As we anticipated last week in our mini round-up, Amazon has now issued their list of the 20 best books of 2018 so far, along with a package of selections across 12 categories. Eight of our nine guesses appear on the Amazon — they dropped the Sedaris — but their list only adds two other titles…
People, Etc.: Cheiffetz Starts Atria Imprint, MIT Clears Diaz to Teach
Julia Cheiffetz joins the Atria Publishing Group today as vice president and publisher of a yet-to-be-named imprint, effective today. She reports to new group publisher Libby McGuire, The imprint “will draw on [her] unique strengths as an editor and her passion for publishing books that address issues of social import.” She has been executive editor at…
PRH Sells Smashing Ideas
Penguin Random House has sold the Seattle-based company Smashing Ideas, which they bought seven years ago (the first acquisition under Markus Dohle, prior to the merger with Penguin). The unit, which provides “consults across the product design and development lifecycle,” was sold to IT service provider Luxoft, for undisclosed terms. PRH US president, director of strategic…
People, Etc.
Matt Schweitzer has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as svp, marketing, responsible for the marketing of all adult, young reader and lifestyle titles. He was most recently senior director, integrated marketing at Harper Children’s. Following operational changes and layoffs at independent audiobook publisher Novel Audio on June 8, director of publishing Michelle Kaatz and acquisitions editor Katie…
Best Books of the Year So Far, So Far
It’s time for the first round of picks of some of 2018’s best books from the first five or six months of the year — in advance of Amazon’s “best so far” package across multiple categories, due later this month. Looking across the lists from iBooks, EW, Christian Lorentzen at Vulture, and Time (including nonfiction), Lisa Halliday’s…
More Deals Improvements
As part of our continuing work on revamping the deals submission form, thanks to user feedback we have now launched a separate, dedicated reporting form for translation rights sales. The new form lets you report anywhere from 1 to 6 territory sales in a single report (and for more, just fill out a second form)….