George Saunders has launched a Substack called Story Club, centered on writing and analyzing short stories. Saunders will aim to send two posts a week, “one on the lighter side, more in the vein of a classic newsletter – what I’m doing/reading/thinking” and “another more substantial one” discussing stories. The newsletter will also include “mini-essays on craft issues, addressing reader questions, the occasional humor or political essay, and so on” and will evolve in response to its audience. Like many writers making the move to Substack, Saunders was approached by the platform a few years ago. Dan Stone in writer […]
Archives for December 2021
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Beniamino Ambrosi will join The Cheney Agency as foreign rights director in January. He was most recently vp and senior scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates.
Knopf Cooks Launches
Effective immediately, Knopf is launching “an expansion of [their] publishing program” with Knopf Cooks, led by Lexy Bloom, who serves as editorial director. (Bloom already works with the Julia Child Foundation to manage Child’s backlist.) The line will have a dedicated editorial, publicity, and marketing team. Tom Pold has been promoted to senior editor, reporting to Bloom. Sara Eagle is promoted to associate director of marketing. Senior publicist Sarah New will continue to work on the cookbooks, as well as titles for Knopf and Pantheon.
Legal: Court Sends Foundry Dispute to Mediation
Judge Joel M. Cohen approved the joint request by former Foundry Media partners Yfat Reiss Gendell and Peter McGuigan to send their dispute to the court’s non-binding Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation program. If the mediation fails to resolve the matter, the parties will appear back before Judge Cohen for a conference on February 15. In the meantime, as requested, the discovery and motion schedule was extended, pending the results of the mediation.
Open Road Sold to Steinberger-Led Investor Group; Clarivate Completes ProQuest Buy
Founded in 2009 as a venture-capital backed ebook publisher and marketer, Open Road has been sold to an investor group led by former Arcadia Publishing and Perseus Book Group ceo David Steinberger, selling for “between $60 million and $80 million” according to the WSJ. Investors include private equity company Abry Partners, MEP Capital (which acquired Rosetta’s ebook catalog earlier this year), Grove Atlantic (which has worked with Open Road as a customer), and “a number of prominent individual investors from the worlds of publishing and finance” according to the press release. Paul Slavin, who took over as ceo in 2016 […]