Archives for February 2022
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Seale Ballenger will join Scholastic as vp, publicity on February 28, reporting to svp of marketing Erin Berger. He was previously publicity director at Disney Publishing Worldwide.
Imprints: Penguin Young Readers Launches Rocky Pond Books
Penguin Young Readers will launch Rocky Pond Books, led by Lauri Hornik, who has been publisher at Dial Books for Young Readers. The imprint will publish fiction and nonfiction for age two through teen “with a focus on mental health and social-emotional learning and on seeking out exceptional debut authors and illustrators.” Rocky Pond’s first list will publish in spring 2023. “Above all, I am committed to publishing mental health content – books that start conversations, that provide a step toward healing, and that show readers they aren’t alone,” Hornik said in a release. “I’m so excited to now be dedicating myself […]
Follett Sold to Private Investors
College bookstore operator Follett Higher Education (and parent corporate entity Follett Corporation) has been sold to a group of private investors led by Jefferson River Capital, a private investment firm that is the family office of Tony James, recently retired executive vice chairman of Blackstone. Terms of the deal were not announced. Just as reported last August, the entirety of Follett has now been sold, with Morgan Stanley as financial advisor. In September 2021, Follett School Solutions was sold to Francisco Partners. The company said they would close the Follett Book Fairs, which were recently sold to Literati instead. Then in November, […]
Stream the Buzz Books Young Adult Editors Panel
In case you missed it, we had another terrific Buzz Editors panel on Wednesday with four young adult spring authors and their editors on our latest Buzz Books Young Adult Editors Panel. We have the full recording available to download at your leisure. Once again, our thanks to the ABA for co-sponsoring, to bookseller Zoe Detlaf from Books of Wonder in NY for her superb hosting, and to all of the participating editors and authors. You can use the dots on the video timestamp to jump among the presentations. And if you haven’t done so yet, sample the presented titles […]
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The indefatigable Andy Hunter will step down as publisher at Catapult/Counterpoint/Soft Skull, effective February 18. COO Alyson Forbes will serve as interim publisher. Co-founder of Catapult, Hunter says in the announcement: "It has been a dream to have been given the opportunity to help launch and build such a vital independent literary press, and I look forward to cheering on all their future success as well as to continuing to focus on my roles at Bookshop.org, Electric Literature, Literary Hub and my other creative endeavors."