Amazon and Barnes & Noble both posted their February “books of the month”–and both booksellers agree with the Indie Next list in selecting Herman Koch’s THE DINNER and Karen Russell’s VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE (as long as you have read her splendid SWAMPLANDIA! first). The WSJ also echoes the positioning of Koch’s book as “the European GONE GIRL” today. Additionally, Amazon picks: Wise Men, Stuart Nadler (their “spotlight” selection) Schroder, Amity Gaige After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story, Michael Hainey A History of Future Cities, Daniel Brook Autobiography of Us, Aria Beth Sloss How Literature Saved My Life, […]
Archives for January 2013
People: Harrison Moves Up to Scribner EIC
Recently promoted Scribner publisher Nan Graham announced to staff on Wednesday that senior editor Colin Harrison has been promoted to fill Graham’s previous position of editor-in-chief. She writes: “Some of you may believe Colin already has had a leadership role at Scribner, so authoritative is he, such a mentor and guide, not just to our own staff, but to the many, across all imprints, who have benefited from his wisdom and experience at his Standing Room Only Editing 101 class.” Harrison has been at Scribner for 11 years. Martyn Beeny has joined the University of Nebraska Press as marketing manager, […]
People, Etc.: Mantel Wins Overall Costa Prize
Hilary Mantel won the Costa Book of the Year Prize Tuesday afternoon for BRING UP THE BODIES, making her the first author to win the Booker and Costa for the same book. Judging chair Jenni Murray said the unanimous decision took “less than an hour”, telling the Guardian: “One book simply stood head and shoulders, more than head and shoulders … on stilts, above the rest. We had a really good discussion, like being at a high-powered book club, and I said, ‘OK, let’s have a vote on Bring up the Bodies’ and every hand went up.” Accepting the prize, […]
Amazon’s Slim Profit Gets Smaller Still; Bezos Confirms eBooks A “Multi-Billion Dollar Category”
Amazon reported fourth quarter sales after the close of the market on Tuesday, coming in at the low end of their own sales projections. That means that sales of $21.27 billion, up 22 percent, also fell $1 billion short of analysts’ expectations. The company did show some net income–but it was a slim $97 million or 21 cents per share, again short of investors’ expectations. (Net income is also much lower than the same quarter a year ago, when they earned $177 million.) But operating income rose–at $405 million, 55 percent better than a year ago, and better than the forecast […]
People, Etc.
Juliet Pickering will move to Blake Friedmann in the UK on February 4 as a book agent. She was most recently at AP Watt (now part of United Agents). Pickering’s client list is moving with her. At NetGalley, Stuart Evers has been hired as UK community manager, based in London, and Steve Manes joins the development team. The electronic galley service’s community recently passed 100,000 members. At parent company Firebrand, Steve Rutberg has been hired as director of marketing and sales. He has held positions at WoltersKluwer Health, Taylor & Francis, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Prentice Hall, and McGraw-Hill. Additionally, Annie Johnston […]
S&S Will Publish Salinger “Oral Biography” in September
Simon & Schuster announced it will publish THE PRIVATE WAR OF JD SALINGER, a new “oral biography” co-written by film producer Shane Salerno and David Shields, in September. The project began life as a documentary more than eight years ago (and which Deadline first wrote about in 2010), and the resulting film, which includes interviews with more than 150 subjects, will air in January 2014 on PBS’s American Masters program and appear in limited theatrical release in September. In a press release S&S publisher Jonathan Karp said: “We are honored to be the publisher of what we believe will be […]