At Random House Children’s, Stephanie McKinley has been promoted to senior digital developer; Kelly Mcgauley is now senior marketing manager, trade marketing; Mallory Matney moves up to associate manager, marketing operations and consumer show; and Alissa Nigro has been promoted to marketing associate, trade marketing. At Chronicle Books, Taylor Norman has been promoted to editor for children’s. Jamie Real has joined as assistant managing editor for children’s (she was managing director for Litquake); Sandy Frank has joined as junior designer. Daniel O’Brien has joined the American Booksellers Association staff as a member relationship manager, serving the SIBA, SCIBA, NCIBA, PNBA, and MPIBA regions. He takes over from […]
Archives for August 2017
Penguin Random House Has Flat Sales, Better Profits
Bertelsmann reported results for the first half of the year, with sales at Penguin Random House (inclusive of the separate RH Germany, which they only break out in the annual report) just above flat, at €1.532 billion (€16 million higher than a year ago). Operating EBITDA of €206 million was €21 million higher than a year ago. But results at the midpoint of 2016 were significantly lower than the same period in 2015, when sales were €1.697 billion and EBITDA was €207 million, buoyed by the rising dollar. Currency exchange may be the most important factor the company does not discuss in the current […]
PEN Center USA Withdraws Smelcer’s Stealing Indians Amidst Claims of Fraud
PEN Center USA withdrew John Smelcer’s Stealing Indians from the shortlist for their 2017 young adult award, after The Stranger and the LA Times reported longstanding disputes to the author’s claim of Native heritage. (The organization did not issue a statement beyond noting the withdrawal of the title on Twitter.) The Stranger first reported on Smelcer’s disputed heritage on August 23, with authors including Sherman Alexie weighing in that Smelcer has been “held in great suspicion and contempt in the Native world for twenty-five years.” The article also questions blurbs given to Smelcer’s books by authors including Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, […]
S&S Sharpens Reply to Milo
Attorneys for Simon & Schuster updated their motion to dismiss Milo Yiannopoulos’s breach of contract lawsuit, while noting that Milo’s own revision of his complaint was “filed on the eve of the Preliminary Conference.” In their new filing, the publisher more closely binds the $80,000 first advance that Yiannopoulos did not repay along with his acceptance of the reversion of rights to his manuscript, which he subsequently self-published, as constituting his agreement to S&S’s cancellation of the contract. They underscore that Milo’s attorney only rejected the cancellation in writing months later, after he was actively exploiting the publishing rights: “Yiannopoulos accepted […]
Handbook for Gaming Sales
The ABA has admitted belatedly that Lani Sarem’s Handbook for Mortals “should not have made it onto the Indie Bestsellers list” last week (where it was listed as the No. 2 young adult fiction hardcover) and “it isn’t appearing this week.” The organization added, “We’re always reviewing our procedures to improve them, and, following this, we are refining the way we do things.” That leaves USA Today as the only organization to have stood by including the book on a bestseller list, ranking it at No. 34 last week. Separately, Thu-Huong Ha at Quartz has done some good follow-up, and after first […]
People, Etc.
Susan Wadsworth-Booth will join Kent State University Press as director starting September 11. Previously she was director of the Duquesne University Press in Pittsburgh. Elina Vaysbeyn has been promoted to associate director of marketing for Dutton. Concepción de León explains to readers the new Newsbook column she is writing for the NYT, providing “timely reading lists to help readers understand issues in the news.” It is “part of a larger effort by the Books desk to offer more service-oriented content.” Storm Relief Scholastic, which has several distribution centers in Texas (and all but the Houston branch are operating normally) announced “a company-wide response […]