Editor Jofie Ferrari-Adler’s latest industry interview session for Poets & Writers is with agents Anna Stein, Jim Rutman, Maria Massie, and Peter Steinberg. Q: Do you guys think the industry is healthy? Just give me a yes or no around the table. STEINBERG: No.MASSIE: No.RUTMAN: I don’t think so.STEIN: No.RUTMAN: But I do wonder if there’s ever been a point when you could get four people to say yes.STEIN: But here’s the silver lining: It’s unhealthy enough that it’s an exciting time. It’s broken enough that publishers and agents and everyone has to change. Everyone has to rethink what they’re […]
Archives for April 2009
People, and Other News Briefs
Joy Dallanegra-Sanger will join Macmillan’s recently-formed Children’s Publising Group in the new position of svp, director of marketing, reporting directly to president Dan Farley. The heads of Advertising/Promo, Consumer/Retail, Educational/Institutional, Internet, and Publicity will all report to Dallanegra-Sanger. Most recently, she was vp, director of field sales at Random House Children’s. Penguin Group keeps hiring editors who were laid off by other houses, as Plume announces that former longtime Simon & Schuster editor Denise Roy starts there this week as senior editor. She will also acquire hardcovers for Dutton and Hudson Street Press. Steven Sussman has joined Dover as director […]
Small Press Highlights
Author Naren Aryal and illustrator by Danny Moore were already at work on a picture book about the First Dog and now that the Obama family has made their selection, with a few adjustments BO: America’s Commander in Leash will be released by Virginia publisher Mascot Books on April 23. Separately, in the Daily Beast Sara Nelson looks at initial success for survivalist John Wesley, Rawles’ previously-self-published novel PATRIOTS from Ulysses Press. (Nielsen Bookscan is said to show sales of over 1,500 units in the first three weeks.) A longtime editor at Defense Electronics magazine, Rawles is now represented by […]
Announcements: Amazon Contest; Self-Publishing Convention; Free Pre-Pub eBook
* Amazon and Penguin have selected the 100 semifinalists in the second Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Now Penguin editors get to browse those manuscripts and select three finalists, to be named May 15. * For those who remain self-publishing, trade publishing veteran Karen Mender and longtime book publicist Diane Mancher at One Potata Productions are launching a Self-Published Book Expo, a one-day show in New York on November 7. It will highlight service companies along with individual titles, and offer advice on marketing and publicity. * Media veteran Thembisa S. Mshaka’s PUT YOUR DREAMS FIRST: Handle Your [entertainment] Business, […]
Howe Wins Rich Poetry Prize
Fanny Howe, 68, has been awarded the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, worth $100,000, given to a “living US poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.” Her poetry collections include Gone (University of California Press, 2003), Selected Poems (UC Press, 2000), On the Ground (Graywolf Press, 2004), and The Lyrics (Graywolf, 2007). She has also written 5 novels and two collections of essays. In other people news, Ron Charles has been promoted to deputy editor of the Washington Post’s Book World. Via Twitter yesterday he reported that the American Academy of Arts and Letters is giving their Academy Awards in […]
More RBI Layoffs Hit Publishing Group
First noted last night in brief Twitter reports, Reed Business Information group publisher for the publishing magazines Ron Shank confirms that his publications are “included in the larger RBI action of reducing staff today.” Calling it “stressful and unfortunate,” Shank says “we are losing three staff editors, all of whom have made valuable contributions to the business over many years. Their duties will be assumed by existing staff and we will not cut market coverage in any category.” He notes, “We continue to find new business and partnerships with many clients, but also see measured belt-tightening by advertisers and delays […]