Melville House Books

More details have emerged about what was going on at Macmillan‘s various imprints (FSG, St. Martin’s, and Picador) yesterday, a day after the announcement that 64 positions would be “eliminated” — i.e., that 64 people were being fired. MobyLives hears (from a St. Martin’s editor who was among those let go) that inisde Macmillan it was an emotional scene. Severance terms were said to be “generous,” with some benefits continuing and paychecks also continuing, into the new year. Meanwhile, an AP wire story from Hillel Italie reports that Macmillan head John Sargent refers to the moves not as any kind of streamlining but rather a fullfledged “reorganizing.” For one thing, Italie says, “Macmillan will combine its seven children’s companies into a single division, the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, effective Jan. 1.” For another the company plans a “centralized business and production group for its adult and children’s publishing companies.” Slipping by most others reporting the story (such as Motoko Rich in her far less detailed New York Times report) is the fact that the Macmillan group is also essentially skipping the annual BookExpo America convention — a poentially devastating blow to that annual event, at a time when many are questioning the wisdom of paying the exhorbitant fees to attend. As Rachel Deahl details further in a Publishers Weekly report, “Macmillan has said it will forego a booth at the next BookExpo America and instead will set up shop in a room off the show floor.” Deahl’s report — notable for its straightforwardness, in light of the fact that PW is owned by Reed Business Inc., which also owns the BEA — also asked BEA director Lance Fensterman “if he thought Macmillan’s move is an ominous one for BEA, and indicative of cutbacks others houses may opt for….” Fensterman replied that the BEA is “a reflection of what’s happening in our industry, and sometimes that can be a hard one.”

• And still more: Publishers Lunch reports today that FSG head Jonathan Galassi has written a memo to nervous staffers calling the Macmillan moves “a plan that will reduce FSG’s cost structure and help us to be more efficient” and says that all it means is that, er, “In some areas, we will rely more on the existing Macmillan infrastructure than we have up to now, to achieve greater effectiveness in an increasingly challenging marketplace.” Oh yes, and he’ll be “reduc[ing] staff in certain areas,” such as, you know, their “paycheck areas.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.