• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

People, Etc.

January 22, 2012
By Michael Cader

Laurie Chittenden has joined Hyperion an editor-at-large, where she will will focus on acquiring a mix of commercial nonfiction and fiction book projects. She spent the past five years at William Morrow as executive editor, and returns to the publishing house where she began her career in 1993.

Steve Kasdin has joined Curtis Brown as director of digital strategy, to “supervise their e-book program” and help “coordinate their dealings with publishers and etailers.” Kasdin was at Amazon on the Kindle team before relocating back to the East Coast.

Meanwhile, the Jean Naggar Literary Agency has posted an open invitation to act as sub-agent for others in selling fully reverted or reserved backlist to digital publishers–even though that seems like a core activity that most agents would be unlikely to relinquish. Agent Jennifer Weltz tells us she has “discovered that for many younger agencies (than ours) who have just a few titles whose rights have reverted and merit reprint, the labor and learning curve involved in exploring a whole new group of publishers is not cost effective to them nor does it serve their clients for their time to be spent in this endeavor.” She says they are “in talks with a number of agencies who have expressed interest.”

At Random House Children’s, Nora MacDonald has been promoted to marketing coordinator.

Over the weekend the story surrounding Salman Rushdie‘s withdrawal from the Jaipur Literary Festival in India took a number of strange turns. Rushdie had said Friday that he had called off his visit on the advice of government officials, who had received information “that hired killers from the Mumbai underworld had been set after him in order to eliminate him during his visit.” The Hindu reported Sunday that “the two purported Mumbai-based assassins cited in the security threat were unknown to the city police,” and that the threat may have been fabricated. On his Twitter feed Rushdie said he had “investigated the matter” and indicated he “believed I was indeed lied to.”

In the wake of Rushdie’s cancellation, four writers, including Amitava Kumar and Hari Kunzru, read excerpts of Rushdie’s novel THE SATANIC VERSES, which is banned in India. As a result the four writers were instructed to leave the festival–and India–for “legal and security reasons.” Writing on his website (and reposted by the Guardian) Kunzru explained : “We wanted to demystify the book. It is, after all, just a book. Not a bomb. Not a knife or a gun. Just a book.”

Court documents indicate that Martha Grimes‘ breach of contract lawsuit against Penguin, filed last August, was settled earlier this month. On January 9 Magistrate judge Frank Maas issued an order of discontinuance “with prejudice and without costs,” but Grimes’ counsel can apply to the court within 30 days to restore the complaint should that be deemed necessary.

Filed Under: Authors, Free, Legal, Personnel

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • NYU Launches Five-Day "Advanced Publishing Institute" Program for January 2024 March 25, 2023 NYU site
  • Hachette UK to Publish "Spare Us!" Parody on April 6 March 23, 2023 Publisher site
  • Netflix to Stream Series Based on Ramit Sethi's Book, "How to Get Rich" March 23, 2023 THR
  • James Patterson Signs First-Look Development Deal with Skydance Television March 22, 2023 Deadline
  • "I find it kind of stunning that the [Internet] Archive would put its entire free service at risk over such an obviously wrong stand" March 21, 2023 Dan Kennedy / Media Nation
  • Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo Is Being Adapated Into a TV Series by A24 March 21, 2023 Deadline
  • Reid Hoffman Posts a Free eBook About His Experiences with ChaptGPT-4 March 16, 2023 Free PDF
  • Siri Hustvedt Reveals that Paul Auster Is Receiving Cancer Treatment at Sloan Kettering March 14, 2023 Instagram post
  • John Jakes Dies at 90 March 14, 2023 NYT
  • Barnes & Noble Children's Awards Shortlists March 13, 2023 BN
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.