Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy said out at a ceo q&a forum what many are thinking (and we suggested here early on) about a post-Brexit publishing world. : If and once Brexit actually happens, “To my mind the argument that the British have used to try to grab Europe as an exclusive market will then be over.” Reidy argued that “both sides [US and UK] can sell equally well in Europe.” She added, “I still don’t understand why the British think they have India. Sorry, Ian [Chapman].” The remarks were expected, since Reidy was the most prominent US executive […]
Archives for October 2017
Briefs: Cooke and McDermid Merge, and More
HarperCollins celebrated their 200th anniversary one more time with drinks on the floor of the Frankfurt Book Fair towards the end of the business day, with ceo Brian Murray honoring “how resilient HarperCollins has been, and how resilient the publishing industry has been.” In a nod to yesterday’s remark by Andrew Wylie, Murray remarked, “Even though we may be bewildering to some people, I think at HarperCollins, we know that we know what we are doing.” Canada’s The Cooke Agency and The McDermid Agency have emerged to form CookeMcDermid. The new company will be owned in equal parts by McDermid owners […]
People: Nguyen and Ward Win MacArthur Grants, and More
The latest class of 24 MacArthur Fellows was named, and they include novelist and critic Viet Thanh Nguyen, 46, and novelist and memoirist Jesmyn Ward, 40. Also winning grants were playwright Annie Baker, 36, who won the Pulitzer in 2014 for “The Flick,” and NYT Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, 41. Hannah-Jones’s first book The Problem We All Live With is forthcoming from One World in 2019. Another winner, artist and geographer Trevor Paglen, 43, has also published a number of books. At Atria, Stephanie Mendoza has been promoted to senior publicist and Rachel Brenner has been promoted to associate publicist. Ingram announced […]
Dohle Opens FBF Citing “The Best Times, Maybe Ever”
“It’s really the Olympics of book exhibitions,” Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos said aptly at the event’s opening press conference on Tuesday. (It’s big enough that they have an opening press conference, followed by actual opening ceremonies later in the day, when German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron appear.) With some book fairs in Europe facing protests and pushback for including right-wing publishers, Boos made it clear that Frankfurt is open to all. “As the Frankfurt Book Fair, we cannot evaluate content and draw lines. Excluding anyone, censorship, bans — that’s not an option for us.” […]
Briefs: New EL James, New Chandler Reps, Brzezinski Expands Concerns, and More
The surprise EL James book people at Penguin Random House have been whispering about was announced on Tuesday: DARKER: Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian, continues the retelling of her trilogy from Christian Grey’s point of view that began with GREY. Vintage will publish the trade paperback on Tuesday, November 2. The publisher says they will be soliciting orders from accounts over the next week, and currently have paper on order and press time reserved for a first printing of more than one million copies. James says in the announcement, “The inside of Christian Grey’s head is a fascinating place to […]
Wylie on Authors “Seeing Things Differently”
Literary agent Andrew Wylie started the day’s conferences at the Frankfurt Book Fair with brief remarks before a modest, press-heavy audience in FBF’s “Business Club.” The personal part of his address, reflecting on recent travels with his wife, was “about seeing things differently and seeing different things.” His point was that the world itself looked more similar as he traveled far and wide, but “what differed was the behavior and reactions of those we encountered,” with people expressing “a different view of the similar rather than a similar view of different things.” In publishing terms, his international roster of authors […]