Douglas Preston’s Authors United is taking their complaints over Amazon’s negotiation tactics with Hachette to the etailer’s board of directors, which accomplishes the primary goal of putting authors’ objections back in the headlines. The new letter notes:
“Russell Grandinetti of Amazon has stated that the company was ‘forced to take this step because Hachette refused to come to the table.’ He has also claimed that ‘authors are the only leverage we have.’ …Amazon was not ‘forced’ to do anything. This is an obvious fact. We all have choices. Amazon chose to involve 2,500 Hachette authors and their books. It could end these sanctions tomorrow while continuing to negotiate. Amazon is undermining the ability of authors to support their families, pay their mortgages, and provide for their kids’ college educations. We’d like to emphasize that most of us are not Hachette authors, and our concern is founded on principle, rather than self-interest. We find it hard to believe that all members of the Amazon board approve of these actions. We would like to ask you a question: Do you as an Amazon director approve of this policy of sanctioning books?”
HarperCollins has promoted Eloy Sasot to global director of pricing and analytics, leading the global pricing team that is now comprised of three interdependent sections: a global data science team, led by Marco Grimaldi; a network of pricing integration leaders, one for each key HarperCollins division or market; and a global team dedicated to pricing-related data collection and reporting, led by Skye Stein.
At Running Press Kids, Lisa Cheng has been promoted to senior editor.
Caroline Bleeke has joined Flatiron Books as associate editor. Previously she was an editorial assistant at Knopf. In addition, James Melia has joined as assistant editor. Previously he was an editorial assistant at Doubleday.
Mandy Major has joined the Crown Community Development team this week as editorial director for TasteBook.com, reporting to Kate Rados. She was online editor for emerging brands at Scripps Networks Interactive, focusing on Food.com.
Laura Mancuso has joined Little Pickle Press as vp, marketing. Previously she was special markets sales manager at Lonely Planet.
Kat Meyer has joined Publishers Weekly’s parent company PWxyz as director, events and community engagement. Meyer, who is relocating to the East Coast, was previously conference chair for O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change and the Frankfurt Book Fair’s CONTEC Frankfurt.
At Hachette Australia, Robert Watkins has been promoted to non-fiction publisher.