Yfat Reiss Gendell has left Foundry Literary + Media, which she co-founded, to start a new agency, YRG Partners. Joining her from Foundry are Tanusri Prasanna, Peter Steinberg and Adriann Ranta Zurhellen. Gendell indicates to Deadline “the agency will partner with a series of existing and new private equity firm relationships, each active in intellectual property and consumer brand development, to match-make between clients and the investment community, and to create unconventional opportunities that work alongside or independent of existing publishing models.” YRG will have offices in New York and Los Angeles. Reportedly, Foundry partner Peter McGuigan is also setting up […]
Archives for September 2020
National Book Awards Longlist: Nonfiction
Though presidential politics has dominated commercial frontlist publishing, the just-announced longlist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction follows a different course, though many of the books still deal with the political and social issues of the day. Norton has four titles in contention: Michelle Bowdler, Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto (Flatiron) Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans (One World) Jill Lepore, If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future (Liveright) Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (Liveright) Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of […]
Sargent to Leave Macmillan Over “Disagreements Regarding the Direction,” Weisberg to Take Over
Holtzbrinck announced Thursday morning that longtime ceo of Macmillan John Sargent will leave the company on January 1 “as a result of disagreements regarding the direction of Macmillan.” President of Macmillan US Trade Don Weisberg will take over in 2021 as ceo of Macmillan’s English-language trade publishers, and general manager of Macmillan Learning Susan Winslow will become president of that division. Winslow will report to Macmillan global coo Andrew Weber, who will report to parent company chief executive Stefan von Holtzbrinck on higher education issues, and to Weisberg on trade matters. Holtzbrinck’s German division has reported to Sargent as well. […]
First Volume of President Obama’s Memoir to Publish November 17
Consistent with the leak earlier this week, Crown announced that it will publish Barack Obama’s A PROMISED LAND on November 17, for simultaneous release in 25 languages. This will be the first in what the publisher now says is two volumes of presidential memoirs. Crown says they will print 3 million hardcovers, and once again the editor is Rachel Klayman. The book is 768 pages long and will sell for $45 (with the ebook at $17.99 and the digital audio, read by the author, at $40). Tour information will be announced later, and there is no date for the second […]
People, Etc.
Longtime Holt executive editor Barbara Jones will leave the company on October 16, “first to dedicate a few weeks to getting out the vote and thereafter to apply her editorial pencil elsewhere.” Editor-in-chief Sarah Crichton wrote to staff, “An active member of Holt’s D&I Council from its early days, and a dear friend as well as a colleague, Barbara will be sorely missed.” The expanding ABA board is adding Black booksellers Jake Cumsky-Whitlock at Solid State Books in Washington, DC and Melanie Knight at Books Inc. in San Francisco, CA immediately. For now they will serve until the next election, […]
National Books Awards Longlists: Translated Literature and Poetry
Announcements of the National Book Award longlists continued, first with the nominees for Translated Literature on Wednesday, and then with the poetry candidates on Thursday: Shokoofeh Azar, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Europa Editions) Translated, from the Persian, by Anonymous Linda Boström Knausgård, The Helios Disaster (World Editions) Translated, from the Swedish, by Rachel Willson-Broyles Anja Kampmann, High as the Waters Rise (Catapult) Translated, from the German, by Anne Posten Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Family Clause (FSG) Translated, from the Swedish, by Alice Menzies Fernanda Melchor, Hurricane Season (New Directions) Translated, from the Spanish, by Sophie Hughes Yu Miri, […]