| Penguin Putnam |
375 Hudson Street,
New York,
NY
10014-3657 |
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www.penguinputnam.com
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(212) 366-2000
Fax: (212) 366-2666
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One of the world's premier publishers of fine literature, Penguin Putnam is one of the largest trade book publishers in the United States. In addition to paperback editions of the world's most famous works, the company's various imprints publish mass-market paperbacks and film and television tie-in books. Today, Penguin Putnam publishes over 3000 paperback titles under several imprints including Viking, Dutton, Signet, Onyx, Plume, and Puffin.
Founded in England in 1935, Penguin opened a New York office four years later that would become the Penguin Books USA subsidiary. It established a reputation as an affordable publisher of quality literature, although its 1961 printing of the unabridged version of Lady Chatterley's Lover and its 1989 printing of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses have brought it considerable controversy. In the 1970s, Penguin was purchased by Pearson PLC, a British media conglomerate that also owns the Financial Times and Madame Tussaud's wax museums. In late 1996, Pearson purchased Putnam, another publishing company, and merged it with Penguin. Penguin Putnam is the American operating arm of Penguin Group. In September 1997, Penguin Putnam paid a hefty $25 million to the American Booksellers Association, settling an anti-trust lawsuit alleging that Penguin made unfair discounts to larger retailers. The publisher maintained that the discounts were unauthorized, filing a racketeering lawsuit against a dismissed accountant.
The Penguin Group now plans to cash in on the entertainment business. In December 1997, Penguin UK signed a deal with Universal Pictures subsidiary October Films to publish between five to ten movie-book complements, with Robert Duvall's The Apostle serving as the first movie. A few days later Penguin Putnam inked a similar agreement with DreamWorks SKG, to tout titles for films including Small Soldiers and The Prince of Egypt. Penguin Putnam is endeavoring to turn its internet ventures into a larger part of its operations, by instituting a separate site for its Penguin Classics titles, and planning a re-launch of its main site.
In order to appeal to previously underserved markets, Penguin Putnam is creating two new imprints. As one publisher put it, Blue Hen books are targeted toward adults interested in reading "quality fiction and nonfiction that has real literary merit" but are not part of the usual "literary" crowd. An agreement with Alloy Online is the basis for an imprint reaching out to 15 year olds, both male and female.
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Penguin Books USA accepts resumes faxed to its New York headquarters but prefers them mailed. It does not accept e-mailed resumes. Send resumes and cover letters to the Human Resources department. They ask that candidates include a salary requirement - a bit disingenuous, considering the publishing world's notoriously paltry pay scales.
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Although employees say Penguin is "a terrific place to start one's career," advancement in the publishing industry often requires "moving from one publishing house to another," so company loyalty at Penguin is usually "subsumed to personal advancement." Insiders admit that Penguin Putnam "doesn't pay a lot - expect under $20k" for entry-level folks, but "the chance for advancement is good." Remember, "you've got to start somewhere for whatever you can get and work your way up." Work hours tend to fluctuate - just keep in mind that "this is not a 9 to 5 job if you want to move ahead." Expect to "put in tons of time - more than you would at other publishers." One entry-level employee reports "working anywhere from 45 to 70 hours a week since I was assigned my territory." The dress code is pretty casual, though "the higher your rank, the better you're expected to look." Employees are allowed to dress very casually on Friday, which insiders tell us means shorts and "unspeakably sloppy clothes" are permitted.
Insiders comment that "perks don't include anything of great dollar value," but they're clearly happy to "work in an environment where some of the highest quality and best-selling books in the world are produced." In the U.S. headquarters, that environment is in Greenwich Village in New York, "in a relatively large, modern building that is owned by the Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising Company - they take up most of the space." Insiders report that "the majority of employees here are women, in every department and in every conceivable position. As for the little perks that go with working at Penguin, the company lets "you rifle through various piles of books that are discarded by folks around the office who no longer need them." Perhaps most exciting for book lovers, "you might actually get to meet some of your favorite authors on occasion."
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