Interview with Karl Weber
Karl Weber
author of "Why Books Still Matter: Honoring Joyce Meskis"
Michael Carter
Co-Host
Karl Weber, author of "Why Books Still Matter: Honoring Joyce Meskis"
Karl Weber's Website
Karl Weber, president of Karl Weber Literary, is a writer, editor, and book developer with over twenty-five years’ experience in the book publishing industry. He is an expert in general-interest non-fiction publishing, specializing in topics from business and personal finance to politics, current affairs, history, autobiography, self-help, and personal development. Weber’s book projects include the New York Times bestseller Creating a World Without Poverty, co-authored with Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize (2008) and its sequels, Building Social Business (2010) and A World of Three Zeros (2017); the New York Times number one best seller What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception by Scott McClellan (2008), which Weber edited; and three companion books to acclaimed films, Food Inc. (2009),Waiting for “Superman” (2010), and Stephen Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), all of which Weber edited.
Weber has advised and assisted authors in a wide range of non-fiction areas, including, for example, former president Jimmy Carter, author of several New York Times bestsellers, including An Hour Before Daylight (2000), which Weber edited; business guru Adrian Slywotzky, a director at the consulting firm of Oliver Wyman and author of several books co-authored by Weber, including Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It (2011); and executive Jonathan M. Tisch, who wrote Citizen You (2010), Chocolates on the Pillow Aren’t Enough (2007), and The Power of We: Succeeding Through Partnerships (2004) in collaboration with Weber
Other notable authors include former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, whose book Inside the Five-Sided Box (2019) was edited by Weber; Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, whose book A Governor’s Story (2011) was edited by Weber; former representative Richard Gephardt, author of An Even Better Place (2001), which Weber edited; Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of three books edited by Weber; and the Honorable Richard Butler, former Executive Chairman of UNSCOM and author of The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destructions, and the Crisis of Global Security (2001), also edited by Weber.
Weber helped create The Triple Bottom Line, a guide to sustainable business co-authored with Andrew W. Savitz (2006); Generation We, a study of the Millennial generation and their growing impact on world affairs co-authored with entrepreneur Eric Greenberg (2008); and The Best of I.F. Stone, a collection of pieces by the famed independent journalist which Weber edited (2006)
Before founding his company, Weber served as managing director of the Times Business imprint at Random House (1994-1997), where he helped to launch one of the industry’s most successful business book programs. Among the books he produced for Times Business are Hope Is Not a Method, a widely-praised management guide by former U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Gordon Sullivan and Colonel Michael Harper (later a Broadway Books paperback), and How To Start and Run an Investment Club by Tom O’Hara and Ken Janke of the National Association of Investment Clubs (over 200,000 copies in print). While at Random House, Weber also served as editor of Living Faith (1996), the spiritual autobiography of Jimmy Carter, which spent eleven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list (over 270,000 copies sold) as well as President Carter’s Sources of Strength (1997), also a New York Times bestseller. Before joining Random House, Weber was senior editor and publisher in the trade book division of John Wiley & Sons (1986-1994). He developed a series of successful investment books, helped to conceive and launch Wiley’s famous Portable MBA series of management guides, and produced several highly-praised books about the worlds of business and finance, including The Big Fix: Inside the S&L Scandals by James Ring Adams and Brokers, Bagmen, and Moles by David Greising and Laurie Morse. When Worth magazine in 1997 selected the fifteen best investment books of the past 150 years, two were titles edited by Weber: Investment Illusions by Martin S. Fridson and Investment Psychology Explained by Martin J. Pring. Prior to serving at Wiley, Weber was an editor at McGraw-Hill and at AMACOM, the book-publishing division of the American Management Association. Weber is also an expert on educational testing. He has written seven books for students about how to earn high scores on standardized tests and appears on a series of educational video programs published by Video Aided Instruction.
Weber is director of the Editing Workshop at the Denver Publishing Institute, a summer program for individuals interested in pursuing or advancing careers in the publishing industry.
If books didn’t matter, nobody would try to ban them. In a nation struggling to cope with polarization, disinformation, acrimony, the power of books—to inform, enlighten, and inspire—is more important than ever. To honor Joyce Meskis, the legendary bookseller who founded Denver’s Tattered Cover and became a champion of First Amendment freedoms, a team including some of today’s leading publishers, booksellers, authors, and free speech activists offers reflections on the vital role of books in our nation’s cultural, civic, social, and economic life. Why Books Still Matter includes:
U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper on bookselling as a mission-driven form of entrepreneurship—a way of nurturing communities and enriching culture while helping city economies flourish
Freedom of speech activist Chris Finan on a century of battles against censorship and the crucial role of books and booksellers in defending liberty
Book marketing guru Carl Lennertz on how a generation of innovative booksellers transformed the magical process by which authors and readers discover one another
Bookseller Clara Villarosa on creating one of the nation’s greatest Black-owned bookstores—and why representation on the printed page is so important for Americans of every background
Librarians Nick Higgins and Amy Mikel on why they decided to make banned books available to young people from communities across the U.S.—and how they did it
Civil liberties attorney Steve Zansberg on a new way to think about the right to free expression and its vital role in a democratic society
Bookseller Carole Horne on how independent bookstores from Cambridge to Austin to Salt Lake City pioneered the “buy local” movement, glorifying what makes every city and town unique. . . and other noteworthy figures from the worlds of publishing and bookselling providing unique insights into the glorious past, the embattled present, and the essential future of books. All proceeds will be donated to the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom. “It’s hard to imagine a more powerful tribute to [Joyce Meskis’s] life. Readers who want to honor Joyce Meskis, or who simply are passionate themselves about books and reading, will luxuriate in this essay collection.”—Publishers Weekly BookLife “Consistently engaging and approachable. Those inside the book business will find here a valuable analysis of their trade, while those on the outside are given an accessible introduction to the industry. An impressive, fitting tribute to an iconoclastic bookseller.”—Kirkus Reviews “Why Books Still Matter is a paean to bookstores and their readers, written by wise industry leaders who are brilliant business people, know that words and ideas are powerful and community dialogue can change the world, and have courageously supported freedom of expression in their own cities. It will deepen any book lover’s devotion to the power of words and books.”—Gayle Shanks, Founder & Co-Owner, Changing Hands Bookstores “Believing that booksellers were bound to their own version of the Hippocratic oath—as fierce protectors of the First Amendment—Joyce Meskis was a superhero for the reading community. Her legacy blazes on in all of us who are determined to read widely and freely—and in the pages of this remarkable book.”—Gayatri Patnaik, Director of Beacon Press “At a time when books, authors, and publishing are under attack, it is critically important that we remember and defend their importance. This expertly curated collection reminds us that books can connect us, inspire us, and challenge us like no other medium. The rights to write, publish, and read are fundamental to the functioning of our democracy. Brought to you by “The Law Business Insider”