At Sourcebooks, Valerie Pierce has been promoted to marketing manager, retail and libraries. In addition, Jenna Skwarek has joined as assistant editor in the trade division. She was previously with McGraw-Hill Higher Education, where she was a development editor and editorial coordinator.
In Holland, Jessica Nash take over as editor-in-chief of translated fiction at Atlas-Contact on October as Tom Harmsen moves over within the VBK group to become publisher of Luitingh-Sijthoff. Martijn David will be leaving Atlas-Contact on October 15 to become Secretary-General of the Dutch publishers’ association.
Berkley/NAL has formally announced details of their new graphic novel imprint, InkLit, which was first disclosed in Penguin’s half-year results in July. Under the direction of former co-founder of Yen Press Richard Johnson, InkLit starts with Patricia Briggs’ ALPHA AND OMEGA: Volume 1, an adaptation of her 2008 novel, on October 2 and plans for 2013 include an original graphic novel by Charlaine Harris and two titles by Laurell K. Hamilton. “We are excited to expand our publishing program to include books in graphic novel format, both from established house authors as well as newcomers to our list,” said NAL publisher Kara Welsh in the release.
Author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach, 76, is “healing slowly” from injuries sustained in an August 31 plane crash and is “in sort of a daze”, his son James told the Seattle Times. “Although he can say a few words and respond to simple commands, he does not seem to know why he’s in the hospital. It’s possible that, at any moment, he may snap into lucidity.”
As part of an investigation by the Sunday Times into authors who post fake reviews under other names, a story that’s been a regular feature of literary social media circles all summer, Pan Macmillan adult division head Jeremy Trevathan confirmed he had posted 15 five-star reviews of the company’s authors on Amazon UK under the pseudonym “Gary O’Reilly.” Trevathan told the paper he created the pseudonym in the late 1990s “to avoid attention” but had not posted anything on Amazon for the past year, and had never criticized any rival authors. “I didn’t want to put my real name out there because as [the] publisher I would be inundated with manuscripts and I wanted to keep this separate,” Trevathan said. “These are genuine reviews. I like the books I publish. This is about talking and engaging with readers.”
Milwaukee bookseller Beverly Segel died last week. As Daniel Goldin writes, “mostly, she sold a lot of books, in part because she seemed to know everybody.” Journal Sentinel books editor Jim Higgins calls her “a living embodiment of Milwaukee’s bookstore tradition.” Boswell and Books will close today from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM so the staff can attend services.