What’s the scoop on pub­lish­ing? What Jew­ish books are agents, edi­tors, and pub­lish­ers look­ing to acquire — and which books are they espe­cial­ly excit­ed for us to read? At JBC, we’ve launched a new series, Book­Watch, to answer these fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions. Each month, a pub­lish­ing insid­er will write an email to intro­duce them­selves, give us a behind-the-scenes look at their work, and tell us about forth­com­ing Jew­ish books they can’t wait to ush­er into the world.

This piece orig­i­nal­ly appeared in a JBC email on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 27. Sign up here for our emails to be one of the first to know the lat­est Jew­ish lit­er­ary news! 

Hi, JBC friends!

I’m Zib­by Owens. In addi­tion to being a Jew­ish mom (and daugh­ter), I am the host of the pod­cast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books and the own­er of Zibby’s Book­shop, an indie book­store in San­ta Mon­i­ca, CA. I’m also the CEO of Zib­by Books, a bou­tique pub­lish­ing house focused on fic­tion and mem­oir that pub­lish­es one book a month and hosts retreats. And I’m the author/​editor of sev­en books, includ­ing the best­selling nov­el Blank, the mem­oir Book­ends: A Mem­oir of Love, Loss, and Lit­er­a­ture, the children’s book Princess Charm­ing, three antholo­gies, and the forth­com­ing nov­el Over­heard. (My pro­tag­o­nists are also Jew­ish. Pippa’s dog was named Dayenu!) Zib­by Media is def­i­nite­ly the place for book lovers. 

I love the unique per­spec­tive I have on the entire indus­try: I get pitched books con­stant­ly, I pitch books myself, and I acquire, write, and con­duct inter­views. But most­ly, I just love read­ing, and am indebt­ed to authors for the joy and feel­ing they’ve brought me. 

One of my upcom­ing projects blends every­thing: On Being Jew­ish Now: Reflec­tions from Authors and Advo­cates, is a book I envi­sioned, edit­ed, con­tributed to, nar­rat­ed part of the audio­book, and then pub­lished. It’s com­ing out on Octo­ber 1st in e‑book and audio­book and on Novem­ber 1st in trade paper­back. Sev­en­ty-five con­trib­u­tors wrote beau­ti­ful, heart­felt essays about what it means — and how it feels — to be Jew­ish post – Octo­ber 7th. We’ll be donat­ing all prof­its to Artists Against Anti­semitism, which was found­ed by Alli­son Ham­mer and a team of authors, includ­ing me. Authors write about feel­ing a renewed com­mit­ment to Judaism, food, fam­i­ly, and so much more. I can’t read an essay with­out cry­ing. Even though many are quite fun­ny! (Think Amy Ephron or Jen­ny Mollen, and more.) Please con­sid­er read­ing or lis­ten­ing to it, and giv­ing it as a gift. It is the balm we all need right now. 

On my pod­cast, I’ve had hun­dreds of Jew­ish authors on as guests, from Mitch Albom and Talia Carn­er to Dani Shapiro and Natal­ie Port­man. And in the book­store, we’re host­ing a kick­off event on Novem­ber 3rd for all the con­trib­u­tors from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. Please come! 

On my Sub­stack and Insta­gram accounts, I write reg­u­lar­ly about what it means to be Jew­ish now. What does it mean to you? Share your own essays on our new plat­form.

Warm­ly,

Zib­by