Marlena Bittner will join Flatiron Books on May 15th as the director of publicity, reporting to associate publisher Liz Keenan. She is currently director of publicity at Little, Brown. At DK Publishing, Meghan O’Brien has been promoted to associate director, special sales, while Stephanie Kull moves up to special sales manager. Abby Koski has joined Soho Press as publicist. Previously she was a publicity assistant at FSG. Jon Baker is leaving Mary Anne Thompson Associates after 7 years to start his own scouting company, Baker Literary Scouting, Inc. He may be reached at jon@jbscout.com.
Archives for March 2014
Canadian Physical Book Market Dips in 2013
BookNet Canada released its annual Canadian Book Market report, which tracks English-language print book sales across more than 50 categories. Despite the obvious disclaimer that by not tracking ebook sales or online sales of print books, “the overall book market may be healthier than reflected,” the full report, which is only accessible if purchased, did indicate total print unit sales in 2013 were down by 3.41 percent compared to 2012. Some categories, however, fared better last year, particularly in nonfiction: biography and autobiography print sales increased by 21.91 percent while juvenile nonfiction was up 5.57 percent.
People, Etc.
Former Literature Director at the National Endowment of the Arts Ira Silverberg will join Open Road Integrated Media on April 22 as strategic advisor, author brands, reporting to Tina Pohlman. In his new role, Silverberg will focus primarily on backlist acquisitions for “a wide range of authors.” Jane Friedman, co-founder and ceo of Open Road said in the announcement: “Ira’s broad range of experience has given him a deep understanding of all aspects of the publishing industry and he will make an incredible addition to Open Road.” Silverberg added: “Joining Open Road allows me to get back to the very […]
People, Etc.
Maggie Riggs has joined the Friedrich Agency as associate agent. Previously she was an associate editor at Viking. Lelia Mander will join Artisan Books as managing editor on March 24. She was previously a senior production editor at HarperCollins. In addition, Patrick Leonard has been named senior publicist. Kayleigh McCann will join Little, Brown Children’s as designer for licensed books on March 24. She was previously associate designer at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers. Peter Cocking has returned to Greystone Books as art director. He was art director of D&M Publishers, overseeing both Douglas & McIntyre and Greystone, […]
Indies Choice Nominees Named
The ABA announced the finalists for the Indies Choice Awards, with winners to be announced April 17. Among the adult candidates 5 of the 6 debut nominees and 3 of the fiction nominees were all featured pre-publication in Buzz Books last year. (Check out the excerpts in the current Spring/Summer edition to sample some of the potential breakout books of this year spring and summer.) The nominees are: Adult Fiction Gun Machine, by Warren Ellis (Mulholland Books) Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson (Reagan Arthur Books) Snow Hunters, by Paul Yoon (Simon & Schuster) The Son, by Philipp Meyer (Ecco) […]
Weak Sales Continue at Books-A-Million, With Q4 Profits
Books-A-Million reported fourth quarter and full year results Thursday afternoon. Unlike last year’s 14-week quarter, a once-every-six-years occurrence, BAMM’s current Q4 reverted to the usual 13 week period. Sales continued to decline, down 3.7 percent to $157.9 million compared to $163.9 million a year ago. Same-store sales continued their pattern of quarterly declines, down 1.8 percent, but net income, at $11.2 million for the quarter was up from the $8.1 million reported during the same period last year. For the year, covering 52 weeks (compared to last year’s 53 weeks) net sales decreased 5.6 percent to $470.3 million (from $498.4 […]