Author Cornelia Funke‘s new independent publishing house Breathing Books has a sales and distribution agreement with PGW for the US and Canada. Her first title, The Golden Yarn, is now set for publication on December 1, 2015. (When Funke originally announced that she was parting ways with Little, Brown Children’s and Chicken House in the UK, she was aiming for a November release of the book.)
She says in the announcement, “I’m thrilled that Breathing Books has found a distribution partner in PGW. As they know about my passion for working with booksellers and finding the best ways to share my books with my North American readership. Thanks to PGW, I have been able to fulfill my promise to my fans that they can travel through the Mirror this year. We’re looking forward to sharing many book adventures together.”
In other people news, Sourcebooks, Beth Sochacki has joined Sourcebooks as marketing and publicity manager for Casablanca. She was formerly an associate consultant at Douglas Shaw & Associates.
Pamela Schechter has joined The Experiment as publishing manager. Most recently she was production director of Black Dog & Leventhal.
Christopher Rhodes has joined The Stuart Agency as an agent. Most recently, he was an agent for the James Fitzgerald Agency.
Jennifer Stokes is returning to Kids Can Press as editor. (She had been there for 6 years before leaving to work freelance.) Also, Jennifer Grimbleby has been promoted to managing editor, and Olga Kidisevic has moved up to production editor.
Jason Kincade has joined Parson Weems Publisher Services as sales representative for the New York metro area and Long Island. He was formerly East Coast operations director of Pacific Beach Vinyl, an independent online record store (after working previously in a number of publishing positions, including at Inkwell Management, and Random House).
Forthcoming
St. Martin’s announced that it will publish Sylvia Day‘s fifth and final novel in the Crossfire series, ONE WITH YOU, on April 5, 2016 — with Penguin Random House (whose Berkley imprint issued the previous books in the series) publishing simultaneously in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, and India. They say the series has sold over 17 million copies sold worldwide. In January 2014, St. Martin’s announced an eight-figure deal with Day for her new BLACKLIST series, which is still forthcoming.
Obituary
Author of 30 novels, short stories and nonfiction books — including the bestselling OUR CROWD: A History of the Great Jewish Families of New York in 1967 — Stephen Gardner Birmingham, 85, died on Monday. His last full length novel, The Wrong Kind of Money, was published in 1998, although his agents at Brandt & Hochman report that “he was in the process of preparing a memoir at the time of his death.”