Literature analysis site Prosecraft shut down on Monday after many authors expressed concern online that their books were included without their consent. Prosecraft was a product of Shaxpir, a cloud-based word processing software. According to a blog post, Prosecraft launched in 2017 after founder Benji Smith estimated the word count of his favorite books while writing his memoir. Prosecraft automated that process, analyzing text for word count and number of adverbs, as well as “vividness” and “passive voice,” and sharing sample pages of the latter. The venture used “techniques [that] were originally developed by computational linguists at the UVM Computational […]
Archives for August 2023
People 8/8
VP, director of publishing for the Clarion group Mary Wilcox will leave the company on August 25, after over 20 years at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and then Harper Collins.
New Books Publishing August 8
Daniel Kraus, James McBride, Lisa Jewell, and Lauren Beukes publish new novels this week, while new nonfiction includes work from R. Eric Thomas. Also out this week are MEDUSA’S SISTERS by Lauren J. A. Bear and PROPHET by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché, both excerpted in our Buzz Books 2023: Spring/Summer collection. 31 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-august-8 3 works of nonfiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-august-8 From Buzz Books https://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/ We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three months through this reference […]
KKR To Acquire S&S For $1.62 Billion
KKR officially announced after the close of the stock market on Monday that they will acquire Simon & Schuster from Paramount, for $1.62 billion, in an all-cash transaction, pending regulatory approval. S&S will become a standalone private company with Jonathan Karp remaining as president and ceo and Dennis Eulau continuing as coo and cfo. “All of the executives at Simon & Schuster who met with KKR came away from those conversations impressed with the depth of KKR’s interest in our business and their commitment to helping us grow, thrive and become an even stronger company,” Karp said in a release. […]
People 8/7
At Orbit, Ellen Wright has been promoted to publicity director.
Bloomsbury, AAP Mark the Death of Vaughan
Bloomsbury Publishing chief executive Nigel Newton said in a statement regarding the tragic death of Bloomsbury USA president Adrienne Vaughan in Italy: “Our hearts go out to Adrienne’s husband and children, parents, family and friends. Bloomsbury is doing everything possible to provide the support they need on the ground in Naples and in the US. “The loss of Adrienne is a terrible blow. Since she was appointed President of Bloomsbury USA three years ago, America has grown to become our biggest market. “Adrienne was a natural business leader with a great future ahead of her. She was deeply loved by […]