bookpublishing

Despite my typical reliance on Publisher’s Weekly and my glorified reverence to everything they report on, I’m a little miffed at today’s report about Greenwood Publishing Group, a Westport, Connecticut, publisher who has been bought by ABC-CLIO of Santa Barbara, California. Previously owned by Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, Greenwood’s assets and imprints are being transferred to the new company. Despite that this literally means Greenwood is closing its Westport office, PW painted the deal in a favorable light.

I work for a publisher less than 50 miles away from Greenwood and this news has us worried too. Our presses are close in size and many employees here know people who work for Greenwood. Those employees have been told they have 60 days remaining at Greenwood and get first crack at the jobs that have transferred to ABC’s Denver and California offices, but that, in effect, they will be out of a job before Christmas. One of my colleagues knows a girl and her boyfriend who both work at Greenwood and are both out of jobs. Westport is close enough to NYC that many can, if they are fortunate, find jobs there to which they can commute, but it’s a big blow to a medium-size publisher and it has many of us in Connecticut–especially those not as close to the city–just a bit anxious.

Just another reflection on plummeting economy: When I began looking for publishing jobs there were regularly 30-40 job postings on Mediabistro.com at a time available in Connecticut. I checked today: There are only 18 postings. It’s a scary world out there for anyone in the writing/editing biz.

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