Meet just one of the many characters that make up the book world. Every few days I'll post a new profile of a Book Industry Character and to meet more, create your profile on myBEA. On myBEA you can organize your schedule and to-do lists, build your FREE custom Daily Planner and connect with other Book Industry Characters! Membership to myBEA is FREE to all registered attendees. We have almost 6,000 attendees and 4,200 exhibitor staff and 927 Exhibiting Companies on My BEA now.
Who are you?
Steve Ross, Father of Jordan Benjamin Ross and Henry Daniel Ross; also, President and Publisher of the Collins Publishing Group, a Division of HarperCollins Publishers.
What role do you play in the book world?
Like most everyone in book publishing I play multiple roles, including facilitator and enabler—but I come from a musical family (my brother is first violinist for a major symphony orchestra and my grandfather performed, in roller skates, on the Vaudeville circuit as “The Flying Jew”) so I hope you won’t mind a musical metaphor; my roles currently combine that of conductor to a group of extremely talented, motivated and experienced individuals, and second fiddle to a strong bass and percussion section.
How long have you played that role?
This particular role, twelve years or so, but with this particular orchestra, nine months.
If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?
Scavenging trash bins for jettisoned reading materials, spewing spittle as I thrust aside in disgust whatever I find to be a waste of trees, but also trying urgently to press the remainder of the crumpled and stained papers into the hands of frightened passersby. Or perhaps wait tables. Or be a lawyer—I hear that’s fun.
What are you reading?
At the moment, a questionnaire that asks, “What are you reading?” My bag and night table, however, include Lush Life, by Richard Price (dialogue like nobody’s business—except perhaps Elmore Leonard’s); The Yiddish Policemen’s Ball, by Michael Chabon (so imaginatively conceived and almost perfectly executed), and a proposal for The Anti-Bloat Diet (because apparently it’s a growing problem).
What's the last trip you took?
The last chemical trip was in the 70’s, but the last, and most lasting, major personal trip I took was either a motorcycle circumnavigation of New Zealand a few years ago, or the trek two years ago to the original crash site deep in the Andes where the story of “Alive” took place with Nando Parrado and his family; Nando (played by Ethan Hawke in the film) wrote a magnificent book about his tragic adventure, a book I had the good fortune to publish (titled Miracle in the Andes), a book that taught me more about love as a force with its own gravitational pull than any other book I’ve read, so to be able to accompany him—and the family he built after the crash—was an honor and adventure I’ll never forget.
What would the title of your life story be?
Clinging to the Shoestrings of Giants
Who would play you in the film adaptation?
Jason Alexander. If he’s too busy or too “big” then of course the fallback is obvious: George Clooney. But I’d lobby for Jason.
If you wrote your life story, what 3 adjectives would appear on the dust jacket to describe it?
“Driven”, “mistake-prone” (I’m hoping that with the dash that only counts as one), and “effervescent”, primarily because I admire both its sound and it onomatopoetic qualities.
What's the worst part of your job?
The need to say “no” so often to such earnest and well-intentioned people.
How many BEA's have you attended?
Approximately 22.
What’s your favorite BEA moment?
I have two: first, asking Toni Morrison if she’d like an “In ‘n’ Out” burger, and second, Amy Sedaris’ detailed discussion of female genital hygiene at last year’s breakfast, when she followed Barack Obama and was followed by John Updike, who held his own admirably under the circumstances.
No, wait I have a third: watching Bruce Springsteen play with the Rock Bottom Remainders (Florida?) and then meeting him at the after-party.
What's your drink of choice (latte, scotch, vitamin water, etc)?
Ketel One with a splash of tonic. (This has not been a paid promotional advertisement. However, this space is for rent.)
What excites you about our business?
The infectious optimism, altruism, and sheer love of books that each rolling wave of young people bring into our industry (before they absorb the ghoulish realities of a low velocity, low margin, business competing against an increasing bandwidth of media and games and music and TV channels and cultural noise for a finite range of public attention); the possibilities each day brings to discover a new talent or work with a new author with a fresh and unique perspective; the dynamism and rapidity with which the industry has begun to change and adapt, in many ways for the positive, and the wide range of intelligent minds working diligently to keep books alive and thriving in our culture as the sacred and potentially life-changing objects we all know them to be.
