Charlie Schroder joins Scribd as head of domestic content acquisition and new verticals. She was previously vp/marketing, licensing & development of global at children’s publisher Candlewick Press. Liz Edelstein joins as director of original content strategy and operations. Previously, she created and ran romance fiction website Heroes & Heartbreakers at Macmillan.
Former creative director at Abrams Children’s Chad W. Beckerman has joined The CAT Agency as an agent.
Priya Nelson will join Princeton University Press as senior editor, history on June 22. She is currently editor, anthropology & history at the University of Chicago Press.
At University of California Press, Archna Patel has been promoted to associate editor, and has taken over responsibility for acquisitions for the art history list.
Picks
Brit Bennett‘s The Vanishing Half was chosen as the June book club pick by both Good Morning America and Barnes & Noble. You can read an excerpt now in our Buzz Books 2020 Fall/Winter sampler.
Megha Majumdar‘s A Burning is the Today Show’s June Read With Jenna pick.
New Ventures
Folio Literary Management founding partner Scott Hoffman serves as group ceo of International Literary Properties (while remaining an agent at Folio) with media entrepreneur Ted Green as executive chair. Formed “late last year,” the company focuses on acquiring the rights to literary estates from heirs as well as “living authors seeking financial certainty from an experienced and engaged buyer.” Former ceo of the Agatha Christie estate Hilary Strong is ceo of the UK division, and led the acquisition announced today of 12 literary estates from Peters, Fraser + Dunlop. In an eight-figure deal, ILP acquired PFD’s rights to the literary estates of Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey, Michael Innes and Evelyn Waugh. Anthology Group founder Bob Benton joins Strong with responsibility for the UK and Europe, alongside cfo Andrew Minkow and Polly Benton, who heads business development.
Hoffman says in the announcement, “When we launched ILP, it was our vision to build a portfolio of some of the world’s most important and iconic literary works with an eye toward preserving their creators’ legacies and ensuring they would bring enjoyment to readers for
decades to come.”
Book Fairs
Even Canada does not want to go to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. Scheduled as the “guest of honor” (which involves a significant financial investment in exchange for the honor and attention), an unidentified representative from Canadian Heritage tells Quill & Quire that “Canada would like its participation as a Guest of Honor to be postponed until 2021.” That person indicates that, “Along with the Frankfurter Buchmesse, Canada is currently in talks with the next three Guest of Honor countries – Spain, Slovenia, and Italy – to discuss their interest in a possible postponement. Canada appreciates their openness in this regard.”
Distribution
Lerner Publisher Services will distribute New Frontier Publishing in North America starting August 1.
Events
Management editor at the Financial Times Andrew Hill will moderate a free online panel, “Business Books in Times of Uncertainty,” featuring previous FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award winner Mohamed El-Erian, literary agent Christy Fletcher, and Harper Business publisher Hollis Heimbouch. The panel is Tuesday, June 16, at 9:00 AM ET.