Our tally of the Best of the Best Books of 2016 already points to a strong consensus in both fiction and nonfiction and as it so happens, I, too, count Colson Whitehead‘s much-lauded The Underground Railroad among my favorites of this year. It is not only the novel we needed to better grapple with our profound, continuing understanding — or lack thereof — of how deeply embedded slavery is in the American fabric, but it is among the novels we will turn to for meaning in the years to come, as the country’s future grows ever more uncertain. The leading […]
Archives for December 2016
Briefs: Macmillan to Publish with NY Public Library, Reacher Stories, and More
Macmillan evp Will Schwalbe has brokered a deal with Carrie Welch at the New York Public Library “to create and publish a wide variety of print and e-books for adults and for children drawing from and inspired by” the library’s collection. Michael Flamini will oversee the adult program, and Jean Feiwel and Christian are overseeing the children’s line. Among the first adult titles will be a book featuring menus from the library’s collection of 45,000 New York eatery menus and Book Face, collecting top posts from the #bookface Instagram. Early children’s titles include a coloring book featuring vintage art; a picture book starring the […]
CBS and Viacom Won’t Merge After All
More than two months after National Amusements, which owns 80 percent of the stock in both CBS (parent company of Simon & Schuster) and Viacom, urged the two companies to consider a merger, that potential deal has now been withdrawn. CNBC reported that Shari Redstone, vice chair for both companies, “is reversing course and now backs Viacom CEO Bob Bakish and his plan to bring the company back to prominence.” The WSJ added that CBS head Leslie Moonves “never appeared to be more than lukewarm on the idea and repeatedly told investors that CBS was a strong stand-alone company”, adding […]
People: Reidhead Named New Norton President; Raab, Futter Leave Grand Central
Julia Reidhead has been promoted to president at W.W. Norton, succeeding Drake McFeely, who will remain at the company as chairman. Reidhead, who first joined Norton in 1983 and is currently vp, publishing director of the College department, is Norton’s sixth and first female president in the company’s 93-year history. She will also become president and director of the National Book Company, Norton’s distribution center in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and of Liveright Publishing. McFeely said in the announcement: “Julia Reidhead, who has made her entire publishing career here at Norton, embodies all the values we hold dear: an abiding love of […]
Can BuzzFeed Finally Make Customized Cookbooks Work?
Since the early days of online interfaces and quality print-on-demand manufacturing, a number of companies have taken ultimately unsuccessful passes at building a business around user-customized cookbooks. In the wake of Tastebook and many others comes Tasty: The Cookbook — though this latest effort is driven by BuzzFeed, which is aiming the initiative at their substantial audience of 75 million Facebook followers for their Tasty food vertical. As Fast Company notes, “The company claims 50 percent of all Americans see a Tasty video every month—which back of napkin math equates to almost every Facebook user in the country seeing the content over […]
Just the Right Amount of Book Buzz, New for January
One of the best things about our semi-annual Buzz Books samplers is that they are absolutely packed, with 40 substantial pre-publication excerpts — so the printed editions run 800 pages or more — and the excerpts feature books two to eight months ahead of publication. For some people, though, that wealth of material is also a flaw, serving up too much forthcoming goodness too far ahead of time. So to expand our market impact, and to offer a more focused month-by-month lens on forthcoming books of note, we are debuting a new program of free monthly Buzz Books samplers. The just-released January […]