Leopoldo Gout on Lisa Gallagher Layoff!

After reading Neil Gaiman’s thoughts on the layoff of Lisa Gallagher, Leopoldo Gout felt it was necessary that he weigh in as well.

Here’s what he has to say:

I did not worked with Lisa Gallagher for as many years as the great Neil Gaiman, but as some of you might know we did Ghost Radio with her and she was a joy to work with.

She gave me the confidence any author needs, not only giving me a wonderful, generous opportunity for my next books but she made me feel that she believed in all we are doing in both films and fiction.   And that my career, my life as a story teller, what was important.

She worked with Neal Stephenson and many authors I love, and championed a lot of great books,  including the fascinating new horror trilogy The Strain by  Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.  The first book in that trilogy will not be released till June.  So Lisa’s legacy continues …

I’m not sure there are many places that can be as cool as her… but we can all hope…

We at Ghost Radio will always keep a door open for her.

Read our other posts on this story here,  here and here.

Neil Gaiman on Lisa Gallagher Layoff

Neil Gaiman, a HarperCollins author, comments on his blog about the layoff of Lisa Gallagher due to company’s restructuring:

(I twittered my sadness at losing my long-time publisher at William Morrow, Lisa Gallagher.  I don’t think I mentioned it here. I worked with her for nine years — she was originally in marketing, and then became my publisher, and when Anansi Boys went to Number 1 on the NYT list, we sate and drank champagne in a busy square together.  She was always supportive and I will miss working with her very much, not just because she was the only person who would begin a phone call with a breezy “Hello darling, it’s Lisa.” I hope she gets a job as good as she is.)

Also look at our other posts on this story here and here.

Big Shake-up At HarperCollins!

From The NY Observer:

HarperCollins announced a major restructuring this morning that will see the four-year-old Collins division folded under the jurisdiction of Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham.

Lisa Gallagher, the head of the William Morrow group, has also been laid off, and the division will move under Avon publisher Liate Stehlik.

And Locus has this to add:

Jack Womack, associate director of publicity at Eos, has been let go. Womack, an author himself, has been with HarperCollins since 2001, and has promoted authors including Neal Stephenson, Chris Moore, etc. UPDATE: Emily Krump, assistant editor at Eos, has also apparently been laid off.

Gallagher and Womack have both brought a lot of interesting voices into print.  This is not good news for fans of the speculative genres.