Marta Martínez has been promoted to chair and ceo of Hachette Spain. She joined the company in May 2019, after serving as ceo and regional director for Spain and Western Europe at Macmillan Education and Springer Nature. She takes over from José Manuel Gómez Rodríguez, who retired at the end of 2019 after 44 years at Groupe Anaya. Additionally, Javier Cazaña joined Hachette Spain as strategy and business development director.
Beth Clark has been named vp and senior creative director, Farrar, Straus Children’s, Roaring Brook Press, Henry Holt Children’s, Feiwel and Friends, Swoon Reads, and Square Fish.
YA and middle grade author Ashley Herring Blake has joined Rees Literary Agency as an agent.
In the UK, Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency has taken over as president of the Association of Authors’ Agents.
Corporate
Amazon announced Q4 earnings yesterday that beat analysts’ expectations on every metric including Q1 2020 guidance. In particular, operating income of $3.9 billion was better than anticipated (even though it was only $100 million higher than a year ago) sending the stock up above $2,000 a share. Sales in Q4 were $87.4 billion, and full year sales were $280.5 billion, compared with $232.9 billion in 2018.
As we have explained previously, Amazon discloses very little useful information about their book and publishing-related businesses anymore. They celebrate paying out over $300 million to self-published authors participating in Kindle Unlimited in 2019, But the other characterization, that “thousands of independent authors earned more than $50,000, with more than a thousand surpassing $100,000 in royalties,” is the same for 2019 as it was for 2018. In 2018, they elected to pay KU authors $260 million.
Agency News
The LAT reported that CAA “has had exploratory discussions to buy” Paradigm, citing two sources. Last year Paradigm had discussed an acquisition by UTA but walked away. Paradigm ceo Sam Gores told staff in an email, “Let me state emphatically – we are not for sale, nor are we selling the agency…. As I have said before, we like the independent and successful path we’re on.”