Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Such a Small World

Publishers Marketplace directed me to PR Web yesterday to read this announcement:
Samhain Publishing announced today that Heather Osborn has been named as Editorial Director, reporting to Christina Brashear, effective November 1, 2010.
My first thought was "it's a small world."

Let's go back to May 11, 2008. Here's an excerpt from my post for that day:
Back in the late '90s, Tina Engler was a single mom with two daughters living in Tampa, Florida and trying to get a contract for her romance novels. Unfortunately, she couldn't find a traditional publisher to buy her work because it was so explicit. Traditional publishers were convinced that women would not want to read such detailed sexual descriptions.

After beating her head against dozens of agents' and publishers' doors, Tina decided to publish her own work. In 2000, she started a website called Ellora's Cave and began publishing e-books under the pseudonym Jaid Black.

Tina did no advertising in the beginning. News of her site spread by word of mouth. Soon she had other authors wanting to join her ...

According to an article in Crescent Blues, "In 2003, the company grossed over $1.2 million and paid over $500,000 in royalties."
Among the employees Tina Engler hired to work at Ellora's Cave were these three women: Angela James, a proofer; Heather Osborn, an editor; and Christina Brashear, who began as an editor but worked her way up to become EC's Chief Operating Officer.

Christina Brashear went on to found Samhain Publishing where her title is Publisher. She hired Angela James as her Executive Editor. Angela is now the Executive Editor for Carina Press, Harlequin's digital-first imprint.

Heather Osborn left EC and became the acquiring editor for Tor, a sci-fi and fantasy imprint owned by Macmillan. And now Heather will go to work for Christina as Samhain's Editorial Director.

A small world indeed. One in which four talented women started out from the same place and went on to become successful in the hard knocks world of publishing.

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