The UK’s Women’s Prize — once sponsored by Orange, now backed by Bailey’s — announced their 20-title longlist, which will get slimmed considerably to a six-title shortlist next month. At this stage it’s most interesting for the small set of titles for which we could not find any known US publisher yet. They are: The Dogs of Littlefield, Suzanne Berne The Strangler Vine, M.J. Carter Reasons She Goes to the Woods, Deborah Kay Davies Almost English, Charlotte Mendelson Among longlisted titles to be published later in the year in the US, there’s Evie Wyld’s April release, All The Birds, Singing, which […]
Archives for March 2014
People
Little, Brown announced a number of promotions across several departments. In editorial, John Parsley has been promoted to vp, executive editor, while Wes Miller moves up to editor, Mulholland Books. Victoria Matsui has been promoted to associate editor, while Frederica Bepler moves up to associate editor, paperback manager, and Malin von Euler-Hogan has been promoted to assistant editor. In marketing and publicity, Heather Fain has been promoted to vp, deputy publisher and marketing director, a new title “that acknowledges and reflects the crucial role Heather plays in all aspects of our publishing process.” Reporting to Fain is Pam Brown, newly […]
Touchstone Cancels Publication of @GSElevator Book
The strange saga of @GSElevator, the satirical Twitter feed purportedly from a Goldman Sachs insider who was “unmasked” by the NYT as 34-year-old Texas-based Citi banker John Lefevre last month, has added another turn, as Touchstone announced it has canceled publication of STRAIGHT TO HELL, the formerly anonymous author’s forthcoming book. All the publisher would say in their statement was that “in light of information that has recently come to our attention since acquiring John Lefevre’s STRAIGHT TO HELL, Touchstone has decided to cancel its publication of this work.” Recent reporting by New York Magazine intimated @GSElevator was the effort […]
Kobo Opposes Canadian Pricing Settlements; Economists Support Apple’s Appeal
Kobo recently filed in opposition to the agency pricing publisher settlements in Canada, objecting to the rapid 40-day timeframe in which they need to renegotiate major publisher contracts, but also arguing that the newly-imposed terms will make them “suffer significant unrecoverable losses” if “Kobo accepts the amendments and shifts its operations to an Agency Lite model.” They write that “a ban on Agency, even in the short term, will have a lasting and irreversible negative impact on the market for E-books in Canada.” More broadly, Kobo argues the arrival of agency in Canada was different than in the US and not the result of […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Julia Kardon joins Mary Evans as a foreign rights director and agent. Previously she was an agent at Sterling Lord Literistic. At Hachette Book Group, Sophie Cottrell has been promoted to svp, corporate communications. Amanda Englander has joined Clarkson Potter and Potter Style as associate editor. Previously she was an editorial assistant at Grand Central. At Chronicle Books, Ben Laramie has been promoted to senior industrial designer; April Whitney moves up to senior publicist, Entertainment; and Lisa Tauber has been promoted to associate editor. Bloomsbury UK’s director of trade marketing and publicity Katie Bond has “taken voluntary redundancy and [is] […]
Controversies: Doniger Op-Ed, Gaiman “Disappointed” In Hugo Award Twitter Attack; Rice and Others on “Bullying” Anonymous Reviews
A number of controversies remain in the news: Author of THE HINDUS Wendy Doniger writes in an NYT op-ed about the circumstances around the withdrawal of her book in India, saying that “I was in high spirits.’ She explains: “The dormant liberal conscience of India was awakened by the stunning blow to freedom of speech that had been dealt by my publisher in giving in to the demands of the claimants, agreeing to take the book out of circulation and pulp all remaining copies.” Doniger points out: “If Mr. Batra’s intention was to keep people from reading the book, it certainly […]