At Rodale Books, Julie Will has been promoted to executive editor. He projects include having overseen their Biggest Loser books. Columbia University Press has hired Richard Gehringer as cfo. He spent over two decades at Oxford University Press, rising to svp and cfo, and more recently he has been Controller for The New York Foundation for the Arts. Publishing Technology has hired Martin Borbone and Anna Lister Cheese for their client management team, in the US and UK respectively. Liaquat Ahamed‘s LORDS OF FINANCE: 1929, The Great Depression, and the Bankers Who Broke the World won the Financial Times and […]
Archives for October 2009
Convicted Former NBA Ref's Book Cancelled Just Before Publication
Random House’s Triumph Books imprint cancelled published for former NBA referee Tim Donaghy’s tell-all book BLOWING THE WHISTLE: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA, scheduled for November publication. Promotional copy indicated that Donaghy “was at the center of a mafia-run gambling scheme wherein he used his on-court authority to manipulate the score or even the outcome of games, including play-off contests.” He pled guilty to Federal charges and “in this confessional memoir, Donaghy details how he became involved with the mob, specifies his methods for controlling the score of a game, and claims that league officials routinely use deceitful […]
The Year Is Over, As PW Names their 10 Best of 2009
It’s an idiosyncratic list, including two NBA nominees: NonfictionThe Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, by Richard HolmesCheever: A Life, by Blake BaileyA Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon, by Neil SheehanStitches: A Memoir, by David Small Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew CrawfordThe Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann FictionAwait Your Reply, by Dan ChaonBig Machine, by Victor LaValleJeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, by Geoff DyerIn Other Rooms, Other Wonders, by Daniyal Mueenuddin USAT
People, Awards and More
Andrews McMeel has hired Linda Jones as svp of their calendar and greeting cardand Accord Publishing divisions, reporting to ceo Hugh Andrews. Jones had been svp of merchandising at Borders, overseeing children’s books and toys, newsstands, games, calendars, music and movies. Veronica Wasserman joins Abrams Children’s and Amulet Books as license and brand Manager. Previously she worked in the licensing department at Penguin Children’s, for Grosset & Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan. Bloomsbury has hired Patti Ratchford as creative director for their adult line, starting in November. She has had a distinguished freelance career over the past ten years after […]
Royalty Revisionism: New Macmillan Contracts Looks to Change eRoyalties and More
Macmillan ceo John Sargent wrote to agents earlier this week to present for the first time a new standardized boilerplate contract across all of the trade publisher’s imprints and divisions that the company intends to introduce as of November 9, featuring a number of comprehensive changes in their basic business terms. The goal, he writes, is “to facilitate a more efficient contracting process, for ourselves as well as for our authors and their agents, and to make sure our author agreements reflect current business realities.” One notable effect, as agent Richard Curtis underscores on his blog, is a proposed new […]
Short Stories
Two forthcoming books make the gossip columns. Andrew Morton’s book on Angelina Jolie alleges that she slept with her mom’s boyfriend when she was 16. And pre-release excerpts from Andre Agassi’s book indicate he says he “unwittingly” took crystal meth once in 1997 when he drank from a soda that his assistant had spiked with the substance (and lied to tennis authorities about it). In the face of speculation that an extension of the sale option granted to Lonely Planet founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler on their remaining 25 percent stake in the publisher means the BBC is preparing to […]