Take a peek behind the curtain of some of the biggest publishing moments in the past several decades with forty-year industry veteran John Sargent.
Turning The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher is the well-told story of forty years in the publishing business. For twenty-four of those years, John Sargent ran one of America’s largest publishing companies. Rather than a straight chronological narrative, Sargent uses the best stories of those years to give us an intimate look inside book publishing. In weaving these stories together, he brings the reader with him through triumph and despair, and a very interesting daily life. The reader will meet his odd publishing family, his interesting authors, and the celebrities with whom he worked. Sargent tells the tale of publishing Monica Lewinsky and recounts what it was like to have an author meeting in Buckingham Palace. He takes the reader with him into the Macmillan battles with Amazon, the Department of Justice, and President Donald Trump.
In Turning Pages , the reader will share his occasional pain and seemingly endless joy, from a one room schoolhouse in Wyoming to the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa. Full of humor and grace, this is a book for those who enjoy a good story about a fascinating life. This behind-the-scenes look at some of the biggest moments in publishing over the last several decades is a must-read for every person who loves books and has always wondered about the industry surrounding them.
What a great life story as well as a sort of primer on publishing. Spoiler alert- I’ve known John for 40+ years and he is indeed the person described in this book. I’d follow him anywhere- schmutz and all - just not up a rubble strewn mountain trail. John, thanks for being a good friend and a great storyteller.
I enjoy biographies and memoirs so this book was right up my alley. John Sargent wrote with candour and humor., many a time inducing a chuckle and even a laugh out of me. I have to admit to being particularly intrigued with his descriptions of associations with some instantly recognisable names. It was also interesting and fun to read about what a CEO often have to do to get some of the big titles out there.
Funny, heartfelt, and endlessly fascinating- this book is a quick and satisfying read. If you’re interested in publishing, books, or enjoy well-told entertaining memoirs this book is a must read. The chapters are short and sweet, the pacing is excellent, and the stories alternate between serious, hilarious, and emotionally poignant. I enjoyed this thoroughly!
Couldn’t stop listening! I work for Macmillan Learning, I have met and spoken to and listened to John speak a handful of times since I began working at ML and when he left a couple of years ago, and getting to hear about his life in this way was so cool. What a fascinating person. I was reminded of Forest Gump in a “what hasn’t this guy done/been involved in?!” kind of way. Really recommend giving this audiobook a listen. Narrated by the man himself.
Just brilliant - the stories of a life as CEO of one of New York's book publishers. Not an autobiography, more a series of vignettes and better for it, Sargent knows how to tell a story - even if sometimes he's on the wrong end of it.
For anyone interested in trade book publishing over the past thirty years, this is a must-read
A fun, gossipy memoir at about at the forefront of one the world's biggest publishers—Macmillan. John Sargent spills a little tea on many of the bold faced names he's dealt with over years, at a time when one could actually make a good living being an author (before Jeff Bezos put an end to it). I mean, Janet Evanovich has her own private plane. These days, even successful authors can barely pay the rent and often need to have second jobs. Thanks, Bezos!
Others Sargent has anecdotes about include Sarah Ferguson (Sergeant headed up her children's book Budgie series), LL Cool J, George Bush, and Pat Conroy (white man syndrome was so strong back then that he was thought the best person to write the sequel to Gone with the Wind AND it would be from Rhett Butler's POV AND he'd kill off Scarlett—yes everyone thought this sounded like a GREAT idea!! Thank god Margaret Michell's estate had a different view on it). There's even a little story in there about meeting Britney Spears at the gym and showing her how to use an iPod.
All in all pretty entertaining, though there was something a bit dry about it, and I didn't come away learning anything about publishing except how capricious it is. Those interesting in the behind-the-scenes of publishing will get their money's worth.
Thank you John Sargent, NetGalley, and the publisher for a copy of Turning Pages in exchange for an honest review.
What a wonderful read this was. A book-lover myself, what could be more fun for me than a memoir by a guy who has worked in publishing for four decades-plus and risen to its highest heights? Sargent is a great story-teller and has a pure, unvarnished prose style that makes this read so very engaging. We learn a lot about the highs and lows of his storied career -- from dealing with an antagonistic Trump White House, to the Department of Justice, to the Amazon wars over e-book pricing, to handling celebrity authors like Monica Lewinsky and Sarah Ferguson. Yet we don't just learn about this public part of his life; Sargent makes it clear from the start that his un-fancy childhood in Sheridan Wyoming and becoming connected to the natural world at a young age gave him the fortitude and resilience to deal with just about anything that came later. The stories about his children and wife are moving and help round out the picture of this grounded, humble, and talented human. The publishing world lost one of the greats when Sargent left McMillan, and we are all lucky to be able to hear his story in his own words. Highly recommended, five stars.
I usually enjoy behind the scenes stories about writing/publishing, but this just wasn’t my thing. It felt very much like a vanity project. Hardly any transitions between chapters, random stories that had nothing to do with publishing, lack of editing…this one disappointed me. There were some interesting stories about a few authors, but on the whole this was not to my taste.
# Turning Pages The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher by John Sargent Pub Date 19 Sep 2023 | Skyhorse Publishing,Arcade Biographies & Memoirs
Skyhorse Publishing, Arcade, and Netgalley provided me with a copy of Turning Pages for review:
Taking a peek behind the pages of Turning Pages provides a rare insight into some of the biggest publishing moments in the past several decades with forty-year industry veteran John Sargent.
With Turning Pages: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher, the author shares his forty years in the publishing industry. For twenty-four years, John Sargent ran one of America's largest publishing companies. Instead of a chronological narrative, Sargent takes us inside book publishing through the best stories from those years. Through his weaving of these stories, he takes the reader on a journey through triumph and despair, as well as a very interesting day-to-day life. Readers will meet his odd publishing family, his interesting authors, and celebrities he worked with. He recounts his experience having an author meeting at Buckingham Palace and publishing Monica Lewinsky. Readers are taken along on Macmillan's battles with Amazon, the Department of Justice, and President Donald Trump.
The reader will share his occasional pain and seemingly endless joy, from a one-room schoolhouse in Wyoming to the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa, in Turning Pages. It's a book for those who enjoy a good story about an interesting life, full of humor and grace. Those who love books and have always wondered about the publishing industry should read this behind-the-scenes look at some of the biggest moments in publishing over the last several decades.
This is an addictively entertaining and profoundly moving new memoir by forty-year publishing veteran John Sargent. Sargent doesn't just recount his experiences; he brings them to life with a storyteller's flair. From his tales of running one of America's largest publishing companies, Sargent offers a mosaic of adventures, each more compelling than the last. The narrative doesn't follow a straight line but meanders through the highs and lows of a fascinating career. The author shares insider stories, particularly about publishing Monica Lewinsky and the meetings in Buckingham Palace. The book is an invitation into the inner sanctum of the publishing world.
Turning Pages was one of my favorite books of 2023. I’d planned to skim it but could not put it down once I started. Turning Pages is such an apt title. The stories were amazing, and the way the author writes in short, consumable scenes and chapters is fabulous. What makes this book stand out is its human touch. Sargent introduces us to his publishing family, authors, and celebrities with warmth and sincerity. His battles with giants like Amazon and even the U.S. government are recounted with a mix of humor and gravity. Turning Pages by John Sargent is a masterclass in the art and heart of publishing.
I enjoyed reading about John Sargent’s life and career. His anecdotes were engaging—and disarming when self-effacing—as he blundered through early situations, but then tempered with well-reasoned and careful planning through the arc of his trajectory. The colorful descriptions of Wyoming in strong contrast to those of the Flatiron offices offer space and context to help situate us in this memoir. Sargent’s narrative helped humanize my impression of big publishing house CEOs, particularly regarding decisions he made that were sometimes diplomatic and other times defiant. I found his collaboration and creativity dealing with other publishers, editors, and new players in the publishing world most interesting. The section about his negotiations with Amazon and Apple was fascinating—and ironic since I was reading Sargent’s book on a Kindle. One cautionary quote that I thought prescient and relevant right now, however, is “A sitting president was attempting to subvert the First Amendment, and freedom of the press was usually the first freedom suspended by authoritarian regimes.” Sargent’s resistance to pressure that went against his ethical and moral judgment and his willingness to take high-stakes risks won me over. I would have made some different editorial decisions, but overall, I highly recommend this book to those who want to read an entertaining publisher’s memoir and learn more about the traditional publishing industry in transition.
As a rule, I don’t care for memoirs. But as a reader and an author, I am very interested in the publishing industry, and who better to learn about it from then a man who has been in it for decades. Sargent comes from a book-forward family and has been in business for a long time, including the nearly four decades of being the boss at Macmillan before his relatively recent and less than amicable parting of ways with the company. So yeah, I figured I’d read it. And I’m glad I did. Differing from a typical discursive rambling memoir, Sargent’s book is lean and streamlined, organized into several cohesive sections and chaptered by events. It’s an almost anecdotal approach, a chronological storytelling. And Sargent certainly has stories to tell. Then man has met tons of famous people, from respectable authors to infamous pop stars. Everyone wants to write a book, from politicians to sports people. Sargent also gives a somewhat comprehensive overview of the advent of digital publishing and his struggle against Amazon. And there are other fun tales, my favorite being the time him and a colleague decided to charm Barnes and Noble into stocking one of their books by weaponizing beads during the time of fashionably clean-shaven professionals. Overall, an entertaining and enlightening look, a fun book about what goes into making one. Thanks Netgalley.
"People in publishing really know how to write" says John Sargent as he recounts the culmination of his professional life, and although this series of entertaining autobiographical vignettes is pleasantly free of self-congratulation, he is clearly one of them. The stories are crisply and self-deprecatingly told, and taken all together create an unstated argument for--as well as a fascinating inside view into--the way in which not just books but the business of their selling and publishing engages with and sometimes drives political and cultural events.
Sargent presents himself as a man of action, avoiding any significant self-disclosure, and there are some stories, primarily a harrowing early wilderness adventure in Alaska as a teen, that might have gained depth from his reflections on the experience, both at the time and in retrospect. The closest we get is the end of a subsequent chapter about a moment of risk on horseback that seemingly sums up his career as well: "There was some adrenaline spent, a chance taken, and a moment of dangerous consequence. It was a good ride." And a great read.
I read the entire thing in a single sitting, and this book made me laugh and tear up, and ultimately walk away with a newfound respect for John Sargent, who I didn't really know anything about going into it.
His warmth and good humor shines though, and after finishing this book, I immediately wanted to start it again.
As a writer, it was especially gratifying to listen to his acknowledgements and the casually dropped information of all the rejections this beautiful book had received (which was especially insane to me, considering his long and distinguished career at the top of publishing). If you have any interest in publishing or the behind the scenes of how books are made--or even if you just enjoy interesting stories well told--read this book immediately.
Thank you, John, for all that you've done to fight for writers and illustrators--I sincerely hope to read another book from you soon.
I binge read this book, and it was quite captivating. I thought I knew a lot about publisher's job from movies I've seen but John met with such people as presidents, lords, dutchess, Michael Jackson, Hillary Clinton, Ed Snowden, he even taught Birtney Spears how to use an iPod, all of this happened during his many years in the field. He went against Amazon to protect not just this company's finances but also those of authors. He got grey hair overnight, and it took 8.5 years in court and millions of dollars lost. He and his team put all effort in to find a missing Allzheimer patient who using to work with them, visited the bedridden with cancer employee and give him food massages (the only thing distracting him from pain after chemo) right till the day he died. John is an amazing man, and this book reflects his ups and downs in life.
I picked up this book thinking I might gain knowledge about the editorial side of book publishing, my professorial competence. But, no, it's about the business side. And what a kaleidoscope! Sargent avers that being chief honcho at a major book publishing company involves working with “authors and illustrators, the agents, the booksellers, the printers, the distributors, and everyone else in the ecosystem.” Also, it's a dangerous profession. For example, love her or hate her, he supervised the publication of Monica Lewinsky's story amid intense pressure to remove her book from distribution. Same for a book by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Then there are dealings with Jeff Bezos and Amazon's predatory e-book pricing practices. Teams of lawyers at work. Overall, I found Sargent's straightforward prose style insightfully engaging.
Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. As someone who is fascinated by books, authors and the entire bookworld this memoir grabbed my interest from the title alone. It was a fun, gossipy read about John's time in the publishing world whilst working for one of the biggest and most known publishing houses Macmillan. I couldn't get enough of his juicy anecdotes and tea spilling. It was a very interesting read and I loved how it shed some light on just what goes on in the world of publishing which thanks to book tube and tik tok we hear more and more rumours about. A must read for anyone who has wondered about the publishing world and if what we do hear about it could ever possibly be true.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ #johnsargent #turningpages #netgalley #goodreads #getlitsy #thestorygraph #tea_sipping_bookworm #bookqueen #bookstagram #memoir #arcade
The publishing of books is a labor of love. This then is the stories of one publisher’s romance. His voice and humility are rooted in his childhood home of Sheridan, Wyoming while his fearless passion and candor are pure Brooklyn. We are each fortunate to have a friend in the letters like Johnny Sarge. A doff of the Stetson and a hearty Gracias Amigo for sharing these wonderful moments. I can’t wait to hear some of the ones that were too saucy to have made the final cut. I’ll never forget my pilgrimage to the point of the Flatiron and I look forward to future hamburgers and your third act!
3.5 stars. This is an entertaining memoir by the former CEO of Macmillan. I love books with an inside look at the publishing world and this is definitely that. The chapters were short snapshots of some of his experiences. I thought some chapters were really interesting while others I skimmed over. Definitely worth reading if you are interested in going behind the scenes of some the the biggest recent publishing stories. I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
This book varied between interesting and scattered-feeling. I was under the impression that it would be focused on publishing, but there were quite a few stories that felt out-of-place. There were tales of the author's life that had nothing to do with publishing and didn't feel connected to the overall story either. Sometimes they just ended. I wish this had been a lot more cohesive and a lot more focused on actually giving the reader a peek behind the publishing curtain.
Thank you to Skyhorse Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Having worked at Macmillan under John's tenure, it was great to hear (read) his voice again in my head. What you read on the page is what you got as a leader. Charm, humor, vision, charisma, ethical leadership, and one of best storytellers I have heard spin a yarn.
It was great to learn more about him personally and his early years before he came to Macmillan and get more insight into his time there. It was a hard day when we learned he would be leaving us.
Thank you for sharing this with us John. Careful of the waves.
I adored this book, and it's such a great memoir about a career in publishing. It offered a lot of colorful anecdotes about celebrities, famous authors, and politicians publishing their books as well as the evolution of the business itself, which had personal resonance to me as I've spent my entire career in publishing (though on a much smaller scale). I enjoyed Sargent's reflections on his Wyoming background and could relate to them having spent my childhood in Idaho.
Humorous and a lot of interesting/fascinating details of working in the publishing industry. Things I can remember are the DOJ settlement and how the deposition works; the ebook transition and how he negotiated with Apple; publishing several high-profile books such as the one about trumps administration and Ed Snowden’s book; how he met Obama by greeting him with “Hey man”. A great read, mostly fascinating stories, make me turning pages
This book felt more like a set of anecdotes than the memoir I was expecting, but even so it was an engaging book. Sargent was at the forefront of some big books and some major negotiations. He probably shaped Amazon/Kindle offerings more than he shared in the book. Having spent my career in publishing, I found the book interesting
A mixed bag. Some stories are interesting, others have nothing to do with publishing. It’s a sad statistic that most top brass positions in the industry are still held by white men. 🥱 P.S. I wonder why the author didn’t talk about the American Dirt controversy. It happened under his leadership and was a huge deal.
An interesting look behind the scenes of the publishing business. The author pulls back the curtains and allows you a peek into what he experienced during his long career as a publisher. Full of fun insights and gossip into different authors and personalities. Easily readable. Well written.
Short chapters. Every chapter an engrossing story about Sargent's life as a publisher and as a CEO of a publishing company. The difficulties of the CEO job are striking. It takes a strong person to withstand the demands and setbacks of a very large company. Really enjoyable reding.
A wonderful collection of stories about the publishing end of the book business. They are funny and insightful snippets into the publishing career of someone who didn't start out to be in publishing.
I worked for John for 13 years in the higher education division of Macmillan, and he's not kidding in the introduction when he says this is all his best stories. Some of them I had heard before, and many were new. John's warmth, humor, and sense of purpose are on full display. I loved it!
While this didn't quite give me the hands-on insight I was hoping for, I found it a very interesting and enjoyable read. A great look at the upper echelon of the publishing industry. I'd highly recommend for anyone in the industry.