Aleen Kuperman is co-founder and CEO at Betches Media. The company has grown from a blog created in a dorm room at Cornell in 2011 to a sprawling media network including nine podcasts, New York Times-bestselling books and millions of Instagram followers. In this episode of the “Ad Block” podcast, Kuperman talks about growing up as the child of Russian immigrants who escaped the Soviet Union in 1988, a year before the Berlin Wall fell. In particular, it was a struggle to explicate what “Betches” was to her parents, who had always had high expectations for her future. “I had to explain to my parents, ‘I’m not going to medical school next year,’” she says. “I was terrified to have that conversation. They were like, ‘What’s a blog? How are you making money? What are you talking about?’” As with many new media startups, the business model evolved quickly, and as soon as she had gotten her parents on board, things would change. “They had just figured out Facebook, now they have to go learn Instagram,” Kuperman says. Tangible successes helped, like the book deal the team landed while still in college. “To my parents, that’s legit. A book, they understand.” Kuperman grew up hearing the stories of the family’s journey out of Russia, living in Vienna and Italy off the personal possessions they could sell before eventually being allowed into the U.S. and settling on Long Island. “Only now, I think back to all the things they instilled,” like her strong work ethic, she says. “It... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'
[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-18 09:01:00 UTC ]
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers involved in the fatal shooting, has a book deal with a small press, but its distributor, Simon & Schuster, in an unusual move, said it won’t ship it. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-16 22:14:05 UTC ]
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Days before Republican John Boehner releases his party-pounding book from Macmillan, Trump's vice-president gets a book deal of his own. The post Simon & Schuster Signs Two-Book Deal With Mike Pence appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-04-08 16:52:35 UTC ]
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I started querying agents for my memoir, Negative Space, in 2012, after two years of writing and revising. I got a few rounds of passes, including several friendly rejections in which agents said they just didn’t “know how to sell” my book. I heard this refrain enough times that I started... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Perhaps it’s not surprising that even the prose in illustrator Forsyth Harmon’s debut novel Justine is deeply imagistic. Reading this short, powerful story feels like wandering through a museum exhibit about teenage girlhood on Long Island in the summer of 1999. Narrator Ali and her friends feed... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-02 12:00:00 UTC ]
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TV presenter and author Paul O'Grady has signed a “major” multi-book deal with HarperCollins for his debut children’s novel, Eddie Albert and the Amazing Animal Gang, the first in a planned series. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-17 19:53:37 UTC ]
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Viking has snared a “definitive” history of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union, from broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-17 07:17:20 UTC ]
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The editor behind the 1997 revision of 'The Joy of Cooking' and many other influential cookbooks, as well as works of nonfiction and literature, died on Saturday on Long Island. She was 79. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Presidents typically continue to receive intelligence briefings after they leave office, but some officials say that’s not a good idea in Trump’s case. It’s hard to transition from one day knowing the world’s intelligence secrets to the next day being all alone in America, pocketing $400,000... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2021-01-20 08:10:04 UTC ]
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Sarah Ferguson says historical tale Her Heart for a Compass is inspired by experiences in her own lifeThe Duchess of York has landed a book deal with the romantic fiction publisher Mills & Boon, revealing that she “drew on many parallels from my life” for the historical tale.Sarah... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-01-13 10:13:08 UTC ]
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On Wednesday afternoon, a mob of right-wing extremists and indignant livestreamers stormed the Capitol. Along their path, they left a note to the journalists who were covering the scene, a message that seemed a harrowing extension of a presidency marked by anti-press virulence: etched into a... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-01-08 13:30:11 UTC ]
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A book deal and new job at Netflix makes Bozoma Saint John a marketer to watch. Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2020-12-28 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Avon Books has acquired world all language rights (including dramatic) to The Family Tree and one other thriller by authors Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-26 18:36:13 UTC ]
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In “The Lenin Plot” Barnes Carr tells the mostly unknown story of America’s intervention in the earliest days of the Soviet Union. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-10-06 09:00:10 UTC ]
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Take a tour of an independent bookstore and community hub, Book Revue, the largest independent bookstore on Long Island. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-23 10:38:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster is to publish a political memoir by Jess Phillips, secured in a two book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-11 10:32:36 UTC ]
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This is definitely a clickbait title because I don’t really know the answer. In contemplating Nadim Shamma-Sourgen’s recently announced book deal with Walker Books (who will publish a collection of his “astonishing” poetry next summer) I have spent the last 15 minutes of my life cycling through... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-22 15:38:53 UTC ]
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Nadim Shamma-Sourgen’s words, evoking a ‘whole world full of hugs’, were spotted by the writer Kate Clanchy and will be published next summerKeats’s first book of poetry was published when he was 21; Mary Shelley was 18 when she started writing Frankenstein. But both of their youthful... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-22 11:17:39 UTC ]
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Model and activist signs six-figure contract to publish Transitional, ‘a manifesto for how I see society changing for the better, bringing us all closer’The first book by Munroe Bergdorf, a manifesto on gender by the black transgender activist and model, has been bought for a six-figure sum... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-17 05:01:06 UTC ]
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In a seismic shift on Long Island’s East End, Ron Perelman-owned weekly The Independent will end its print edition after Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2020-06-10 18:45:20 UTC ]
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