People, Etc.

Director, Canada sales, Macmillan Hank Cochrane is moving to Picador as vp and associate publisher as of April 6. He will oversee the Picador list, and report to publisher of FSG and Picador Mitzi Angel, with a dotted line to Holt president and publisher Amy Einhorn. Angel says in the announcement, “Many of us at FSG, Holt, and St. Martin’s Press know Hank for his good humor, his intelligence, and his commitment to our books. With his deep publishing expertise and excellent understanding of the marketplace, he is the ideal leader to guide and grow our best-in-class paperback list.” Newly reporting to Cochrane will be vp, sales and marketing, Picador Darin Keesler.

Christopher Moisan has joined Algonquin Books as creative director, working out of the New York office. He was previously adult trade creative director at HMH.

Deeba Zargarpur has joined Simon & Schuster Children’s and Salaam Reads as editor. She was most recently at Glasstown Entertainment.

Alisa Trager has joined Boyds Mills & Kane as production editor. Previously, she was production and editorial coordinator at graphic novel publisher Humanoids.

Richard Marek, 86, former editor and publisher who held positions at Putnam, Crown and elsewhere, died on Sunday at his home in Westport, CT.

Chef and cookbook author Floyd Cardoz, 59, died on Tuesday of COVID-19.

Journalist and author Richard Reeves, 83, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles of cardiac arrest.

Sales
Print book sales for the week through March 21 as tracked by NPD Bookscan were stable compared to the prior week (after a 10 percent decline compared to earlier in March), up three-tenths of a percent compared to the week ending March 14, at 11.16 million units overall.

There were significant shifts towards nonfiction kids education/reference books and games/hobbies titles, as well as crafts/hobbies titles for adults — as many adult nonfiction categories fell, with adult nonfiction overall down more than 15 percent week over week. We’ll update you further after NPD distributes their in-house weekly analysis.

Layoffs
Layoffs and cutbacks are hitting some of the big talent agencies now. Notably, last week Paradigm reportedly laid off over 100 people temporarily, including book-to-film agent Sally Wilcox, and imposed salary reductions. UTA is said to have “implemented a company-wide salary cut, multiple people familiar with the decision told Variety.”

The board of Informa (parent of Taylor & Francis) announced some early cost cutting: Their directors are taking a voluntary 25% reduction in board fees “through the current period of uncertainty” and all further fees will be taken as equity rather than cash. The group chief executive and group finance director offered to take a voluntary 33 percent reduction in
salary, and the rest of the executive management team offered a voluntary salary reduction of 25 percent.

Forthcoming
Alicia Keys announced that her memoir MORE MYSELF will still release March 31, even though her tour is cancelled, and the audiobook version will include contributions from Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Bono, and Michelle Obama, along with members from Keys’s family. It’s said to include some “previously unreleased musical records” as well, and is produced by Guy Oldfield.Keys said in a statement, “This audiobook has so much amazing energy, I’ve never experienced something so intimate. It’s nuanced and surprising and musical and emotional! I love it, and I am grateful to all my friends and loved ones for joining me on this ride.”

Also Forthcoming?
Agence France Presse reports that Hachette Livre imprint Editions Stock has once again licensed French rights to Woody Allen‘s memoir Apropos of Nothing, as they had done originally when Hachette Book Group USA controlled world rights. The translation by Marc Amfreville and Antoine Cazé is scheduled for publication on May 13, 2020. Separately, Spanish media is indicating that Hachette’s Alianza will publish there on May 21. But the new rightsholder Skyhorse Publishing has declined to confirm these or any other international licenses for now, telling PL, “There has been an enormous amount of interest and we anticipate selling the book widely. We will provide more details in the coming weeks.”