In the UK, Foyle’s ceo Sam Husain, 67, will retire in April, the Bookseller reports. Former toy retailer Hamley’s coo Paul Currie will take over the leadership for the bookseller, and Husain will stay on as a non-executive director. Also in the UK, Kieron Smith, who had been managing director of bookseller Book Depository before its sale to Amazon, has been hired by Blackwell’s as digital director, starting in February. He fills the slot vacated by Matthew Cashmore. Smith’s recent project, the online Best Little Bookshop, has closed. Hanna Masaryk is joining Greenburger Associates as children’s/YA scout. She was previously an agency assistant at Curtis […]
Archives for January 2015
Gallery Announces Literary Scout Press, and More
Gallery formally acknowledged their new literary imprint Scout Press on Monday, as promotion continues to build for one of their titles, literary agent Bill Clegg’s first novel (and third book), Did You Ever Have A Family?. Set for publication September 15 (with published metadata for some time, and rights sold in multiple territories), Clegg’s book will be promoted at the upcoming ABA Winter Institute. Gallery publisher Jennifer Bergstrom introduces a new conceit of “great accessible literary fiction,” which she describes to the NYT as, “literary but very accessible, not precious, not fussy, not esoteric.” In the release, she adds, “We will […]
The Buzz On YA and More
We had a big launch on Friday for the latest editions of our free ebook samplers, BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Spring/Summer and BUZZ BOOKS 2015 Young Adult: Spring — with national press, thousands of downloads, and excited reviews from the fan base of passionate readers who look forward to these previews. As a reminder, you can get the complete “trade versions” of Buzz and Buzz YA directly from our site as EPUB files, or if you prefer, both titles are “read now” downloads at NetGalley — and you can find each one on Edelweiss. Or to get the consumer version on any platform (and share with readers and fans), both […]
Blinkbox Books, Bardowl to Shut Down
The week begins with the closing of two UK-based digital companies. Blinkbox Books, Tesco’s ebook service, will cease operations by the end of February after failing to find a buyer. The company said, “We’ve learnt a lot since launching the service and whilst we saw encouraging levels of take up, we believe that we can do more for our customers by focusing on our core business….Our focus now is on the colleagues affected and our customers.” Up to 60 jobs are in jeopardy as a result. Tesco was reported to have been in exclusive talks with Waterstones a possible sale of the platform. Tesco […]
People
In Italy, general manager of Mondadori’s trade book division (as well as ceo of Einaudi, interim head of Mondadori publishing and chairman of Harlequin Mondadori) Riccardo Cavallero is leaving the company by the end of January. Last week, Mondadori Libri announced a number of new management appointments: CEO Ernesto Mauri is also chairman of the board; Enrico Selva Codde was promoted to managing director of Mondadori trade, working with vice chairman Gian Ferrari; and Antonio Porro was named managing director for education. Mauri says in the announcement: “The scenario of the publishing market is still declining and this means that we need to increasingly keep our […]
Early Looks At Over 60 of 2015’s Discovery Books
Today we publish new editions of our popular free ebook samplers, BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Spring/Summer and BUZZ BOOKS 2015 Young Adult: Spring. (The last time around we experimented with a separate YA collection and it was a clear hit, so Buzz Books YA is a standing part of the line going forward.) With 65 pre-publication excerpts between them, they are great preparation for next month’s Winter Institute 10 (over a dozen WI authors are sampled) as well as the full publishing season ahead. Most Lunch readers will want the full “trade versions,” which include detailed marketing and publicity info on […]