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| In Book publishing in America is
changing, but dedicated editors and talented writers remain a constant. By Catherine Hamrick |
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Jack Romanos, president of Simon
& Schuster, said in a 1999 New York Times article that publishing probably
has undergone “more change in the last 12 months than any period in the history of
the business.” Bookstore behemoths gobble big chunks of the market pie, while
doomsayers note small chains and independents are scrambling for shrinking slivers.
Discount stores grab their share, offering books along with light bulbs, toilet paper, and
tires. Electronic books, portable and simple, are no longer props on Star Trek
but technological realities. Oprah recommends books to the masses. And everybody has
staked out territory on the information highway – small presses, traditional houses,
distributors, booksellers, writers clubs, readers clubs, editors, agents, faux reps,
authors, wannabes, book doctors, even a self-appointed guardian of proper English known as
the Grammar Lady. But against this turbulence, one constant persists: writers and editors who love their craft and care about their readers. Two Mississippians – Amy Lyles Wilson, publisher of Hamblett House Inc., in Nashville, and Kay Sloan, professor of English at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio – have perpetuated, indeed enriched, their own careers with the passion, intellectual curiosity, and broad perspective of their early liberal arts experiences.From Law School Dropout to Publisher. It takes guts to be a small-press publisher. And talent. And drive. Amy Lyles Wilson has all three. Like most creative types, she didn’t take a direct route into her field. In fact, after earning a B.A. in English at Millsaps, she headed to Ole Miss for law school. “But I dropped out because I realized I wanted to be a writer,” she says. “So I completed my master’s in journalism with a magazine emphasis.” Wilson landed a job at Whittle Communications in Knoxville, Tennessee. “It was a great experience,” she recalls. “I had the opportunity to work with well-known art directors and editors at a young age. I wrote, edited, and researched articles for special interest publications and helped to develop two regional magazines.” After a stint with an academic press in Washington, D.C., she moved to Jackson to manage the editorial department of DREAM (Developing Resources for Education in America), a nonprofit devoted to providing health-focused materials to children. Wilson joined Rutledge Hill Press (the Nashville publisher known for the Life’s Little Instruction Book series) in the early 1990s after she met one of the publishers at a writing conference. “I moved to Nashville, thrilled at the chance to work in ‘real book publishing’ without moving to New York, which never had appealed to me. I worked on travel books, cookbooks, and gift books. I was especially pleased with Traveling the Trace, a guidebook about touring the Trace from Nashville to Natchez.” As senior editor, she proposed and co-authored the successful cookbook Cooking with Friends, inspired by the hit TV series Friends. While at Rutledge Hill, Wilson learned as much as she could about publishing. “I knew one day I would go it alone and run my own shop. It must be the control freak/Leo in me!” she says. In addition to transforming promising book concepts into winners, she honed her skills in negotiating contracts, setting budgets, meeting deadlines, and distributing books. PAGE 1 OF 4 | NEXT PAGE |
Millsaps Magazine | Millsaps | Last Edited August 12, 1999 |