The new LibraryReads initiative has announced their third monthly list of librarian favorites for November. Their No 1. pick is Diane Setterfield’s new novel, which also appears on the November IndieNext list (as do three other titles.) The full list: Diane Setterfield, Bellman & Black Julia Spencer-Fleming, Through the Evil Days Pat Conroy, The Death of Santini Joshilyn Jackson, Someone Else’s Love Story Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement James Whitfield Thompson, Lies You Wanted to Hear P.S. Duffy, The Cartographer of No Man’s Land Barry Maitland, The Raven’s Eye Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis, Death of a Nightingale Mira […]
Archives for October 2013
Brad Stone’s Theory of Everything Jeff Bezos
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Brad Stone‘s THE EVERYTHING STORE is excerpted on the cover of his employer’s upcoming issue. While the abridgment does not deal directly with Amazon and ceo Jeff Bezos’ relationship with the book trade — presumably such details are best left for the book itself, which will be released on October 15 — it offers a sense of the company’s “notoriously confrontational” corporate culture (which “begins with Bezos, who believes that truth shakes out when ideas and perspectives are banged against each other”), some insight into Bezos’ early childhood (Stone tracked down his biological father, Ted Jorgensen, who […]
People, Etc.
Karrie Witkin will join Abrams on October 21 in the newly created role of editorial director, Gift and Paper Products. Previously she was senior editor and publishing manager for Potter Style. In addition, Maya Bradford has been promoted to publicist, adult trade. At Atria, Sarah Cantin has been promoted to editor. Sulay Hernandez has left Other Press. She can be reached at SulayHernandez.Ed@gmail.com. Random House Children’s Books announced that RJ Palacio‘s WONDER has crossed the 1 million copy sales mark in North America. PGW has added seven more clients to its distribution list, including the Los Angeles Review of Books, Patagonia […]
Munro Wins the Nobel
The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded this morning to Alice Munro, cited briefly as “master of the contemporary short story.” She is the 13th woman and first Canadian (aside from 1976 winner Saul Bellow, born near Montreal) to win the literature prize, which comes one year after her most recent short story collection DEAR LIFE and several months after telling the National Post and the New York Times she had retired from writing. In a follow-up interview with press Swedish Academy permanent secretary Peter Englund said: “I think no one has better deconstructed the central myth of modern romantic […]
Apollo Said to be Looking to Sell McGraw Hill Professional
Having acquired McGraw-Hill Education in March for just over $2.5 million, Apollo Global Management is reportedly looking to sell off some of the parts less related to core higher ed and K-12 markets. The WSJ reports they are shopping “the professional business,” though it’s not clear if the reporters understand McGraw-Hill’s business portfolio. The story describes the assets for sale as including “a medical information business called AccessMedicine, as well as a reference title business and trade publishing arm.” The company has an actual division called McGraw-Hill Professional that comprises their professional and trade book titles — with components focused […]
Dohle Commits to Print, Scaled Innovation, and Alignment with Retail Partners
In introducing Penguin Random House ceo at a public forum at the Frankfurt Book Fair Wednesday, Frankfurt Academy head Holger Volland noted that they previously featured multiple heads of houses in a group. “Since Markus Dohle now equals five ceos,” Volland quipped, “we have replaced them with him.” Meanwhile, the always low-key and optimistic Dohle celebrated the completion of the merged company’s first 100 days together — which has been the opposite of a political leader’s first 100 days. “I wanted to make it the most boring merger in the history of corporations — because in essence what we do […]