Authors Lunch

James McBride’s THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE (August 8, 2023, Editor: Jake Morrissey, Agent: Flip Brophy) topped best books of 2023 lists, and, based on PL’s comprehensive tabulation, was the consensus pick as the very Best of the Best Book of the Year. Here, Riverhead executive editor Jake Morrissey talks to us about working with McBride, the editing process, and why this book resonates so much with readers and critics. How did you and McBride come to work together? What’s your relationship like? James McBride’s debut, The Color of Water, was on Riverhead’s first list in 1996, so when […]

Vicky Bijur started her eponymous literary agency in 1988 after working at Oxford University Press and for the Charlotte Sheedy Agency. She represents fiction and non-fiction and has served as president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, now the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA). She has been on the AALA Royalties Committee since 1993 and is chair of the AALA Ethics Committee. What are some questions to ask a prospective agent? 1) Will you keep me reasonably informed throughout the process of selling my book? For example, can we discuss the list of publishers to whom you would submit […]

Deb Futter is the president and publisher of Celadon Books. Prior to this role, she was the publisher of Twelve and vice president and editor-in-chief at Grand Central Publishing; previously, she spent 25 years at Random House Inc. She has acquired and edited numerous bestselling and acclaimed books by authors including Abby Wambach, Barbara Ehrenreich, Carole King, Jane Hamilton, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Min Jin Lee, Noah Hawley, Pete Dexter, Scott Turow, and Steve Martin, among many others. What criteria do you think about when you consider a work of fiction by a debut author? I like a book to be […]