A Conversation with Amazon Vice President of Publishing

As most would agree, trying to find - let alone  pin down- anyone in power at Amazon these days sometimes feels like asking the waters to part.  That is why running into Amazon Publishing Vice President, Larry Kirshbaum at an industry get-together was not only a huge stroke of luck, it was one NOT to be squandered!
Upon introductions, however, I didn’t find a haughty, power-filled executive as might be expected, but a very warm, upbeat and down-to-earth man who genuinely likes people and loves publishing.
It did take a little convincing (and a lot of juggling) to finally get this incredibly busy man to sit down and chat, but once accomplished, the conversation flowed easily and the time flew by! 

IND:  How does a man like you get into the romance business?
LK:  Well, what’s not to like?   Working with 600  - 700 talented, mostly female, authors?  Man, it is rough!  (both laughing)
Originally, however, I got into the business because I had been interested in media all my life.  I started on my high school newspaper.  In college, I was the editor of the “Michigan Daily” which was a six-day-a-week newspaper.  Then I went to work as a reporter for Newsweek magazine for a couple of years.  Later, I wrote a book covering the student protests in the late 60s (I’d like to point out that’s the 1960s, not the 1860s,  Abe Lincoln was gone!)
I loved being a journalist and writing a book was really fun.  I wrote it with another man, Roger Rappaport, who worked with me at the Michigan Daily.  Crazily enough, I went to work with my publisher there after, which was Random House.  I went to New York but chose to go into sales rather than editorial.

Read the entire interview in the July/August issue of InD'Tale magazine.

Subscriptions are free!

Just sign up on our home page. Once you do, an e-mail validation notice will be sent directly to you. Just open and click the link and you're in - forever!

You will then be able to click on the magazine image on the left hand side of our home page to open the magazine, download and read!  Next month's magazine will be delivered right to your inbox!