George Coe “retired” from Follett on May 1, after being promoted to chief operating officer on March 31. The departure was announced internally at least two weeks ago according to anonymous message board postings. Separately, in March two Follett assistant store managers filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the company, seeking class action status, alleging they regularly worked extra hours without being paid overtime. Harvey P. Berliner retired May 2 after 18 years at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade division. His new contact address is harvey.berliner@gmail.com. Christopher Werner has joined Amazon’s Lake Union Publishing imprint as senior […]
Archives for May 2017
Houghton Stabilizes As Trade Sales Lift In First Quarter
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reported less dramatic results for their first quarter on Thursday morning. Sales of $221.9 million were up $16.1 million from a year ago, largely due to higher sales in California Reading and a $5 million fee “associated with the expiration of a distribution agreement.” They were also helped by a rebound in the trade division, where sales were up by $5 million (after declining $2.3 million in the same quarter a year ago). The operating loss, for what is seasonally their worst quarter, improved to ($96) million, from ($122) million a year ago — but nearly all of the costs and […]
Horowitz Leads June Indie Next List
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz tops the June Indie Next list — yet another novel that you can start reading now through an excerpt in our Buzz Books Spring/Summer 2017. Other Buzz Books on the June list include Nora Roberts’ Come Sundown; Courtney Maum’s Touch; and Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich’s The Fact of a Body. The rest of the Indie Next list features: Do Not Become Alarmed, by Maile Meloy The Long Haul, by Finn Murphy The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid Sycamore, by Bryn Chancellor The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry Dragon Teeth, by Michael Crichton So Much Blue, by Percival Everett Stephen Florida, by Gabe […]
People, Etc.
Emily Wunderlich has been promoted to editor at Viking. Alaina Mauro is leaving her position as associate director for James Patterson at Hachette Book Group. She can be reached at mauroalaina@gmail.com. Earlier in the year senior editor Laura Fazio left the Patterson BookShots team to work for the app Hooked. Maggie Sivon has been promoted to head of publicity for Amazon Publishing. Jeff Kinney, creator of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, has announced that Vanessa Jedrej will join Wimpy Kid in the newly created role of global brand manager, effective June 12. Previously, she was marketing director for Penguin […]
EU Formalizes Amazon eBook Antitrust Agreement
The European Commission formally adopted “commitments” from Amazon to avoid legal charges and potential fines for violating antitrust law with their ebook contracts. Hewing closely to the proposed settlement announced in late January, with some slight modifications, Amazon agrees to drop a broad range of restrictive most-favored-nations clauses in their ebook contracts in Europe for the next 5 years. Notably, the agreement pertains not just to European companies, but “to any e-book in any language distributed by Amazon in the European Economic Area.” EC commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager said in a statement: “Today’s decision will open the way […]
People, Etc.
Associate publisher for Crown Business, Crown Forum, and Convergent, Campbell Wharton will take on the additional role of associate publisher for WaterBrook and Multnomah, continuing to report to Tina Constable. At Doubleday Canada, in March, Bhavna Chauhan was promoted to senior editor for Doubleday Canada and Appetite; Kiara Kent moved up to editor for Doubleday Canada and Bond Street Books; and Zoe Maslow is now editor for Doubleday Canada and Appetite. Emily Ollis has been promoted to marketing manager for Putnam. Imprints In Canada, The Walrus and House of Anansi Press, have partnered on a new nonfiction imprint Walrus Imprint, funded by Chawkers Foundation Writers’ Project. The aim of the new imprint is […]