SVP and publisher of Hachette Nashville Rolf Zettersten has decided to retire this fall and will depart after successor is “named shortly.” He joined HBG in 2000 to start a Christian publishing program, launching what became FaithWords. CEO Michael Pietsch writes, “I want to thank Rolf for leading the Nashville division to reach remarkable heights with their publishing programs – selling more than 100 million copies since the division’s inception.” Zettersten notes, “It’s been a remarkable career and I am cheering for the continued growth and development of this program which means so much to me.” Separately, former deputy publisher at […]
Archives for October 2019
People, Etc.
Sean deLone has been promoted to assistant editor at Atria. At Abrams, Trish McNamara O’Neill has been promoted to senior manager, digital & social media marketing, children’s books. Claire McLaughlin has joined Flatiron Books as publicist. She was previously an associate publicist at Little Bird Publicity. Jordan Hanley has moved over to Nightfire as marketing manager. She was at St. Martin’s. Forthcoming Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal (with Sam Koppelman)’s IMPEACH: The Case Against Donald Trump will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in trade paperback on November 26. “If we don’t impeach President Trump, then we will live […]
People, Etc.
Author Christopher Beha was promoted to editor of Harper’s Magazine. He succeeds James Marcus, who was fired in April 2018 for opposing a controversial cover story by Katie Roiphe about the “Sh—y Media Men” list. Selected by publisher Rick MacArthur, Beha said, “Rick and I tried to be very clear about what our expectations for each other are, so there aren’t a lot of surprises.” At Simon Pulse, Sarah McCabe was promoted to editor and Nicole Ellul to senior editor. In the UK, Jennie Rothwell has joined Arrow as fiction editor. She was previously with Bonnier Books UK. At Springer Nature, […]
People, Etc.
After withdrawing the inventory and postponing publication of Naomi Wolf‘s disputed OUTRAGES in June, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the author have terminated their contract. They have “mutually and amicably agreed to part company” according to releases provided to the AP. (HMH had said previously they needed “time to explore” the questions raised about the book’s historical accuracy.) At the time, Wolf disputed the postponement: “I stand by my work…. More responsiveness and more transparency are the right answers to criticism, and not the complete withdrawal of a text.” Wolf also ended her relationship with Brockman Inc. at the end of […]
AAP Trade Stats Decline In August, with Big Drop In Higher Ed
As often happens, following positive statistics for July, the AAP’s monthly StatShot report shows declines in August, particularly for adult trade books. Yet again, the final adult trade comparison data from 2018 was revised, so comparisons are difficult. Adult trade sales were $407 million — down from $440 million a year ago (itself a revision downward from the $459 million originally reported for August 2018). Children’s sales filled some of the gap, at $197 million, up from $183 million a year ago. The total of $604 million was more in line with figures from August 2017 ($608 million) and August […]
Houghton Tells Investors It’s Doing Better, Will Fire Another 8 Percent of Employees
As part of an investor day presentation on Thursday, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it “will make changes connected with the company’s ongoing strategic transformation to simplify its business model and accelerate growth.” With a “streamlining of operations company-wide for greater efficiency,” that corporate-speak translates into another big wave of layoffs: Over 8 percent of employees will be fired as part of the exciting new strategy (and that’s with “taking into account new strategy-aligned positions that are expected to be added”). They didn’t provide a number of people to be fired, which is their style. But this is almost as […]