Senior editor of the New York Times Book Review (and husband of novelist Amy Waldman) Alexander Star will join Farrar, Straus and Giroux as a senior editor on April 2. Before moving to the book review, Star was deputy editor of the NYT Magazine. Earlier in his career he was founding editor of the Boston Globe’s Ideas section and editor of Lingua Franca: The Review of Academic Life.
At Canada’s Douglas & McIntyre, co-founder Scott McIntyre will give up his role as CEO on July 1, though he will remain actively involed and continue as chairman. Current director, operations and publishing services Jesse Finkelstein will move up to chief operating officer, responsible for running the company on a day-to-day basis. (She will also continue to oversee the company’s digital initiatives.) Trena White will be promoted to publisher of D&M, running both the Douglas & McIntyre and Greystone lines.
Founder of Greystone Rob Sanders will lead the development of new business initiatives as svp, new business development, international and publisher-at-large. He will also continue to run the New Society Publishers imprint as publisher. Current Greystone associate publisher Nancy Flight will become associate publisher for both Douglas & McIntyre as well.
At HMH Children’s, Cynthia Platt has joined as editor-at-large; previously she was T. In addtion, Bethany Vinhateiro has been promoted to associate editor, HMH Books, and Anna Meier has joined as editorial assistant, working with HMH Books and Graphia/Sandpiper.
Rik McShane has been promoted to head of books at Waterstone’s, responsible for new title buying, range, publisher liaison and merchandising teams as well as commercial managers at the center and in the regions.
The March 23 memorial service for John Sargent Sr. at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church will be held at 4:00.
Atlas and Company, which has been acquiring and publishing only very modestly, will no longer acquire new books. Company president James Atlas will yet again edit a series of short biographies, this time for Amazon Publishing, called…Amazon Lives. Atlas co-created and edited Penguin Lives from 1999 to 2004, and then he did the same basic thing for HarperCollins under the banner of Eminent Lives. Beginning with twelve titles, the Amazon series is set for publication beginning in June 2013, the NYT says. PW reported the development slightly ahead of the NYT, though they got the story wrong, indicating that Atlas was joining Amazon as an employee, which he specifically denies for the NYT.
As we have reported before from Amazon officials, the company says that they will make the ebook versions available for sale by other retailers who wish to offer them (though Amazon has still not specified how this would work). Major retailers including Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million and Indigo have already indicated they do not intend to carry Amazon Publishing titles in their stores.
Further ratifying that policy, a report from the Anchorage Daily News indicates BN is removing Marshall Cavendish children’s titles from their stores as well. BN chief merchandising officer Jaime Carey reiterates, “Our decision is based on Amazon’s continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent. These exclusives have prohibited us from offering certain eBooks to our customers.” (Amazon announced the deal to acquire the titles in early December, though did not indicate a closing date for the transaction.)
Roddy Doyle, Anna Porter, and Gary Shteyngart will judge the 2012 Giller Prize, whose longlist will be announced on September 4 and the winner on October 30.