• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

People, Etc.

January 22, 2021
By Erin Somers

Emily Feinberg has been promoted to senior editor at Roaring Brook Press.
At Macmillan Children’s, Robert Brown has been promoted to associate director, marketing. Brian Geffen has been promoted to senior editor at Holt Children’s.

Gail Brussel has been promoted to associate publicity director at Penguin Press.

Distribution
BenBella Books will be distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services worldwide starting July 1, moving from Two Rivers.

Challenges
Canada’s Insomniac Press is “in trouble,” the Globe and Mail, with its future now uncertain. Associate publisher Andy Verboom, who was going to over ownership from founding publisher Mike O’Connor has withdrawn from the deal and stepped down. First he cancelled their forthcoming slate of 12 titles scheduled for publication: “I could not see how a ‘new’’ Insomniac would be able (in terms of labour or finances) to fulfill its obligations to both past authors and new authors. I was unwilling to pass on these obligations to the editors or new authors. I did my best to communicate this to the new authors.” The house, he wrote, “would be overburdened with redressing contractual obligations to past authors and would be unable to do right by new authors and books.”

Verboom reports receiving requests for late royalty statements and rights reversions from house authors: “Given how long some of these past authors had published with Insomniac – and for the sake of the new authors – I had to assume this problem was so pervasive that it couldn’t be addressed in a reasonable time.” O’Connor says, “To keep the publishing house running long enough for the handoff to Andy, I had to empty my [retirement] savings. This leaves me in a very precarious position.”

Filed Under: Distribution, Free, Personnel

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Netflix and Hachette Livre to Make Asterix Animated Series March 3, 2021 Deadline
  • Parul Sehgal Reviews the NYT Book Review Over the Years February 27, 2021 NYT
  • For Food Writers, Newsletters, YouTube, Patreon and Books Provide Self-Publishing "Haven for Escapees of Traditional Media" February 26, 2021 Food52
  • Easy Question: "Is It Time to Kill the Book Blurb?" February 24, 2021 WSJ
  • Amor Towles' The Lincoln Highway to Publish October 5 February 17, 2021 Publisher page
  • Reporting On Losses at Reed Exhibitions Alone Misses the Point: The Parent Company Raised Their Dividend, Had Adjusted Profit of Over £2 Billion, Spent Almost £900 Million On Acquisitions, and Can Afford to Treat Customers Better February 11, 2021 Press Release
  • DOJ Drops Lawsuit Against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff Alleging Her Book Violated A White House NDA February 9, 2021 Washington Post
  • NC's Foggy Pine Books Featured in Star-Studded Super Bowl Ad February 8, 2021 Hollywood Reporter
  • Some Other Authors Hoping to Sell Books on Reddit-Inspired Traders February 5, 2021 NY Post
  • Pen/Faulkner Longlist Named February 3, 2021 Awards site
© 2021 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.