The Booker Prize announced their shortlist, with the winner to be named October 13 [Update: The correct awards date is October 25]. Two Americans — Paul Beatty for his NBCC-winning novel and Ottessa Moshfegh for her PEN/Hemingway debut winner — are in contention in a field that includes no previous Booker winners. (Deborah Levy was shortlisted in 2012 for Swimming Home.) Since the longlist, Norton has picked up US rights to Madeleine Thien’s novel, and will publish on October 11. Graeme Macrae Burnet will continue to draw attention after garnering a nomination for a crime thriller, and Skyhorse has bumped up the […]
Archives for September 2016
National Book Award Longlists Begin with Young People’s Literature
The National Book Awards are announcing their longlists one by one this week, starting with the Young People’s Literature category with a list that showcases diversity, covering both young adult and middle-grade books. The finalists will be announced October 13 and the prizes will be awarded November 16: Kwame Alexander, Booked (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s) Kate DiCamillo, Raymie Nightingale (Candlewick Press) John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell (Artist) March: Book Three (Top Shelf) Grace Lin, When the Sea Turned to Silver (Little, Brown Children’s) Anna-Marie McLemore, When the Moon Was Ours (Thomas Dunne Books) Meg Medina, Burn Baby Burn (Candlewick […]
AAP CEO Tom Allen to Retire In Early 2017
The Association of American Publishers announced that ceo Tom Allen will retire from his post “in early 2017.” Allen has run the organization since April 2009. He says in a statement: “It has been a privilege to lead AAP these past seven years and I am proud of all we have accomplished. After twenty years commuting to and from Washington, it’s time for me to return to Maine and dedicate myself to part-time and mostly voluntary activities like environmental conservation, writing and perhaps teaching about Congress and American politics. I look forward to working with the AAP board and management team as we prepare […]
Gibson to Leave Bloomsbury; Loh to Run US Division
Bloomsbury US publishing director George Gibson will leave the company after Thanksgiving as part of a restructuring of Bloomsbury US that moves children’s publishing director Cindy Loh up to the new role of vp, publishing director, consumer publishing, overseeing both adult and children’s publishing. In its latest realignment, Bloomsbury is dividing its business into consumer and non-consumer divisions. The company says that the US business had sales of $52 million last year. Richard Charkin, who is scheduled to step back to working two days a week in 2017, serves as president of Bloomsbury USA “while all these changes are taking place.” Managing […]
People
Jana Branson has joined Clarkson Potter this week as associate director of publicity. Previously she was director of communications at Sequential Brands Group (formerly Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia), and replaces Anna Mintz, who is leaving Clarkson Potter to move back home to Atlanta and make a lifestyle change. In addition, Erica Gelbard has been promoted to executive publicist. Park Literary & Media is now representing foreign and audio rights for Sasquatch Books. Sharon Olds has been named the recipient of the Academy of American Poets’ $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award, deemed “an American master and a national treasure”.
Book Sales Fell $38.6 Million at BN
As usual, Barnes & Noble followed their press release quarterly results with a more detailed SEC quarterly report that offers some additional details on the chain’s performance. As we suggested yesterday, the continuing decline of Nook — with digital content sales falling $7.1 million, or 18.9%, at about $30.5 million for the quarter — was propped up by lawsuit settlement funds and could have been still worse. Noting that “first quarter content unit trends benefited from the eBook settlement,” the company said Barnes & Noble customers “activated” $39.5 million in settlement fund credits, and redeemed almost $22 million of those credits. (Credits from the Apple […]