Following Tuesday’s release of Hillary Clinton’s What Happened, publisher Simon & Schuster lamented to the AP that the Amazon product page was filled with customer “reviews” that were commentary on Mrs. Clinton rather than appraisals of her books. Publisher Jonathan Karp said, “It seems highly unlikely that approximately 1,500 people read Hillary Clinton’s book overnight and came to the stark conclusion that it is either brilliant or awful.” Meanwhile, on their own Amazon purged approximately 900 “reviews” of the book, saying they ‘violate our community guidelines,” as of early this morning displaying just under 600 reviews in all. But that book page […]
Archives for September 2017
People, Etc.
At Open Road, Mary McAveney is being promoted to chief marketing officer and Daniel Shemesh has been promoted to chief financial officer. Katie O’Callaghan and Stephanie Cooper have both been promoted to director of marketing, working on titles across all of the Harper imprints (Harper hardcover, Harper Design, Amistad, and Broadside Books). At WaterBrook and Multnomah, Julia Wallace has been promoted to executive managing editor; Karen Sherry has been promoted to associate director of interiors; and Helen Macdonald has joined as production editor. Monica Odom has returned to Liza Dawson Associates as agent, bringing her clients with her from Bradford Literary Agency. Author most notably of the […]
The NBA Poetry Longlist
Next up from the National Book Awards is the poetry longlist: Frank Bidart, Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 (Farrar, Straus) Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions) Leslie Harrison, The Book of Endings (University of Akron Press) Marie Howe, Magdalene: Poems (Norton) Laura Kasischke, Where Now: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press) Layli Long Soldier, Whereas (Graywolf) Shane McCrae, In the Language of My Captor (Wesleyan University Press) Sherod Santos, Square Inch Hours (Norton) Danez Smith, Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems (Graywolf) Mai Der Vang, Afterland (Graywolf)
Canongate Acquires Severn House, and More
Canongate announced that it has purchased Severn House, for an undisclosed sum from Edwin Buckhalter and his family. Buckhalter, who founded the publisher in 1974, and Mandy Shaw will serve as consultants going forward. Kate Lyall Grant remains as publisher and the staff will relocate to Canongate’s west London offices. The deal was financed in part by Canongate’s bankers, Handelsbanken. Severn House had sales of £3.26 million in 2016. Additionally, Canongate’s finance and operations director Kate Gibb has been promoted to chief operating officer, and will sit on the Severn House board along with ceo Jamie Byng and chair David Young. Byng says in the announcement, […]
Booker Shortlist Favors Saunders, Hamid and Debut Novelist Mozley
The Booker shortlist was named, with the winner to be selected on October 17. The finalists include three Americans (Auster, Fridlund and Saunders), two debut novelists (Fridlund and Mozley), and two previous Booker candidates (Hamid and Smith). The complete list: 4321, by Paul Auster (Holt/Faber) History of Wolves, by Emily Fridlund (Grove/Weidenfeld & Nicolson) Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead/Hamish Hamilton) Elmet, by Fiona Mozley (Algonquin/JM Originals) Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders (Random House/Bloomsbury) Autumn, by Ali Smith (Pantheon/Hamish Hamilton) For now, the bookies made Saunders their favorite at 2/1 — which isn’t so good, since the favorite […]
People, Etc.
Mark Warren will join Random House as vice president and executive editor starting October 16. He was previously an editor at Esquire for two decades, and co-authored former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s memoir, The Good Fight. Editor-in-chief Andy Ward says: “Mark has the skills and intuition of a great editor, as well as the firsthand experience of an author–perspective and empathy that have earned the respect of the authors with whom he has worked.” Brian Geffen has joined Holt Children’s as editor. Most recently he was associate editor at Philomel. Cordelia Calvert has been promoted to senior publicist for Liveright. Scholastic Trade […]