Cary Goldstein is leaving Twelve after seven years, the last two as the imprint’s publisher, to “pursue other interests.” Grand Central president and publisher Jamie Raab said in the announcement that Goldstein has contributed an enormous amount to the imprint’s many successes.” He will remain at Twelve through May 1 as part of the transition that will see Grand Central vp, editor-in-chief Deb Futter will add to her existing duties responsibility for the Twelve imprint as publisher. Futter has been at Grand Central since 2007.
“I can’t think of a sharper or more experienced editorial voice to shape this dynamic list than Deb,” Raab said. “Since she came to Grand Central, her editorial eye has enhanced the entire GCP publishing program and I can’t wait to see what she brings to Twelve.” Futter added: “The Twelve list is a jewel in the publishing landscape. Since its inception, Twelve has been a singular publisher and I am excited to shepherd a new era for this illustrious imprint.”
Twelve was created by and for Jonathan Karp in 2005. When he left in 2010 to become publisher of the Simon & Schuster imprint, Susan Lehman took over for a brief three-month stretch, during which she did not acquire any books. Goldstein was elevated to publisher after Lehman’s departure.
In other personnel news, Eric Nelson has joined the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency as an agent. He spent the previous ten years at Wiley, most recently as executive editor.
Lauren Clark is joining Kuhn Projects, based in Washington, DC, “to support the work of current clients and to broaden the agency’s list in the areas of politics, current affairs, science, sociology, business, and history.” She has been at ICM/Sagalyn.
In awards news, the Guggenheim Foundation announced its 2013 fellows. Kiran Desai, Adam Johnson, Rachel Kushner, Ben Marcus, David Means, Terese Svoboda and Colson Whitehead were all named fiction fellows, while Joshua Foer, J. C. Hallman, Bill Hayes, Sylvia Nasar, Carlin Romano, Jennifer Homans and David Rosenberg received grants for nonfiction.
The IACP presented their annual cookbook awards in over 20 categories. Jerusalem: A Cookbook, byYotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi was their cookbook of the year.
The WSJ looks at the recent proliferation of serialized digital fiction, with Amazon has released 30 serials through their Kindle Serials iniative. St. Martin’s has published five serials so far in 2013, with three more on the way; Penguin’s InterMix imprint has issued three this year. Amazon publishing vp Jeff Belle says the company is still trying to “fine-tune” the release cycle of serial installments: “Early data indicate that shorter is probably better, and a one-week cadence works best.”
SMP’s Dan Weiss opines that the Netflix model of releasing all installments of the show House Cards at once has influenced readers’ habits, and made them less likely to wait even a week for new episodes. “We originally thought it would be fun to publish brief books with cliffhangers, and publish them like a TV show on a weekly schedule, but since then, with ‘House of Cards,’ binge viewing has come into vogue.” Instead the publisher might release several installments at once since they are “easily digestible and phone-friendly.”
Romance novelist Beth Kery warns that she was surprised by what the Journal calls a “vicious backlash” from some readers when Because You Are Mine was published last year in eight weekly installments.”Some of Ms. Kery’s longtime fans detested the format. Some readers were outraged over the $1.99 price tag for each installment, which added up to $16, far more than many e-books cost. Others resented being teased with cliffhangers.”