Archives for June 2025
Carnegie Medal Winners
Agency Heads “Future-Proof” Their Businesses By Planning for Succession
David Black has signed over ownership of his agency, which he has run for 36 years, to agent Sarah Smith, who has been with the agency for 13 years. “That was the hardest piece of paper for me to sign,” Black said. “But I do so proudly.” Smith will run the day-to-day operations of the agency, which will keep its name. She will also take on business strategy and eventually become the face of the business. Black, she said, “is not going anywhere” and he “is going to remain in his capacity as rainmaker and counsel and be there to […]
Supreme Court Justices Disclose Book Advances, Royalties
Supreme Court justices revealed book-related earnings in their 2024 financial reports, which were released yesterday. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson earned $2,068,750 advances for her memoir Lovely One (Random House). In 2023, when she signed the deal, she reported advances of $893,750. (If those payments are Justice Sonia Sotomayor published a memoir in 2014 and has since written four children’s books, with another, JUST SHINE! (Philomel), forthcoming in September. Last year she earned more than $130,000 in advances and royalties. Justice Neil Gorsuch disclosed royalties of about $250,000. Last year he published Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law (Harper) […]
Center for Fiction Medal for Editorial Excellence
Obituary: Thomas Neurath
Thomas Neurath, 84, longtime managing director and later chairman of Thames & Hudson, died in London on June 13. Thames & Hudson was Neurath’s family business, founded by his father Walter Neurath and his father’s wife and publishing colleague Eva Feuchtwang in 1949. Thomas Neurath joined as editor in 1961 and became managing director in 1967, after the death of his father. He stepped down as managing director in 2005 and became chairman until 2021. The publisher writes, “Neurath was an astonishingly skillful publisher and an astute businessman. Aspects of publishing such as distribution and finance were as important to […]