By Leon Neyfakh 2/03/09 8:35pm

PW’s Sara Nelson Saw Book Crowd As Coolest On Earth

“I think these people are rock stars, I always did,” Sara Nelson said. “I think they’re cool. I’m much more interested in hearing about what’s going on in Sonny Mehta’s head than I am in George Clooney’s.”

This was Friday afternoon, and Ms. Nelson, 52, was in her office at Publishers Weekly, where until Read More

By Leon Neyfakh 12/15/08 5:03pm

Editor-in-Chief of Publishers Weekly: ‘We Are All the Walking Wounded,’ Even Those Hachette Jerks With Their Bonuses

There’s something charming about Publishers Weekly editor-in-chief Sara Nelson referring to the book publishing community in her weekly column as "BookLand." And it’s not only the word’s playful and bold internal capitalization, or the fact that it spares her readers painful phrases like "publishing observers" and "editors, publishers, and agents alike"– it also casts her Read More

By Leon Neyfakh 7/14/08 12:36pm

The Reviewers Come In From the Cold

A review in Publisher’s Weekly tends to be a book’s first—some of the titles in last week’s issue won’t be on sale until the end of September—and for this reason, the dozens of reviews printed there each week, at about 200 words, are regarded as influential.

A “starred review” is a prize—a guarantee, almost, that Read More

By Leon Neyfakh 12/27/07 5:45pm

Publishers Weekly on the Best and Worst Cover Designs of the Year

As Christmas week staggers on, Publishers Weekly looks back at some of the most striking book covers of the year, pulling ten entries from its weekly-ish "Jackets Required" feature and getting a few design experts and booksellers to weigh in.

Millard Kaufman’s Bowl of Cherries, designed by McSweeney’s M.E. Eli Horowitz, gets a mention, as Read More

By Hillary Frey 4/23/07 4:20pm

Get BEA Out of New York!

Publishers Weekly has gone poll-crazy in the last few weeks. First, they asked: “April is National Poetry Month. When was the last time you bought a book of poems?” Judging by the results, most of us haven’t purchased any verse since high school. Not so shocking, right? Well, check out their latest survey – Read More

By Mythili Rao 10/16/06 12:00am

Prizewinning Short Stories From a Japanese Master

Gentle and enchanted, the 24 stories of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s latest collection, are frequently brief, unassuming and understated—but never flat or vacant. Mr. Murakami presents new variations on familiar preoccupations: brooding mid-20’s or -30’s male narrators, adulterous lovers, and a panorama of jazz records, cats, whiskey and well-furnished apartments.

Many Read More