Perseus Books Group ceo David Steinberger dispatched his annual letter to employees after the June 30 close of their fiscal year earlier than usual, noting: “In reflecting back on last year though, the real place to start is August 7th 2014, when we announced the Hachette transaction would not go forward.” Though “it was inevitably a distracting time,” Steinberger says that “our people and our company moved forward with our signature resolve,” reporting that, “In fact, this year our in-house and client publishers combined to generate higher total sales than in any year in our history.” In particular, “Our client service business […]
Archives for August 2015
People, Awards, Etc.
The Wylie Agency is launching a new venture, The Wylie Agency España, with Cristóbal Pera overseeing the new unit, starting in September. Pera previously spent more than a decade at Penguin Random House Mexico, where he was most recently editorial director. Quarto will launch a new children’s book imprint, Seagrass Press, in fall 2016, publishing 12-16 titles annually. Overseeing the imprint is Josalyn Moran, who most recently was vp, publishing at Albert Whitman and children’s publishing director at Chronicle Books. Margaret Harrison has joined Ingram Content Group as director of product metadata (she was the ebook global supply chain manager at Oxford University Press) and Ed Spade has […]
Monday Briefs
The big weekend read was the NYT piece with allegations about Amazon‘s “purposeful Darwinism” towards its employees. Jeff Bezos sent an email to all employees — and thus the world — saying, “Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.” Bezos agreed that “anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company.” But “Hopefully, you’re having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along […]
People, Etc.
Scholastic has announced a number of new hires and promotions. David Ascher has been promoted to svp, finance and strategic initiatives, while JoAnne Mojica will be vp, publishing operations, Scholastic Trade. Anamika Bhatnagar has been promoted to associate publisher of Pilkey Publishing and Scholastic Inc., and Sheila Marie Everett moves up to publicity director. Rick DeMonico has been promoted to senior art director and Elizabeth Herzog has been promoted to art director, Nonfiction and Branches. Finally, Elizabeth Schaefer has joined Scholastic as editor, licensed publishing. She was most recently an associate editor at Disney Book Group. At Vintage/Anchor, Angie Venezia has […]
The Art of Crash Landing by Melissa DeCarlo Leads September Library Reads List
Melissa DeCarlo’s novel The Art of Crash Landing is the No. 1 pick for the September Library Reads list. The list also includes Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff and Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart, excerpts of which you can start reading right now in our Buzz Books 2015: Fall/Winterebook. The rest of the list features: Make Me, by Lee Child House of Thieves, by Charles Belfoure Did You Ever Have A Family, by Bill Clegg The Gates of Evangeline, by Hester Young Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, by Jenny Lawson This Is Your Life, […]
People
Maya Ziv will join Dutton as executive editor on September 8. Previously she was a senior editor at HarperCollins. Judy Heiblum is leaving Sterling Lord Literistic after eight years with the agency. She will be taking on freelance editorial and consulting work and may be reached at jheiblum@gmail.com. At Public Affairs, Maria Goldverg has been promoted to assistant editor. At Maria Campbell Associates, Rachel Horowitz has been appointed senior scout for US children’s publishing. Also joining the company as senior scout is Annabelle Saks, working with Warner Bros Feature, WBTV, New Line, and Horizon. In the UK, Luke Speed has […]