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, Robert Crais..." and more.

 

Okay, Neil. What are you going to talk about? And how about a quick preview?

[Neil Nyren]

Hi, Jack -- Just noticed the post. The Nyren Eye, huh? Whispers and legends? Geez. I better go find where I put that Eye. I know I left it around here somewhere. It's probably right next to the remarks for April 6th. If any of you run across either one of them, let me know.

[Jack Getze]

That's what I figured. The business is changng so fast, why plan remarks for April?

Seriously, thanks for showing up, but I know I'm not the only one worried about new projects and my agent -- are things as bad as we're hearing? Agents are crying, leaving the business. Editors fired everywhere. Limited new purchases by you big publishing houses and the small ones. It really seems like the rise of ebooks and the recession has punished the industry. Is it really going to come back with the rest of the economy?

[Neil Nyren]

Actually, I think we're in much better shape than we were a year ago. The recession has eased a bit, and ebooks aren't punishing the industry -- they're part of the industry. They're still your books, they're just being sold in a different format. This January at the Consumer Electronic Shows, nearly a hundred different kinds of tablets were introduced. They all had different uses and affiliations and some of them will never actually get produced, but the one thing most, maybe all, of them had in common was apps. And among them will be apps for selling and reading books. And the bottom line is: The more ways you have to buy a book, the more ways you have to read a book, the more platforms and formats for them exist...the more books you're going to sell.

 

So, no, I'm not crying. We're all having to adjust as we go along, mind you, because noone really knows what the final print/ebook ratio will turn out to be (at the moment, it's in the neighborhood of about 85/15 print/electronic, by the way, so it's not like the world's turned upside down), but adjusting we are.

 

And as far as "limited new purchases" go -- not as far as we're concerned. We're being very careful about what we buy...but I would have said the same thing five years ago.

[minervaK]

Seconded -- er, fifthed? -- on having eased off here due to an upswing in BSP posts... here's hoping it's not permanent.

[I. J. Parker]

Hah!  That proves a suspicion I've had about the blatant part of that.  Unfortunately, our Blog section (which is the place for BSP from members and regulars) is full of stuff from people who use the site only for their BSP, never participate anywhere else, never answer comments on the "blogs" and generally make a nuisance of themselves.  And we know who they are.

 

Grumble!