[lbo-talk] Verso developments

[Doug Henwood]

Strange goings-on at Verso. Though several fine people have tried to  
carry on in recent years, the house has been a bit wobbly ever since  
they fired Colin Robinson in the fall of 2001. (Disclosure alert:  
Colin's a good friend of mine, and he took a gamble on me when he  
asked me to do Wall Street for them when I was even more obscure than  
I am now.) In recent weeks, the entire New York office has resigned,  
and a new crowd is moving in. They've hired a new US editor,  
described as follows by Giles O'Bryen, the London-based managing  
director of Verso, in an email just sent to Verso authors:
> Verso’s US operation will now be run by Gan Qi, who I am delighted  
> to announce is joining Verso as Director of the New York Office. Qi  
> is a vastly experienced publisher, who started and ran what became  
> a substantial bookshop and publishing business in Beijing, with a  
> list akin to Verso’s and a number of bestsellers to its name. In  
> 2001 she moved to Seattle for a period of academic study, before  
> returning to China to take up the post of Publishing Director at  
> the Tom Publishing Group in early 2004. Qi starts at Verso on 18  
> September, and I still can't quite believe how lucky we are to have  
> her.
Gan Qi may be a very talented and wonderful publisher. But, as you  
can see, she has no experience at all in the US or British market.  
Her entire publishing history is in China. I have no idea where Verso  
is going, but given its longstanding importance to radical thought in  
the English-speaking world, I'm a little concerned.

Doug