Hasan Altaf joins the Paris Review as managing editor next Tuesday. Most recently, he was the managing editor at Harper’s Magazine. Fiction writer, poet, and musician Christian Keifer takes the new role of West Coast editor. Additionally, an expanded roster of advisory editors incorporates former poetry editor Robyn Creswell, plus Saskia Hamilton and Christopher Merrill. At Milkweed Editions, Joanna R. Demkiewicz has been promoted to marketing director. Jordan Bascom moves up to publicist. Former John Murray publishing director Eleanor Birne joins David Godwin Associates as an agent on September 3. The MacDowell Colony announced 87 recipients of fall-winter fellowships, including […]
Archives for August 2018
Legal: On Demand Publisher Challenges Federal Deposit Demand
The Institute for Justice is representing small, on-demand publisher Valancourt Books in a federal lawsuit challenging the US Copyright Office’s deposit demand, which requires providing two free copies of anything copyrightable. Valancourt, which has a list of about 400 reprints of out-of-print titles — “all of which contain at least some new material, like scholarly introductions or footnotes, that is copyrightable” — says it cannot afford to provide the deposit copies, and should have not have to do so for works that exist primarily as digital files. The Institute writes, “You don’t owe the federal government anything just because you […]
People, Etc.
Lily Yengle has joined Bloomsbury Children’s as marketing manager. She was previously publicist at Penguin Children’s. Maria Mann has joined Page Street Publishing as publicity and marketing associate. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be the keynote speaker at the opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair, on October 9. At the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, director of cultural programs Louise Steinman is leaving the organization, as is associate director Maureen Moore. Steinman founded and the ALOUD reading series at the downtown Central Library for 25 years. Spokesperson Leah Price told the LAT, “We’re in the process of re-envisioning the ALOUD series […]
Sales Slide at Penguin Random House On Softer Dollar and More
Bertelsmann reported results for the first half of the year on Thursday, with sales at Penguin Random House+ (the PRH joint venture, plus the separate Random House Germany) registering €1.482 billion, down €48 million (or 3.1 percent) overall from a year ago. Operating EBITDA fell further, to €171 million, down 35 million (or 17 percent). The company blamed “high negative exchange rate effects – in particular from the US dollar…among other factors” for the declines. In the investor call, cfo Bernd Hirsch said that “a little bit more than 50 percent” of the drop in EBITDA was due to foreign […]
Barnes & Noble: Lots of Questions
Former Barnes & Noble ceo Demos Parneros’s fiery lawsuit against the company for defamation and breach of contract raises lots of currently unanswerable questions. We are readers so here, at least, are some documents for you to scrutinize: – First is the full 19-page complaint from Parneros, which we posted yesterday – There is Parneros’s employment contract, which we posted when he was fired for cause in July. Note that it has the standard confidentiality and mutual non-disparagement clauses, which apply “during and after any employment with the Company, regardless of how, when or why such employment ends.” – Looking […]
People, Etc.
Zachary Schisgal has joined Wiley as senior acquisitions editor. Florian Illies will become publisher of Rowohlt in Germany as of January 1, 2019, succeeding Barbara Laugwitz. Illies is the author of Generation Golf and 1913, and is currently the managing director of the auction house Grisebach. Picks The September Pennie’s Pick at Costco is The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle, which is excerpted in our Buzz Books 2018 Fall/Winter sampler and available for download now. And the month’s PBS NewsHour-New York Times Now Read This pick is Robert Kaplan’s Earning the Rockies. Awards The Academy of American Poets named Sonia Sanchez as […]