Following the reorganization of Knopf Random House Canada into Knopf Canada and Random House Canada last December, the company made a number of personnel announcements. At Random House Canada, Craig Pyette and Pamela Murray will remain on the team, both in the role of senior editor. Deirdre Molina stays on as senior managing editor. Sarah Jackson has been promoted to associate editor. Evan Klein will work with the Random House Canada team as imprint sales director, reporting to group sales director Val Gow.
At Knopf Canada, Lynn Henry will stay in the role of publishing director. Amanda Betts has been promoted to the newly created role of senior editor, and Rick Meier has been promoted to the new position of publishing manager. Matthew Sibiga will remain Knopf Canada’s imprint sales director, reporting to Val Gow.
At St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Michael Storrings has been promoted to vice president, executive creative director; Sylvan Creekmore to editor; and Cassidy Graham to assistant editor. At Wednesday Books, Vicki Lame becomes executive editor, and Jennie Conway becomes editor. At Minotaur, Nettie Finn has been promoted to associate editor, and Madeline Houpt has been promoted to assistant editor.
Dennis Lee has been promoted to vp, business management at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. James Stamos becomes senior sales operations manager.
Maddie Ticknor has been promoted to subrights and office coordinator at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.
Bookselling
New York Magazine reported extensively on the divide between the Strand‘s unionized workers and the store’s wealthy owner. The store is still in a tenuous position: “A year after the layoffs, there are still only 68 employees, around a third of what there were before the pandemic. ‘If I could bring back a staff 212 strong I would,’ wrote Bass Wyden in a statement to Vulture. ‘But as the pandemic rages on we have to be strategic about our staffing levels and resource allocation so we survive in the long run.’… This week, the Strand’s spokesperson said the store’s business was ‘still down 70 to 80 percent, depending on the month.'”
Separately, author Julie Berry is the new owner of The Book Shoppe in Medina, NY, which she is re-launching as Author’s Note.
Marketing
The NYT picked up on the influence of BookTok videos in driving sales of books. (Refinery29 took a look at BookTok favorites a month ago.) Barnes & Noble director of books Shannon DeVito notes, “We haven’t seen these types of crazy sales — I mean tens of thousands of copies a month — with other social media formats.” To that end, the chain’s website highlights their top 25 BookTok titles.
Buzz Books
Once again we are finalizing our latest Buzz Books 2021: Fall/Winter sampler, which will include extensive seasonal preview/overview listings of notable titles on the way. We compile these big roundups by looking at publisher catalogs, our own comprehensive monthly lists of significant forthcoming books; hints from our substantial flow of deal reports; aggregation of “anticipated books” lists from other publications; word-of-mouth within the industry; and more.
If you have notable fall/winter titles you would like to have considered for the preview list — particularly ones you are concerned we might have missed from the regular signals, along with drop-ins and rescheduled releases — now is your chance to let us know. Please email us your suggestions no later than April 2, and make sure to include author, title, imprint, and pub date. Send to Erin Somers (erin@publishersmarketplace.