Lance Fitzgerald will move over to Penguin Random House Audio, in the new position of vp, content and business development, reporting to Amanda D’Acierno. He has been vp & director, subsidiary rights at Crown. He will be responsible for growing the list to “include foreign-language publishing, original audio publishing, and to deepen our connection to theatre.” With Fitzgerald’s appointment, svp and associate publisher Amy Metsch “has decided to leave the company” after 17 years there. Additionally, Catherine Bucaria has been promoted to director, acquisitions & editorial operations, reporting to Fitzgerald. Laura Schreiber has joined Jimmy Patterson as editorial director. She […]
Archives for January 2020
Next Week’s Bestsellers
We are beginning some experimental work with BookStat, the service that tracks and estimates online book sales across all formats, to provide some market insights not previously available. One feature of the system we particularly like (and helped to inspire) is that it tracks pre-orders on a daily basis, right alongside sales of books already on the market, providing a broader view of titles attracting interest from readers. That feature becomes particularly interesting for tracking new release titles (and over time helping to distinguish between actual opening week sales of books, versus their accrued pre-orders). It also means we can […]
Penguin Random House Pulls Titles from Unlimited Subscription Services Around the World
Earlier this month, as of January 15 by most indications, Penguin Random House removed its audiobook titles from a variety of “unlimited” listening subscription platforms around the world. The news was first reported out of Scandinavia, where the disappearance was notable on leading platform Storytel and its acquired subsidiaries (like Mofibo in Denmark), as well as on their leading competitors such as Bonnier’s Bookbeat and Russia’s Nextory. Missed in that reporting is that PRH’s titles have also been removed from Scribd, where their audiobooks were also a notable part of the offering. (When PRH audio first participated with Scribd in […]
Oprah, B&N Choose American Dirt for Book Clubs as Controversy Continues
Oprah picked Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt as her new book club selection, with the book to be discussed starting January 27. At the same time, Barnes & Noble also chose the book as their February Book Club pick. The selections follow a controversy online sparked by conflicting reviews published in the NYT from critic Parul Sehgal and author Lauren Groff, the amount of press the paper has given the book, and assertions by some in the Latinx community that the book is a work of appropriation. (While it’s well known in the trade, at some point it will be pointed […]
Buzz Books Spring/Summer Preview: Literary & Debut Fiction
Our Buzz Books 2020 Spring/Summer sampler excerpts an array of great forthcoming literary and debut fiction. Did you download your copy yet? Get the “trade edition” from NetGalley, or find the consumer editions all linked at our main Buzz Books website. As usual, we begin our free ebook with a broad overview of the upcoming publishing season, featuring hundreds of notable titles on the way. We’ll be presenting extracts from that season preview in the coming days. And if you’re attending Winter Institute, be on the lookout for Buzz Books authors Jessica Anthony, Julie Clark, Anna Solomon, Sam Lansky, Charlotte McConaghy, […]
People, Etc.
At Random House Children’s, Jennifer Baker has joined as a managing editor. She was previously production editor for Teachers College Press. Jinna Shin has been promoted to assistant art director; Bob Bianchini to senior designer; April Ward to senior art director; Nicole de las Heras to senior art director; Tracy Tyler to senior executive art director; Roberta Ludlow to executive art director; and Alison Kolani to executive director, copyediting. Sara Birmingham has been promoted to associate editor at Ecco. Ben LeRoy has joined Crooked Lane Books as senior acquisitions editor focusing on crime fiction. He was previously founder and publisher of […]