Recap of November 2021 Event: Building a Great List: Art, Science, or Both?
This lively panel discussion focused on list building and acquisitions. Three Minnesota-based publishing professionals gave us a peek behind the curtain into how their companies decide what to publish. The panel explored the role data plays in publishers’ strategies, answering questions like: Is data king, or is it more of a suggestion? How is data most helpful in driving acquisitions? And where does data fall short or even lead us astray?
Panelists:
Erika Stevens is the editorial director at Coffee House Press, where she has served in various editorial capacities for a decade. Erika currently acquires poetry, nonfiction, and fiction for Coffee House. Erika was previously in acquisitions at the University of Georgia Press and the University Press of Florida; she started her career in publishing at Duke University Press and UNC Press. She taught in the graduate program in book publishing at Portland State University and in the Sierra Nevada College MFA program. She dabbles in German-to-English translation and has freelanced widely for authors, presses, and nonprofit organizations.
Josh Leventhal is the director of the Minnesota Historical Society Press. He began his career as an editor at Timber Press in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-1990s, and after moving to Minnesota in 2000, he worked for MBI Publishing, Voyageur Press, and an imprint of the Quarto Publishing Group before joining MNHS Press as an acquisitions editor in 2014. Working at large commercial publishers, nonprofit publishers, and small niche publishers in a range of subject areas, Josh has navigated a variety of markets and publishing business models. He is also the author of more than 15 books.
Jenny Krueger is senior publishing director for Lerner Publications in Minneapolis. She has worked in publishing and product development for 15 years, with extensive experience in educational publishing, particularly for the school library and classroom markets. Jenny has developed series, single titles, and database products that serve K–12 learners, including most recently Read WokeTM Books with Cicely Lewis and publishing partnerships with Crayola and Sesame Street.