Claire Israel, director of digital content and business development at Simon & Schuster, has left to start up the Manhattan office of TurnHere.
The video services company features Stephen King and other writers in promotional videos for publishers—including S&S, Workman and HarperCollins, among others.
The chutzpah factor
“Going to a start-up, from book publishing, takes a certain amount of chutzpah,” Claire says as quoted by the Publishing Trends newsletter. “It has to be a time in your life when you can say, ‘I’m not going to work in that corporate environment.’ People stay in publishing for a zillion years. At the mid-upper-management stage, it takes a lot to leave.” Best of luck in your new job, Claire, and other matters, too!
Observations from Claire, previously S&S’s rep to the International Digital Publishing Forum as well as a former employee of eBook Technologies, Inc., are part of PT Editorial Manager Laura Hazard Owen’s informative feature headlined “Publishing Pros Leave Books for New Media—But Have They Really Left?”
A trend
According to Labor Department stats Laura cites, Internet publishing and broadcasting is the tenth fastest-expanding of America’s industries. The projected 2006-2016 increase is 44 percent. Meanwhile, her article says, book biz employment is expected to be “relatively flat in the same period.” I’m wondering why? Because book reading isn’t as popular as before? Or—more so, I think—because of new efficiencies from e-books and POD. I could also mention the sad decline of independent bookstores, which, in terms of the discovery of new writers and the advancement of literature, is inefficient.
PT also quotes me, on the differences between working for a large corporation and the more entrepreneurial approach that startups require.
Subscription information for Publishing Trends: Here. PT isn’t cheap—$195 and up for 12 months—but is well-regarded and provides its share of information that you might not find elsewhere, as shown by the news on Claire.
Detail on TurnHere: It also serves clients outside book publishing, such as Discovery Networks and Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts.
Related: Elinor Hirchhorn is S&S’s first chief digital officer: Will help develop new marketing platforms, an earlier TeleBlog item. Also see S&S’s e-book blog and PublishingTrends blog.
