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People, Etc.

December 11, 2018
By Erin Somers

Sara Sargent moves to Random House Children’s as senior executive editor. (She was previously executive editor for Harper Children’s.) Also, Hanna Glidden has been promoted to associate director of pub ops business process and support.

At Berkley, Kristine Swartz has been promoted to editor and Sarah Blumenstock has been promoted to associate editor.

Julia Ringo has been promoted to associate editor at Farrar, Straus.

Roisin Davis has joined Haymarket Books as director of foreign rights. She will also continue as associate agent at Roam Agency.

In the UK, Jenny Lord has been promoted to nonfiction publisher for Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Alan Samson expands his role to become W&N chairman, while also continuing as non-fiction publisher.

Chris Ryall is rejoining IDW Media as president, publisher and chief creative officer (after leaving his position as chief creative officer and editor-in-chief earlier this year). He takes over as Greg Goldstein steps down. Ryall had moved to the editorial division at Skybound Entertainment.

Rupi Kaur, instagram poet and author of NYT bestselling Milk and Honey and The Sun and Her Flowers, has signed with ICM, with plans to expand her career into film, television, and theater. Suzanne Brandreth at CookeMcDermid will continue to be her literary agent. (This updates our original post.)

Chronicle Books is partnering with Lego Group to produce books based on their products, starting with seven titles in spring 2020. Executive editorial director of Chronicle Books Sarah Malarkey said, “We are thrilled to work with LEGO, an internationally beloved brand that shares our values of quality, creativity, and play. Both companies have generations of fans and a real affinity for one another.”

Forthcoming
Yes it’s a big year for nonfiction but the one author with two books on the NPD Bookscan Top 20 year-to-date chart is children’s author Dav Pilkey — and Scholastic announced a 5-million-copy first printing for Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild, which publishes December 24 in the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand, and Australia. (August’s Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas had a 3-million-copy first printing.) The publisher also said that the seventh installment in the series, Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls, will publish August 13, 2019.

Extended
Michelle Obama‘s book-related megatour staged by LiveNation has been extended into 2019, including 11 additional stops (along with 4 in Canada, and 6 in Europe). The next round begins in February 8 in Tacoma, WA and concludes on May 12 in Nashville, TN.

Film/TV
Whiting winner Alice Sola Kim‘s short story Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying,  published in Tin House Magazine in October, has been acquired for feature rights by Fox 2000 and 21 Laps. The story follows three girls from South Korea adopted by American parents who “discover a spell that summons the spirit of their Korean ‘mother.'” Kim is represented by Claudia Ballard at William Morris Endeavor.

Best Of
USA Today named its 10 best fiction and nonfiction titles of the year, with Michelle Obama’s Becoming at no. 1. Also on the list were The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; Calypso by David Sedaris; and An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.

NPR’s Maureen Corrigan chose Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers as the best novel of the year. Other titles on her best of the year list included Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart; There There by Tommy Orange; and Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

Earnings
Forbes has just updated their annual list estimating top authors’ earnings (usually issued in early August), still covering the 12-months ending June 1, 2018. Michael Wolff is rare new entrant on their list, following the breakout success of FIRE AND FURY. Their list and estimates:

1. James Patterson, $86 million
2. JK Rowling, $54 million
3. Stephen King, $27 million
4. John Grisham, $21 million
5. Jeff Kinney, $18.5 million
Dan Brown
7. Michael Wolff, $13 million
8. Danielle Steel, $12 million
Nora Roberts
10. Rick Riordan, $10.5 million
E.L James, $10.5 million

Filed Under: Authors, Best of, Film/TV, Free, Personnel

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