Last year, Penguin Random House shut down its imprint Spiegel & Grau, run by the well-known veteran editors Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau. The eponymous imprint was responsible for publishing a number of landmark works by authors such as Khaled Hosseini, James McBride, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Yuval Noah Harari—and the two women have worked together for 25 years, starting with Riverhead Books, which they founded.
Well, the two are back in business now, having launched an independent publishing house, Spiegel & Grau; The New York Times has coverage of the new endeavor. With solid financial backing and distribution through Two Rivers and Findaway, the plan is to release 15 to 20 titles per year but also to produce original audio content and shepherd works to film and TV. While a media-agnostic or multi-format approach might be considered by some as innovative or experimental, we’d like to think any new and serious publisher in 2020 must consider digital-first strategies or print release simultaneously alongside other media. Notably, Spiegel & Grau already has a first-look deal with Amazon Studios and a partnership with podcast company Lemonada Media.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
