Today I am preempting the planned blog post to remind us all that sometimes we win. The double whammy of Macmillan deciding to screw libraries and not let us get ebooks and the American Dirt debacle was outrageous. [Links go to my coverage on those controversies and below, in article, links go to PW's coverage].
Library workers banded together to decry both and call for change at Macmillan. [Most notably Jennifer from Arlington [VA] Public Library]. Look, I know there is more to Sargent leaving than us, but I know from talking to people in publishing, our pressure helped a lot.
Personally I was very torn about being openly in opposition against Macmillan because I knew that my friends in the library marketing department were caught in the middle, and, the company produces some of the best speculative fiction out there through their imprints, so it wasn't like I could boycott the entire company. But I did make sure to express my displeasure and fight for change as best I could.
The moral here-- as a profession we have a strong voice. If we work together to call out bad policies in the publishing world, we can force change.
We also have HUGE buying power and make a lot of money for publishers. Let's remember that all together, we are the number 1 purchaser of books in this country, and let's not let them forget it!
Sargent Leaving Macmillan
In a surprise announcement this morning, Holtzbrinck announced that John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, will leave Macmillan and its parent, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, on January 1. Don Weisberg, president of Macmillan US Trade, has been named to succeed Sargent as CEO of Macmillan Publishers, while Susan Winslow, general manager of Macmillan Learning, will head that division as president. In addition to overseeing all of Macmillan, Sargent was an executive v-p of Holtzbrinck.
In making the announcement, Holtzbrinck said Sargent’s departure is due to “disagreements regarding the direction of Macmillan.”
"The family shareholders, the supervisory board, my colleagues and I thank John Sargent deeply for making Macmillan a strong and highly successful publishing house and for his most helpful advice," Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO of the Holtizbrinck Publishing Group, said in a statement. "John’s principles and exemplary leadership have always been grounded in worthy, essential causes, be it freedom of speech, the environment, or support for the most vulnerable. Since Holtzbrinck shares these ideals, they will live on."
The move comes after more than a year of ups and downs for Macmillan, including a long-running saga over a library e-book embargo, a major controversy over the publication of Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt by Flatiron, a slew of layoffs in the immediate wake of the pandemic, and the emergence of an industry-wide day of protest that was first organized by Macmillan employees.
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