Akashic Books publisher Johnny Temple joined us for a Media Beat interview this week, talking about how he transitioned from rock star to literary publisher over the last 10 years.
Here’s an excerpt from today’s installment (embedded above): “I had no publishing background, but looking back, I think it gave me a boost … I was unburdened by this morose attitude in book publishing, [thinking] ‘Nobody reads books anymore, our business is in decline’–all these doom and gloom attitudes. Unfortunately, I’ve never had that.”
Below we’ve included more interview excerpts with Temple–a publisher and Girls Against Boys bassist. Visit Akashic Books to explore the publisher’s long and varied list.
Temple continued: “We in the publishing business need to complain less about how no one reads and accept the fact that culture changes. This is a good thing–popular culture evolves. A lot of people seem to long for the good old days back when literature mattered and only straight white men got published.”
He concluded: “It’s a good thing that our culture has moved on from those days in the 50s and 60s and that now there is a much greater diversity of voices that can be published. We need to embrace cultural and technological change. It’s our mandate to keep up with the time and stop wishing that culture had stopped evolving 40 years ago.”
Part One: ‘We in the Publishing Business Need to Complain Less’
Part Two: ‘Authors Don’t Need Agents To Submit To Us’
Part Three: ‘You Can’t Keep All Your Eggs in One Basket’
You can also watch this video on Mediabistro’s YouTube channel.”