Sarah Jessica Parker’s Next Big Challenge? Book Publishing

Goodreads: Congratulations on your new imprint. Why did you decide to enter the publishing world as editorial director for SJP for Hogarth?

Sarah Jessica Parker: It wasn’t something that I pondered, ever, in life. It wouldn’t have occurred to me. It all started four years ago when I was invited to a lunch that turned out to be a room of powerful women, leaders of industry. At the end of it, a woman introduced herself to me as Molly Stern [SVP and publisher of Crown and Hogarth], and she was with the author Gillian Flynn. When Flynn’s Gone Girl came out, I had been photographed walking around the streets of New York with it, so they were just saying hello.

Very quickly in the conversation, Molly shared with me that she was about to publish Herman Koch’s The Dinner, and I had been trying for months to get my hands on that book. And it was already out in the U.K. and in Europe, and there was a huge amount of interest around it. And then there was the book’s publisher standing in front of me, and she said she would send it to me.

She sent me this parcel of books. And among those books was a yet-to-be-published book called A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. And for some reason, that was the book I chose to read first, before The Dinner. I started reading that book, and I was gobsmacked. I couldn’t believe that I was reading a debut novel. I remember emailing Molly and saying, “I’ve never done this before, and I don’t know what I could possibly offer, but I think this might be one of the most important books by a new American author that I’ve read, and I am a reader. If there’s anything I can do to support this book, if I can be helpful, I want to talk about this book.” So we hatched this plan, and I did some interviews to talk about the book and the author.

From that, Molly and I started a book club to read yet-to-be published books to support writers, independent booksellers, and, in my case, to support libraries. We were very involved as a book club for about three years. Toward the end of the third year, Molly and the publishing team at Crown came to me and asked if I would consider starting an imprint.

Goodreads: What was your reaction?

SJP: I immediately said, “No, I can’t, I don’t have those skills. I have too much respect for everybody who does that. Especially, as an avid reader, I’d just feel like I’d have no business.” And they just kept talking to me, and they said, “We disagree, we think you can do this…You love books and you love talking about them, and basically this is another way to support books and writers.”

So, they convinced me. And at a certain point, I just asked if my imprint could be within the Hogarth imprint because I love Hogarth and its history [Hogarth was founded by author Virginia Woolf and her husband, Leonard]. I particularly love literary fiction, which I think is a unique genre. And it’s a very specific way of talking about books and looking at books.

Goodreads: What are you looking for in the books you’ll publish? How often will we see a title from you?

SJP: I think at most it will be four a year. Literary fiction deserves caretaking, and the kind of stories and authors I’m looking for tend to be more global voices about unknown places, cultures, faiths. People whose stories feel foreign in a very compelling and intriguing way. And I think each one of those books deserves real guardianship. The idea of having time to do right by each author who is allowing me the opportunity to be part of that process is really important to me.

I think also because as I am unknown in the world of publishing, it’s not every author who’s willing to take a chance with me. There are all sorts of imprints and houses of publishing that are storied, historic, and legendary, and have all sorts of experience that especially a new author can rely upon. And there are—I’m imagining—legitimate reservations about handing over a book that they’ve spent six, eight, ten years working on to an unknown. So, given that I am assuming that is going to be the case, I can’t promise that I’m going to publish more than that.

It takes time to find submissions that feel right for my imprint…And so this allows me to really examine each choice. So that’s the plan. We have three titles as acquisitions thus far, all of which are really exciting. And certainly, if I use A Constellation of Vital Phenomena as my gold standard, and I do, they all really fit that criteria. They’re all from wonderfully diverse authors—two are women, one’s a man.

Goodreads: Why did you choose A Place for Us as your premiere publication?

SJP: Why not? I feel like, “How lucky am I?” I was barely into the manuscript when I felt this was a really, really special story. By the time I received Fatima’s manuscript, it was in March, and we had been looking for manuscripts since September. So, we’d been reading, really reading. And this book was immediately, apparently special to all of us, not just to me. We were all just undone by what we were experiencing as readers. I just assumed that we wouldn’t get it, I just thought we would never get this, because we all knew. There was activity around that manuscript, you could feel it.

What’s been so exciting is as the advance reader copies have gone out, readers’ reactions to the book have been so enthusiastic. People have embraced the story. A friend of mine yesterday, whom I gave the book to, he texted me and said, “You have to call me, I have to talk to you about this book.” And he said, “I’ve never read a book about a Muslim family in America.” This is a book about an American family, in lots of ways, in all its plurality. But it’s also a book about faith and what it means to be loyal and to honor those you love while also wanting very much to find your own way in the world.

How do you maintain those parts of your faith, your obligation to those you love, and still be an independently thinking person? It’s about love and family, and also about our country. It happens to be a very timely book. How we see each other, what we project onto one another—even within your own family—when faith is playing such an important role. There are so many wonderful examples of how we don’t know each other, even when we are blood.

[Read debut author Fatima Farheen Mirza's notes & highlights for a behind-the-scenes look at her novel]

Goodreads: A Place for Us comes out on June 12. When can readers expect your second publication?

SJP: That’s the only other one I can mention yet. I can’t mention the third! The second one is a Claire Adam book. It’s really beautiful. It’s called Golden Child [the book will go on sale in January 2019]. She’s a gifted writer from the U.K., and it’s about a family in Trinidad and Tobago.

Goodreads: You also serve as Honorary Chair of The American Library Association’s Book Club Central and have made four selections so far: No One Is Coming to Save Us, Stay with Me, Exit West, and Anatomy of a Miracle. What goes into a great book club pick?

SJP: That’s so personal because what you see in a book club is how many people disagree. There’s nothing better than that conversation. Anytime something is unfamiliar to the group, to me, is worthy of everyone’s time.

Take, for instance, Stay with Me. That book is about political climate, a story of culture, a story of men’s and women’s roles. How women look at each other, how they value each other. I think that’s a great conversation, because we all have opinions about how others should behave or how we see ourselves in those stories.

And I don’t mind at all being alone either in my affection or my disappointment in a book. So, we’ve been trying to pick books that provoke conversation, that also cultivate more curiosity about others. There are a million stories, but they’re really important for us to learn and to hear and to know and to try to be inside someone else’s experience. We try to pick books that allow that, whether it’s taking place in the deep South in this country or in Lagos or in an unidentified country. I just think all of those books have been wonderful for conversations.

Goodreads: Why did you decide to get involved in supporting public libraries?

SJP: I love libraries. We use them all the time in this house. We all have library cards. I check books out probably two or three times a month. I grew up with the library. We couldn’t afford to buy books growing up. That was not even an option. I didn’t even know that was an option to buy a book. I grew up going to a library at least once a week, never mind in school.

Libraries serve a very necessary function in communities. I think we have to remember libraries are shelter for people in this country, libraries are a warm place in the winter and a cool, refreshing place in the summer. They are access to computers people don’t have at home. They are a safe place. They are the gateway to knowledge.

Not everybody has a person in their life that shows them a book or says, “I feel like this is a story you might really connect with.” You know, a book can change a life. It can make you feel connected, it can make you feel not alone, it can transport you from something you don’t want to be thinking about. And a lot of people in this country don’t get to just go to bookstores and buy books.

I also think librarians are very special people and they love their work. They are stewards, and they are playing very important roles in lots of people’s lives of all ages and backgrounds. And those doors are open to everyone! It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from. You don’t have to be a documented person. You can walk into that library, and you have a place to study, to learn, to feel safe, to feel warm, to find quiet. And I just think we have to support our libraries because they are necessary in a community.

You know, the only way I’ll do a selfie is if people give me money for United for Libraries.

Goodreads: Is that right?

SJP: That is exactly right. It started almost a year ago. After we left the American Library Association’s convention in Chicago. We were at the airport…and a bunch of people were coming up and asking for selfies. And I’m terrible at selfies. I’ve never taken one in my entire life. I can’t take them. I feel like an idiot. And I’m not good at it.

I said, You know what, I’ll give you a picture if you give me money for United for Libraries. So, people started doing it! Sometimes I’m able to send $800 a month, sometimes it’s less, it depends how much I’m out on the streets. But I do not take a picture unless you give me a donation for libraries. I don’t care if it’s a quarter. And it’s the best thing in the world, because people are like, “What’s UFL?” You’re telling people about our libraries, and they are seriously underfunded. So, I love doing that.

Goodreads: What are you currently reading, and what are you recommending to your friends?

SJP: Well, a lot of those books are on my Goodreads profile page! Let’s see…On Tyranny, which everyone should read. I’m really excited about Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I haven’t read Pachinko yet, which I’m embarrassed to tell you. I’ve been moving through the Philip Roth canon, which has been mind-bending for me. I just read Swing Time, and I loved it. I also just read Play It as It Lays, which I thought was incredible. It's one of those early Joan Didion books. Absolutely fantastic. Recently, I read for real, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour by J.D. Salinger. I think that was required reading in ninth or tenth grade. It’s one of the most dense books. The first half is more of a narrative, and then the second half is really challenging. You have to really stick with it.

There’s a wonderful book by Lebonese-born journalist Rania Abouzeid, who has been covering Syria for years. She wrote No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria about her experience covering Syria, and it’s really devastating…I just think it’s a really great book. It’s not a pleasant story, but any time we have an opportunity to better understand that conflict and the devastation, I think we’re better for it.

I also want to remind people that A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is incredible.

Goodreads: What would be your definition of success for your literary imprint?

SJP: First of all, for it to be understood, for people to know my intentions. And honestly, to continue to have the same kind of opportunities I’m having with authors. I feel so privileged to be part of this process for the three authors I currently have. I think they’re all really gifted, very special, and important voices. And I mean to do right by them and to be deserving of the role I get to play in their professional lives. To have more of the same would just be a thrill.

I’m not an overly ambitious person in terms of “I want to have a book empire!” I just want to offer to readers, and press into readers’ hands, books that I think are not just important but exciting. Books that make you feel different when you finish them and books you wish you could start all over again for the first time. Books that stay with you.