Hachette Book Group’s svp, director of marketing strategy Heather Fain is leaving on November 30 after 20 years with the company to become chief marketing officer at Pushkin Industries, the podcast company launched by Jacob Weisberg and Malcolm Gladwell. CEO Michael Pietsch notes in part, “She has been a great colleague, a mentor, and a leader, and we are going to miss her very much.” He says they “will begin a search for a replacement immediately.” Pronoy Sarkar is moving over from Picador USA to serve as associate editor for All Points Books. Ian Reilly has been promoted to vp, demand […]
Archives for November 2018
A Leading Agent Takes Center Stage with Hello Sunshine + Together Live
William Morris Endeavor’s head of Worldwide Literary, Lectures, and Conferences, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, has another lesser-known, yet in some respects, higher-profile, role. She is the co-founder, along with client and author Glennon Doyle, of Together Live, an annual big-venue touring storytelling event/would-be movement that recently began its third year. Walsh is also its chief curator, moderator and MC, inaugural podcast host, and force majeure. “When we are brave enough to tell our own stories, and present enough to really listen to others as they share theirs,” Walsh wrote on Instagram on the eve of the first stop, in Boston, “real […]
National Book Awards: Nunez Wins Fiction Prize, Along with Stewart, Tawada, Reed, and More
At the National Book Awards on Wednesday evening, the fiction prize went to Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend (Riverhead). Nunez spoke only briefly in accepting the award, quoting Alan Bennett: “For a writer, nothing is ever quite as bad as it is for other people, because, however dreadful, it may be of use.” Nunez also noted that “writing books made the miraculous possible: to be removed from the world and to be a part of the world at the same time. And tonight how happy I am to feel a part of the world.” Riverhead said there are 20,000 copies of the book in print and they ordered a reprint of another 20,000. Jeffrey C. Stewart […]
The Washington Post’s Top 10 Books
The Washington Post named their top books of the year. (In case you’re wondering, over the past three years an average of four books from their top 10 wind up making our authoritative, aggregated Very Best of the Best Books of the Year list.) This year’s picks: Nonfiction Good and Mad, By Rebecca Traister The Library Book, By Susan Orlean The Line Becomes a River, By Francisco Cantú On Desperate Ground, By Hampton Sides One Person, No Vote, By Carol Anderson Fiction The Maze at Windermere, By Gregory Blake Smith The Overstory, By Richard Powers A Place For Us, By […]
Briefs
Once again, you can view a live webcast of tonight’s National Book Awards starting at 7:20 PM. The Washington Post started rolling out its best books of the year package, including their lists of 50 notable fiction and nonfiction titles. Which means their top 10 should drop soon, too. Caroline Abbey has been promoted to editorial director at Random House Children’s. Chicago Distribution Center will distribute eight new publishers, all moving over from University Press of New England which is closing at the end of the year. The publishers are: Autumn House Press, Brandeis University Press, Carnegie Mellon University Press, Dartmouth College Press, […]
Corporate: Trustbridge Buys Peachtree; Pearson Sells Property
Trustbridge Global Media, an affiliate of Shanghai-based private equity and venture capital firm Trustbridge Partners, bought children’s publisher Peachtree Publishers in a deal that closed November 7. The company will now be called Peachtree Publishing Company. Based in Atlanta, the publisher has operated since 1977, and maintains a backlist of adult titles in addition to children’s books. Trustbridge acquired Holiday House in 2016, and former Peachtree owner Anna Quinlin, who stays on as president and publisher, said this is the “best model” for how Peachtree operations will look. She stated that Trustbridge is “keen to expand children’s content into other areas” but for […]