Larry Kirshbaum — American Businessman

Laurence "Larry" Kirshbaum is chief of publishing for Amazon Publishing. He was formerly CEO of the Time Warner Book Group... (wikipedia)

I'm sure in a lot of publishing houses that there is a frustration that people feel, that they're not in control, that they are puppets and the corporate bosses are manipulating the strings.
I'd only been in the business three or four years, but I told myself that someday I'd like to be Mort Janklow.
If the books are selling, the money will follow.
A nonfiction author has to bring a platform with him - radio, a TV show or some kind of recognizable vehicle to help launch them. And the agent is really necessary to represent all of the business interests of the author.