Stephen Barbara will move to Inkwell Management on January 5 after six years at Foundry Literary + Media, and he will be followed by all 50 of his clients. He says in the announcement, “It’s an agency I’ve long admired, and I couldn’t miss the chance to work with such a world-class group of authors’ representatives.”
New York Magazine book critic Kathryn Schulz is leaving to join the New Yorker, where she will “write book reviews, as well as web pieces and the occasional feature” according to Capital New York. Her first day is January 19.
At National Geographic Books, Lisa Thomas has been promoted to svp, editorial director, adult books. She will “oversee the editorial direction and creation of all adult book titles, including travel and guidebooks, and will also focus on expanding ebooks and titles with an international reach.”
Mercedes Fernandez has been promoted to associate editor at Kensington, where she has worked since 2006. Michelle Forde has been promoted to communications and marketing manager for Lyrical Press, as Ellen Chan leaves the company to move to San Francisco.
Further to our first report fresh from the Appeals Court hearing early yesterday afternoon, Judge Dennis Jacobs has emerged as the most quotable of the three-member panel. In a t-shirt worthy line, Judge Jacobs suggested at one point that any collusion among publishers trying “to break the hold of a monopolist” in the ebook market (e.g. Amazon) was “like all the mice getting together to put a bell on the cat.”
Hachette Book Group will begin distributing the Asterix comic series in the US as of January 1. Asterix has been available in the US through a license to Sterling, which expires at the end of 2014. HBG already distributes Asterix in Canada, and the series is published by Hachette Livre in France as well as Hachette UK.
Effective February 1, 2015, Atlas Books will be the official US and Canadian distributor for I.B.Tauris.