Giles Spackman will join Oxford University Press next month as group finance director. Previously he was senior finance director, global business organization, at Google.
At Other Press, Robert Wicks has been promoted to publicist and Charlotte Kelly moves up to associate publicist.
Dylan Hillhouse has joined HarperCollins Christian as vp, marketing for the Bible Group. Previously he worked at Mardel Christian Stores, responsible for oversight of the company’s Bible merchandising program.
Author of the Arkady Renko novels Martin Cruz Smith revealed to the NYT that he has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for the past 18 years, and that his newest book, TATIANA, was produced with the help of his wife, Em, who typed the words as Smith dictated them to her. “I didn’t want to be judged by that,” Smith said of his Parkinson’s, which he hid from his publisher and editor at Simon & Schuster until recently. “Either I’m a good writer or I’m not. ‘He’s our pre-eminent Parkinson’s writer.’ Who needs that?”
As to the collaborative process on the new book, Smith had been doubtful it would succeed. “It’s like playing football, except you’ve got two quarterbacks. It promises confusion, complication, and loss of immediate contact. You want to keep that ball moving, keep that idea within your grasp.” Smith has also since undergone brain surgery to alleviate some of the Parkinson’s symptoms.
Amazon Canada has picked their “best books of 2013” across six categories. Their Top 20 overlaps in many places with their US picks, though Eleanor Catton’s Booker-winning The Luminaries is the highlighted pick. Other Canadian-focused books on the list not found on the US version include:
Caught, Lisa Moore
The Woman Upstairs, Claire Messud
The War That Ended Peace, Margaret MacMillan
Hellgoing, Lynn Coady
Cataract City, Craig Davidson
MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood
The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper
The Devil and the Detective, John Goldbach
Amazon UK takes a different, more limited approach, naming one “best book” across ten categories — Catton is their pick for “best fiction” — plus top 10 lists within each of those categories.