The UK’s Pushkin Press has hired Tabitha Pelly as publicist, starting July 1. She has worked with them on some previous campaigns on a freelance basis.
Edward Hanus has joined LID Publishing as business development manager.
In book news, Viking has announced a publication date for Sue Monk Kidd’s new novel, THE INVENTION OF WINGS: January 7, 2014. It’s about the parallel lives of 19th century Charleston slave Hetty “Handful” Grimke and the girl for whom she serves as a handmaid, Sarah Grimke, a real-life historical figure who became a feminist and abolitionist.
Revelations about domestic surveillance have spurred interest in George Orwell’s classic 1984. We’re always reluctant to cite changes in online sales rank since as meaningful evidence of sales changes, but BN marketing vp Patricia Bostelman confirms to Bloomberg that they have had “asignificant spike in sales recently as government surveillance and Orwell have been paired in the news.”
Also receiving at least some renewed demand (afer a June 6 Charlie Rose show appearance) is MacKenzie Bezos‘s novel TRAPS, published by Knopf in March. As the WSJ noted, the unspecified interest left Amazon.com needed a day or two to ship the book. What they don’t note is that the book had recorded only three-figure sales in its three months on sale, likely leaving very little stock in the pipeline. A spokeswoman said they were “in the process of re-distributing inventory across our fulfillment network to meet customer demand.”