Author Christopher Beha was promoted to editor of Harper’s Magazine. He succeeds James Marcus, who was fired in April 2018 for opposing a controversial cover story by Katie Roiphe about the “Sh—y Media Men” list. Selected by publisher Rick MacArthur, Beha said, “Rick and I tried to be very clear about what our expectations for each other are, so there aren’t a lot of surprises.”
At Simon Pulse, Sarah McCabe was promoted to editor and Nicole Ellul to senior editor.
In the UK, Jennie Rothwell has joined Arrow as fiction editor. She was previously with Bonnier Books UK.
At Springer Nature, Stephen Pincock was promoted to vp, magazines and editorial, with publishing responsibility for scientific journal Nature and Scientific American.
A reminder that the memorial to celebrate the late Irene Skolnick will be held on Wednesday, October 30 from 6:00-7.30 PM at The Friends Meeting House, 15 Rutherford Place, just off Stuyvesant Square at 15th Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenues. All are welcome.
Bookselling
Dallas’s Interabang Books was all but destroyed by a tornado on Sunday evening. The store hopes to relocate upcoming events to other locations.
Amazon Australia overcame their initial cowardice and started selling Ronan Farrow‘s CATCH AND KILL — though not without incident. (One reader said on Twitter the company failed to communicate with customers who had preordered and expected the book on release: “It just appeared in my downloads, days after I’d bought it elsewhere and finished it.”)
Penguin Random House has launched a website designed and built for elementary school educators, featuring over 20,000 titles for the PreK-6 classroom. It was developed with feedback from teacher survey groups, publisher sales and marketing teams, and the PRH Elementary Education Teacher Advisory Board.
Legal
Judge John Koeltl has agreed to a new pre-motion conference on November 4, in the Demos Parneros‘s suit against Barnes & Noble, at the request of the bookseller’s attorney. They have “contemplated” moving for partial summary judgment motion, to dismiss Parneros’s allegations of defamation and breach of covenant of good faith, leaving only the breach of employment contract charge for trial. The former carry potential damages of $70 million, while the latter seeks about $6.4 million in damages. They claim “the undisputed facts require their dismissal as a matter of law,” though Parneros’s team has not had a chance to reply yet.
Distribution
UK publisher Oneworld Publications will use Simon & Schuster for sales and distribution in North America as of November 1, moving from PGW.
Awards
The Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction announced its shortlist, with the winner to be announced on November 19:
Furious Hours, by Casey Cep
On Chapel Sands, by Laura Cumming (published as Five Days Gone in the US)
The Lives of Lucian Freud, by William Feaver
Maoism, by Julia Lovell
Guest House for Young Widows, by Azadeh Moaveni
The Five, by Hallie Rubenhold