Penguin Random House has formed a cross-company audio group in the US. Amanda D’Acierno will run the group as svp, publisher, Penguin Random House Audio, Fodor’s, and Living Language. Patti Pirooz is senior executive producer and Dan Zitt is vp, content production. Madeline McIntosh indicated in a memo: “Our frontlist and backlist audio titles will continue to be sold by the respective Penguin and Random House retail sales reps who currently sell them. The dedicated audio marketing, library sales, and publicity teams of the former Random House Audio Group will extend their activities to support Penguin’s audio list.”
Cookbook author Marcella Hazan, 89, died at home in Florida on Sunday. As the NYT observes, “Even people who have never heard of Marcella Hazan cook and shop differently because of her, and the six cookbooks she wrote, starting in 1973 with The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating.”
Harper UK ceo Charlie Redmayne and Orion ceo David Young are joining the London Book Fair’s advisory board.
In promoting his just-released KILLING JESUS on 60 Minutes, Bill O’Reilly said he is working on his next history book: “It’s a big World War II book with brand-new information about some very, very fascinating things, and we’re writing it now.” But he’s “not tellin'” whether the new work will start with the word killing in the title again.
E-book objector Sherman Alexie will release seven titles from his backlist in ebook form through Open Road in mid-October. He says in a video announcement: “I still have serious issues with the politics and economic philosophies involved in much of the electronic book world but I’m also vitally interested in reaching more of my readers and reaching a younger generation of readers who are more technologically savvy and tech addicted, and in order to reach them I have to do this.”