Nobel winner Olga Tokarczuk’s THE BOOKS OF JACOB will be published in English in late 2020 or early 2021 by Riverhead, again translated by Jennifer Croft, translator of FLIGHTS. Croft is still at work on the roughly 900-page book, winner of Poland’s Nike Literature Award in 2015, “delves into the life and times of the controversial historical figure Jacob Frank, leader of a heretical Jewish splinter group that ranged the Habsburg and Ottoman empires and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth seeking basic safety as well as transcendence.” Croft writes for the Paris Review, “Considered by many to be her masterpiece, The Books of […]
Archives for October 2019
People, Etc.
Roger Scholl, vp executive editor at Crown/Currency, will leave the company at the end of the year after 40 years in the industry. He will relocate to Newport, RI where he will continue working as a consultant, writer and freelance editor. As of January 2, he can be reached at rscholl260@gmail.com. Matthew Daddona has been promoted to senior editor at Dey Street Books. Hachette UK announced a new trade publishing structure. As a result, Lucy Hale‘s role as deputy ceo of Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, Quercus and John Murray Press is being eliminated and she “has decided to leave.” The […]
Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke Awarded Nobel Literature Prizes
The Swedish Academy announced that Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk is the winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, and Austrian writer Peter Handke is the winner of the 2019 prize. They did not select a winner last year after a sexual misconduct scandal within the academy in 2017. The academy says Tokarczuk, 57, won the award for “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.” Tokarczuk won the 2018 Booker International for Flights, which was also a finalist for the National Book Award for translated literature. Her book Drive […]
Introducing PM Site Tour
In response to user questions, we have put together a brief tutorial on how to use the Publishers Marketplace website. This short screencast highlights some of the most popular features of PM, as well as a few less-known but useful gems, to help you learn how to maximize our website’s benefits. A free version is available to nonmembers, which includes screenshots from behind the paywall, showing what some of our most popular members-only features look like. Click here to view.
People, Etc.
At ICM, Sloan Harris has been promoted to co-president of the agency, along with Kevin Crotty. They will oversee all agent-related and client service operations, reporting to managing director Chris Silbermann. Board member Jennifer Joel takes over Harris’s role as co-head of the publishing department alongside Esther Newberg. The company said, “Joel is one of the top agents in the publishing world, a consummate pro who has demonstrated her undeniable leadership skills as a board member. This is a natural move, as Jennifer has evolved into one of the agency’s leading voices. We couldn’t be luckier to be able to […]
The Early Frankfurt Dealmaking Preview: Steady Volumes, Fewer Big Deals
It’s one of those rare years in which the Frankfurt Book Fair, starting next Wednesday, will be convened six weeks after Labor Day instead of the usual five weeks (probably due to the late Jewish holidays). While we will share the official stats on the pre-FBF selling season a week from now, that schedule variation means we do already have a full sample data set of five weeks and a day for early comparison, which is our usual standard. From what we see in the current data, total pre-Frankfurt domestic deal volume looks to be just about flat again this […]