Founder of Roaring Brook Press, and svp and publishing director of that imprint along with FSG Children’s and First Second Simon Boughton is leaving Macmillan Children’s after 13 years with the company. President and publisher of Putnam Children’s Jennifer Besser will take over the same position at Macmillan Children’s on October 30. President of Deseret…
France’s La Martiniere and Media-Participations In Merger Talks
French book publisher La Martiniere Group (which also owns Abrams in the US) and French media company Media-Participations (which specializes in comics and graphic novels, but also publishes magazines, has a film/tv production arm, and a digital media group focused on videogames) announced Thursday that they are in merger discussions. Both companies are privately owned. Herve de…
Scholastic Returns to Normal Sales, with Higher Loss
Scholastic reported fiscal first quarter sales through August 31, returning to a normal quarter after last year’s boost from the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Sales were $189 million — down from $283 million a year ago, but close to the $191 million in the same quarter two years ago. The company…
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Annie Proulx will receive the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the awards ceremony on November 15, honored “for her exceptional work and significant impact on American literature.” Actor Anne Hathaway (who starred in the film adaptation of Brokeback Mountain) will present the award. Proulx tells the AP, “I was astonished…
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Byrd Leavell has moved to UTA. Waxman Leavell Literary Agency will revert to its original name, Waxman Literary Agency. Azia Cheng has been promoted to ceo of Penguin Random House North Asia, reporting to Markus Dohle, effective immediately. She has been sales director there since 2008 and succeeds Helen Duan, who departed last month. The…
Sales Starts: Clinton Tops a Big Week for New Titles
A wave of big books landed last Tuesday, with Hillary Clinton’s What Happened registering the biggest opening week, topping Bookscan’s chart with just under 168,000 print copies sold across the outlets they track — which publisher Simon & Schuster notes is “the biggest first week sales recorded by any author for a hardcover nonfiction title…