Amy Tannenbaum has joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency as a literary agent. She was previously an editor at Atria, and will represent new adult, romance, and commercial women’s fiction authors.
Adrienne Brodeur has left Houghton Mifflin Harcourt after seven years to become creative director of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, a program of the Aspen Institute. She can be reached at Adrienne.Brodeur@
An expanding Simon & Schuster UK has promoted executives Suzanne Baboneau and Kerr MacRae, and hired Russell Evans from Penguin UK for the new role of commercial director.
Publishing director Baboneau adds responsibility for illustrated and sports titles, and executive director MacRae takes on additional responsibility for publishing strategy and brand development. Evans, who starts in May, will oversee production, publishing operations, warehousing and physical distribution, rights, digital publishing and office management and IT. Chief executive Ian Chapman calls Evans’ new position “a pivotal role.”
Bookseller
Kansas City, which is hosting the ABA’s Winter Institute 8, was hit hard by the snowstorm making its way across the Midwest yesterday. The airport, which was closed for most of the day on Thursday, has reopened, though a number of today’s flights are cancelled (roughly 60 in all, after 300 reported cancellations yesterday). Schools remain closed in Kansas City today while the city digs out. (FlightStats shows significant cancellations at other Midwest airports, including Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Indianapolis, and St. Louis.) The opening reception for Winter Institute is tonight, and the ABA posted yesterday that there are no changes to their schedule because of the storm.
For everyone else, our new Buzz Books 2013: Spring/Summer features substantial excerpts from 11 authors due to appear at Winter Institute–plus another 17 terrific forthcoming books, in a free ebook. You can view all the featured titles here at Bookateria.
The UK’s Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year has announced their nominees (some books are available only in the UK):
Was Hitler Ill?, by Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann (Polity)
Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts, by Jerry Gagne (Foy’s Pet Supplies)
How to Sharpen Pencils, by David Rees (Melville House)
God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis, by Tom Hickman (Square Peg)
Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop, by Reginald Bakeley (Conari)
How Tea Cosies Changed the World, by Loani Prior (Murdoch)