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jamteayang.bsky.social
J Yang 🍊📚🐱
@jamteayang.bsky.social
2.3K followers 300 following 270 posts
book person?? 😮‍💨 speculative fiction writer with a taste for scallion pancakes 🌿 FUCK AI 💪 views are my own, so no funny business
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jamteayang.bsky.social
A final update from Quirk Books Union ✊💔 Devastated that, in the three months since we unionized, management never met the union at the bargaining table -- and now the remaining four union members have all been laid off.
On October 1st, Quirk Books became an imprint of Andrews McMeel Publishing, and as a result, the positions of all the remaining union members have been eliminated. We were scheduled to begin bargaining our contract on October 2nd. We're dismayed that this has happened-we truly love the work we have done and the books we have helped create at Quirk, and the union was our effort to ensure that those books could continue being made sustainably and well. Given the acquisition of the company and the layoffs, Quirk Books Union will no longer exist. Despite how this is ending, we greatly value the experiences we've had and the knowledge we've gained through the unionization process. To anyone else thinking of unionizing: Please don't get discouraged! As we've learned, it's a hard fight that doesn't always end well, but we believe that unionization efforts will only serve to make publishing and labor better for all. If you're interested in unionizing, check out the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) @organizeworkers for resources and support! Thank you all for your support and solidarity! It's meant a lot to every one of us who has been part of this unionization process
November 9, 2025 at 7:38 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Cozy day in reading Ravishing by @eshanisurya.bsky.social ☕ Put it on your TBR for a gorgeously written novel about identity, the beauty industry, chronic illness, and trauma.
A copy of Ravishing on a throw blanket beside a curled up cat
November 9, 2025 at 4:49 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
i hate it here 🫩
AI is key to unlock writer’s creativity, Bloomsbury chief asserts Artificial intelligence is viable in beating writer’s block and sparking creativity By The News Digital / October 27, 2025
October 29, 2025 at 3:38 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
pro-labor gamechanger fans, wya
Screenshot from Gamechanger with Sam Reich saying "Congratulations, players, you've unionized." On the screen behind him is a colorful graphic that says "Congratulations! you've unionized" in stylized font
October 11, 2025 at 4:03 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
friend who i was in a union with for a hot second (🥲♥️) mailed me a gamechanger magnet and i love it
Orange tabby cat covering her little face while modeling a magnet that reads "congratulations! you've unionized"
October 11, 2025 at 4:03 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Unclear how the Quirk Books imprint under Andrews McMeel proposes to publish 20-25 books per year when every acquiring editor resigned or was laid off over the summer, shortly after unionizing.
Andrews McMeel Acquires Quirk Books By Jim Milliot | Oct 07, 2025 In an agreement with Quirk Productions, Inc., Andrews McMeel Universal has acquired all of Quirk Books' titles and IP. Under the deal, Quirk has become an imprint of Andrews McMeel Publishing, and as of October 1, AMP has assumed publication of all of Quirk's frontlist and backlist titles. Quirk founder and publisher Dave Borgenicht has been named publisher of the Quirk Books imprint at AMP, reporting to AMU president and CEO Kirsty Melville. Sales and distribution of all Quirk titles remain with Penguin Random House Publisher Services. AMP expects to publish 20 to 25 titles annually under the Quirk imprint.
October 9, 2025 at 4:39 AM
jamteayang.bsky.social
ok but like genuinely, we cooked here
Two editors posed like communist lovers, holding aloft a copy of the picture book My Cabbages
October 8, 2025 at 2:32 AM
jamteayang.bsky.social
s-tier cat
orange tabby in the sun looking mad as hell
October 7, 2025 at 2:40 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
please enjoy this relic of the 90s i found in a drawer: a pokemon watch with a flip cover that i'd pasted a picture of my guinea pig on
a faded pokemon watch featuring ash ketchum and a pokeball on the band. the watch cover has a picture of a beige guinea pig pasted on it
September 24, 2025 at 11:36 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
ICYMI, the cover reveal for @jesserbest.bsky.social's next book, You Pierce My Soul, is here! This upcoming sapphic dystopian YA looks gorgeous, thanks to illustrator @klimtsonian.bsky.social + designer Elissa ✨🌈

Revealed by audiobook legend Natalie Naudus on IG 🔗 www.instagram.com/p/DOv2tByDbU...
Book cover titled You Pierce My Soul by Jessica Mary Best, featuring two teen girls looking at each other longingly over their shoulders. They're in a futuristic greenhouse
September 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
he's just a little guy
Picture of a very small tortoise eating a hibiscus flower
September 11, 2025 at 1:01 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
In honor of #SapphicSeptember, I present for your consideration: Stars, Hide Your Fires by Jessica Mary Best, a sci-fi YA which I would pitch as "queer Knives Out in space" and is just delightful ✨🌈

Check it out here 🔗 bookshop.org/p/books/star...
Book titled Stars, Hide Your Fires on a light green bedspread. The cover shows two teen girls looking yearningly at each other in the reflection of two knives framing a pool of blood
September 5, 2025 at 7:06 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Anyway, this bit made me lol. Very thankful to my manager (who also got laid off 🥲) and folks in the Philly publishing community who were supportive of our unionizing.

But I, too, am petty, and def took note of who in the industry fell on the anti-labor side of things.

lithub.com/a-series-of-...
"Then, for the first time in ages, the union at HarperCollins began bargaining for a better contract. Even better, many HarperCollins employees who were too high-level to join the union also vocally supported the effort. (But not all; I'm a petty bitch, so I absolutely took note of all the scuttlebutt about holdouts.)"
September 3, 2025 at 9:00 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
I've been laid off (anyone hiring a children's book editor? lol 🥲) but I'm cheering for my colleagues still in the union, plus our Quirk authors and books.

Hope you'll show them your support too ♥️
Many of you have asked how you can support us! Thank you so much for asking and for all your encouragement so far. - For workers who have been laid off: If you know of any job openings, we have a number of passionate and talented publishing workers available for hire. Please keep them in mind! - For the union: Please follow this account and share our updates! In addition, please show your love for the books we have had the privilege to work on, and the authors we have loved collaborating with. All of us, current union members and workers who were laid off, are rooting for the success of our authors and our books.
July 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
ICYMI 👇 The latest from Quirk Books Union on IG
AN UPDATE FROM QUIRK BOOKS UNION On June 19th, Quirk Books Union was voluntarily recognized, thanks to our enthusiastic supermajority support among eligible workers. The following week, seven of our union members were laid off, including all full-time non-supervisory employees in the Sales, Marketing, and Publicity department and our two remaining acquiring editors. We're devastated by this recent development, but it hasn't weakened our resolve. We look forward to meeting management at the bargaining table.
July 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Here's a few Quirk books out in August! Please show them some love (preorder, request from the library, etc) 💓

🐝 www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789598...

🐸 www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789602...

🐱 www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/779681...

🐣 www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/767109...
I'm Just a Little Guy by Charlie James, illustrated by Paige Tompkins (cover features a frog lounging lackadaisically) Zoomi & Zoe and the Sibling Situation by Corey Ann Haydu, illustrated by Anne Appert (cover features a kid holding an imaginary friend baby while an older imaginary friend looks furious that this baby interloper is here) Cat's First Halloween by Natalie Nelson (cover features a cat wearing bat wings and a super adorable baby) This is My Body by Lindsay King-Miller (cover features cool typography with a rosary looped around it and colorful wasps. The cover is a deep red-orange.)
July 3, 2025 at 8:21 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Want to support Quirk Books Union? Follow and boost our account (@ QuirkBooksUnion on IG), and support our Quirk authors! 🔗 www.instagram.com/quirkbooksun...

Thank you so much for caring 🥲♥️
"but we need the audience to follow the account" meme
July 3, 2025 at 8:21 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Some personal news: As of Monday, I am no longer a kidlit editor at Quirk Books. I was laid off last week along with the other acquiring editor and every full-time union member on the Sales, Marketing, & Publicity team.

Here's me on my last day with ~60% of the books I had the privilege to work on:
A kidlit editor holding a teetering stack of children's books (plus two adult books) and wearing a Newsguild union t-shirt
July 3, 2025 at 7:39 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
my summer so far, without context
Achewood comic: "Hey guys! Guess who just got... 🎶 yellllled aaaat! 🎶 Epic handshake meme with two hands gripped in solidarity (chuckles) i'm in danger meme Man in a hot dog costume "we're all trying to find the guy who did this" (he is the guy who did this)
July 2, 2025 at 12:13 AM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Keep thinking of this handsome fellow 💓
Large bullfrog looking satisfied and damp
June 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
I have an approximate knowledge of many anime shows but have in fact watched very few 🥲🥲🥲

anime-sedai.egoist.dev
Large chart of animes listed by year, and the ones you've watched highlighted in green
June 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Happy book bday to Alice Chen's Reality Check by Kara Loo and Jennifer Young! 🥳

Want a thrilling beach read? Love reality tv? Into rivals-to-lovers and genreblending romcoms? Get into it!

📚 bookshop.org/p/books/alic...
Romance novel Alice Chen's Reality Check with haw flakes next to the colorful cover depicting two Asian American love interests looking flirty
June 3, 2025 at 4:33 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
We're manifesting a hot labor summer for publishing 🌞 If you're on IG, you can follow along @ QuirkBooksUnion ✨
Two arms with clasped hands. One arm has text that reads ME, the other arm reads MY COWORKERS and the clasped hands reads UNIONIZING FOR A HOT LABOR SUMMER IN PUBLISHING
May 24, 2025 at 7:04 PM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Me and a couple of coworkers made matching "fuck AI" friendship bracelets and I think that's beautiful 🥰
My hand holding a green Quirk Books Union sticker. On my wrist are two friendship bracelets, one of which says "eat the rich" and the other says "fuck AI"
May 24, 2025 at 2:42 AM
jamteayang.bsky.social
Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus is out today! 🥳🌈

As a queer Taiwanese American, this book means so much to me, and I hope you'll give it a read. (The sign in this photo is the sign I was given at a rally when gay marriage was legalized in Taiwan in 2019 💖)
Sunlit photo of the book Gay the Pray Away on top of a sign with a rainbow and Chinese words reading ("union does not equal marriage, we don't want one country with two systems!") The book shows two teen girls holding hands against a sunset.
May 20, 2025 at 6:49 PM