Amanda Rutter has joined Jennifer Azantian Literary Agency as a literary agent, representing adult, YA and MG fantasy and science fiction. She was previously an agent at Red Sofa Literary Agency. Obituaries Literary agent Felicity Bryan, 74, died Sunday at home of stomach cancer. Bryan was a journalist at the FT and the Economist before joining Curtis Brown UK in 1972. She established Felicity Bryan Associates in 1988. Bryan also authored a number of books on gardening. Robert D. Richardson, 86, Bancroft prize-winning historian known for his biographies of William James and Ralph Waldo Emerson, died last week after sustaining head injuries in a fall. He was the husband […]
Archives for June 2020
Bolton Book Winds Up Posted Online for Free
After a Federal judge denied the government’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking publication of John Bolton’s THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED, due to publish Tuesday, on Saturday night unauthorized free PDF versions of book wound up online. Something similar had happened with Michael Wolff’s FIRE AND FURY, when Wikileaks posted a free version of the UK edition for a few hours. In that case, Macmillan ceo John Sargent later estimated the illegal posting had likely lost them sales of 400,000 to 500,000 units. This time the file looks to be the regular US edition. It seems to have […]
Freedom to Publish Is Alive In the Age of Trump, Though Bolton Will Likely Forfeit Earnings
On Saturday morning Judge Royce Lamberth denied the Department of Justice’s half-hearted argument to “stop” publication of John Bolton’s book THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED, since it is already out in the world. “While Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an appropriate remedy.” Or, for that matter, an effective remedy, since “in the Internet age, even a handful of copies in circulation could irrevocably destroy confidentiality.” While Judge Lamberth “is persuaded that defendant Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations,” […]
Judge Suspects the Bolton Horse Is Out of the Barn, But He Still Faces Jeopardy For Publishing without Approval
The likely futility of the DOJ’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking publication of John Bolton’s THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED — which has effectively already been published and distributed around the world — was clear in a lengthy Friday afternoon hearing before Judge Royce Lamberth as soon as he deployed his Texas lexicon: “It seems to me…that the horse, as we used to say in Texas, seems to be out of the barn.” The government’s weak response was that “the onus is on Mr. Bolton to figure out how to” recall the hundreds of thousands of books in […]
Judge Sets Friday Afternoon Hearing on Bolton Book; Filing Explains Why the Book Can’t be Stopped
Judge Royce C. Lamberth set a hearing for 1:00 PM on Friday, via videoconference, to hear arguments on the Department of Justice’s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking the release of John Bolton’s book. Meanwhile, papers filed by Bolton’s attorneys explain why — no matter how the judge rules — release of the book cannot be stopped. “There is nothing that Ambassador Bolton can do to stop the book from becoming public on June 23; indeed, it is already public.” As Simon & Schuster ceo Jonathan Karp attests, “More than 200,000 copies of the book have […]
People, Etc.
Kim Brown has joined Welbeck Publishing Group as vice president, sales & marketing for North America. She was most recently president, North America for Parragon Books. Obituaries Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 55, Spanish author of novels including The Shadow of the Wind, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles of colon cancer. Luigi Spagnol, 59, publisher of Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol, died on June 14 after a long illness. The publisher writes, “Luigi Spagnol felt a profound respect for writers and readers, and never lost a chance to prove it with words of appreciation for all those who are […]