Pippa Wright joins Orion Spring this summer as publishing director, reporting to publisher Amanda Harris. She was previously rights director at Cornerstone.
Becky Odell has been promoted to publicist at Dutton.
Liz Gately is now scouting for Horizon in China.
Reviews
The San Francisco Chronicle‘s new contributing books editor Patrick Thomas explains how books are selected for review: “Simply put: Trust in the collective wisdom of the books community. Every week this will include personal correspondence with Bay Area booksellers, writers from here and around the world, and global publishing house executives, as well as consulting prepublication reviews that librarians and bookstores rely on to guide their purchases. After assembling this group’s guidance into one list, I’ll ask the following about each title: Is the author a current or former Bay Area resident? Does he or she plan to tour here? And does this book speak to our uniquely vibrant and diverse community?”
Authors
Retired Navy Seal and author of the self-published bestseller CAN’T HURT ME David Goggins has signed with William Morris Endeavor for representation. Deadline says without sourcing that the book has sold 900,000 copies — mostly digital units, whatever the total is, since NPD Bookscan shows print sales of 67,000 for the trade paperback.
Obamas’ Dramas
Last October Michelle and Barack Obama optioned rights to Michael Lewis‘s THE FIFTH RISK for their production deal at Netflix and on Tuesday the streaming service officially announced the first slate of projects due from the Obama’s Higher Ground Productions. “To be released over the next several years,” that line-up includes the Lewis series, as well as a feature-film adaptation of David W. Blight‘s Pulitzer-winning biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.
Awards
The Jewish Book Council’s Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature was awarded to Michael David Lukas‘s The Last Watchman of Old Cairo.
Distribution
Casemate Group will distribute Histria Books worldwide starting June 1.