The National Book Awards’ move towards greater visibility and recognition culminated in much the same way as in previous years: a mixture of expected and surprise winners. New Yorker staff writer George Packer took the nonfiction prize for THE UNWINDING, while James McBride’s THE GOOD LORD BIRD (Riverhead) won the fiction prize, surprising the author — who did not prepare a speech, since he was among those who expected one of the other nominees to prevail. “They are fine writers,” McBride said of the other nominees, “but this sure is nice.” The judges called him “a voice as comic and original as […]
Archives for November 2013
Briefs: New Divisions for Macmillan Children’s UK; Charlotte Zolotow Dies; and More
Macmillan Children’s UK announced the creation of two audience-focused publishing divisions, Macmillan Under 6s, to be overseen by publisher Stephanie Barton, and Macmillan Over 6s, led by Venetia Gosling. Both Barton and Gosling will report to Belinda Rasmussen, with Gosling also working with Pan Macmillan publisher Jeremy Trevethan on crossover projects. Each new division also announced additional promotions: At Under 6s, Suzanne Carnell becomes publishing director, Picture Books & Pre-School, and Jackie McCann moves up to editorial director, Campbell and nursery. At Over 6s, Gaby Morgan has been promoted to editorial director, adding backlist strategy to her existing remit of […]
Bookstore News
With Small Business Saturday still over a week away, the Indies First initiative has enrolled almost 900 authors who will be working as volunteers at more than 400 bookstores. Started by author Sherman Alexie, the program has been coordinated by the ABA, which has a posted map and list of participating stores (which is being updated continuously). Among the authors enrolled are Diana Gabaldon, Richard Russo, Cheryl Strayed, Wally Lamb, Dave Barry, Larry Watson, Jon Scieszka, Laurie Halse Anderson, Daniel Handler, Garth Stein, Maria Semple, and Adam Johnson. Dallas retailer Brian Bolke will open the small-format Chapter Two bookstore later […]
Canada Tries Again with Plans for New 2014 Book Fair
The new Toronto International Book Fair, scheduled to launch in 2014 and running November 13 through November 16, aims to give Canada a major consumer and trade book show. Craft show veteran Steven Levy is a co-director of the new event, along with Rita Davies (former head of culture for the city of Toronto) and president of Quattro Books John Calabro. They are hoping for government subsidies to help reduce booth costs for exhibitors and are conducting a search for a show programmer. Calabro tells Quill & Quire, “The one thing I heard from the independent publishers was a fear […]
eBook Sales Are In Decline (For Now), As August Marks Turnaround for Trade
With two new months of trade sales data from the AAP released today, one recent trend is ratified: ebook sales by established trade publishers are in decline. For the approximately 1,200 publishers that report to the AAP, ebook sales have declined for 5 months in a row on a year-over-year basis. Adult ebook sales have declined for 4 months in a row. And for the first 8 months of the year, total ebook sales stand at $982 million — down from $1.04 billion a year ago. These numbers are all remarkable for a format that has experienced nothing but continuous […]
People
Bloomberg News is cutting approximately 50 jobs from their newsroom, reportedly focused on cutbacks in their coverage of the arts, entertainment and sports. Books editor Laurie Muchnick indicated on Twitter that her job is among those that were eliminated. In addition to his Zink Inc imprint at the Random House Publishing Group, the Galvanized Books line that Random House is distributing, and his own exercise, diet and nutrition books as an author, David Zinczenko will consult with Bonnier on expanding their book lines, AdWeek reports. The magazine says he has a five-year management consulting agreement with Bonnier. CEO Dave Freygang “said the […]