Jamie Raab: “Everything about books is changing…”

At a recent NYU Publishing event students had the opportunity to meet a few of the publishing program’s advisors. Jamie Raab, Senior Vice President and Publisher at Grand Central Publishing, was among the impressive group (check back for posts about the other attendees).

“In all the years I’ve been in publishing – about 30 now – I don’t think I’ve seen change so rapid,” said Raab, who oversees the publication of approximately 300 titles per year on Grand Central Publishing’s hardcover, mass market, and trade paperback lists. “Everything about books is changing . . . but books still remain.”

Jamie Raab came up the editorial ranks after falling into publishing more or less by accident. “I wanted to be a diplomat,” she confessed to the room of students. Fortunately, she added, she gets to use those diplomatic skills every day with authors and agents.

Not surprisingly, given the setting of the talk and the eager eyes staring back at her, Raab was extremely optimistic about the industry’s prospects. She called it, “a really interesting time,” to get into publishing, adding that, “you are all lucky because you came of age in the digital world.”

How does Raab spend her days in this new digital world? Not so differently than she always has: finding and nurturing talent.

“I think [book publishing is] a very personal business. It’s really about caring about the book and caring about the author. That to me is the exciting part. Everything else is exciting too, but our job is to find and nurture that talent.”

Since joining Grand Central - formerly Warner Books - in 1986, Raab has personally acquired and/or edited a wide range of titles, working with authors from Jon Stewart to Nicholas Sparks.

Check back for brief profiles of other NYU MS Pub advisors. Next up: Stephen Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble. On a side note, if you're doing the jobhunt rounds, this advisory board isn't a terrible place to start. Sure, they are busy executives, but if you can make a connection, you never know what could happen. Each one of these advisors wants to see NYU publishing students succeed.