People
At Random House Children’s, Laura Hernandez joins as associate manager, digital marketing. She was previously marketing coordinator at DK. Nicole Valdez joins as marketing & publicity manager for Random House Graphic. She was previously publishing publicity specialist for DC Entertainment. Carol Ly has joined the middle-grade design team as senior designer. She was previously senior designer for Macmillan Children’s.
Pep Carrera has joined ProQuest as president of its books business unit, which provides “flexible models and integrated technologies that make the acquisition and management of books cost-effective and efficient.” He was president and coo at Ingram’s VitalSource.
Distribution
McSweeney‘s will move distribution for their books and quarterly print magazine from longtime partner PGW to Baker & Taylor Publisher Services.
Legal
The long-running legal battle between Christopher Kimball and America’s Test Kitchen has been settled out of court. Kimball “will return his ATK shares to the company for an undisclosed price,” the parties said in a statement. “In addition, the parties have agreed to business terms that will allow America’s Test Kitchen and Mr. Kimball’s company, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, to coexist in the marketplace.” Kimball indicated to the NYT that “it became clear that everyone involved wanted to avoid the expense and emotional toll of a trial.” Kimball founded ATK, and left the company to create Milk Street shortly after David Nussbaum was brought in as ceo in late 2015.
Forthcoming
Disney is brining back the “day in the life” photography book format to celebrate itself for a second time. ONE DAY AT DISNEY will be published on December 3, “a spectacular collaboration… highlighting the talented men and women who bring life to some of Disney’s most beloved stories.” (They did this once before, in 2000, focused on their parks.) The publication date of the $50 hardcover aligns with the release of 52-episode documentary series of the same name on the new Disney+ streaming service.
It’s Not Just Books
In publishing we focus on Amazon’s growing disregard for intellectual property rights and basic quality in their books marketplaces, filled with fake, illegitimate and counterfeit editions of books, back in the news earlier this week following another article in the NYT. But today the WSJ goes much further, carefully documenting the basic lawlesslness that pervades Amazon‘s growing retail ecosystem: “In practice, Amazon has increasingly evolved like a flea market. It exercises limited oversight over items listed by millions of third-party sellers, many of them anonymous, many in China, some offering scant information.
“A Wall Street Journal investigation found 4,152 items for sale on Amazon.com Inc.’s site that have been declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled or are banned by federal regulators—items that big-box retailers’ policies would bar from their shelves. Among those items, at least 2,000 listings for toys and medications lacked warnings about health risks to children.
“The Journal identified at least 157 items for sale that Amazon had said it banned, including sleeping mats the Food and Drug Administration warns can suffocate infants. The Journal commissioned tests of 10 children’s products it bought on Amazon, many promoted as ‘Amazon’s Choice.’ Four failed tests based on federal safety standards, according to the testing company, including one with lead levels that exceeded federal limits.”