Sarah Pelz will join Grand Central Life & Style on January 13 as executive editor. Previously she was executive editor at Rodale.
Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos was airlifted out of the Galapagos by Ecuador’s navy on New Year’s Day after suffering from a kidney stone, and returned to the US on his jet for treatment. A matter of material interest to shareholders, Bezos commented in an email provided to media by spokesman Drew Herdener, “Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero stars.” Herdener added, “He got a good outcome. No surgery was required, and he’s feeling well.”
Skyhorse’s newest imprint is Yucca Publishing, which will publish authors “with intent, literary strength, and fresh, new visions” in partnership with literary agency and book packager International Transactions. Agency president Peter Riva will serve as Yucca’s executive editor, and the imprint will launch its first list of 20 titles in fall 2014.
WestBow Press, Thomas Nelson’s self-publishing brand that is powered by Author Solutions, will expand to include Zondervan (as both are now part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing.) Director of publisher services and manager of WestBow Press for Harper Pete Nikolai said in the announcement: “By expanding WestBow Press to support Zondervan in addition to Thomas Nelson, we are able to provide the WestBow authors with even more opportunities to be acquired by traditional publishers. We regularly suggest top WestBow Press titles to the acquisition teams at Thomas Nelson and will now do the same for the teams at Zondervan.”
Kevin Kelly‘s self-published print book Cool Tools has done well: The first printing of 10,000 copies sold out immediately, a second printing of 12,000 units goes on sale next week, and a third printing of 20,000 copies is in process. We’re not sure one should draw any grander conclusions (except for wondering why the NYT suggests it will only be restocked by Amazon).
Reader’s Digest’s adult trade publishing unit has appointed Biagi Rights Management as their international subsidiary rights licensing agent for authored books.
KF Literary Scouting has been appointed US scout for Il Saggiatore and ISBN Edizioni in Italy and Editions Kero in France.