On Saturday, the UK’s Booker Prize announced that hedge fund Man Group will end their sponsorship after the 2019 prizes are awarded. Man will contribute £1.6 million to the 2019 prizes, having spent £25 million since becoming the title sponsor in 2002. The Booker Foundation said in a release, “The Trustees are in discussion with a new sponsor and are confident that the new funding will be in place for 2020. In the meantime the two prizes will run as usual this year.” Helena Kennedy, chair of the Booker Prize Foundation, added, “We would like to put on record the Foundation’s […]
People, Etc.
Veronica Park has joined Fuse Literary as an associate agent. She was previously literary agent and marketing specialist at Corvisiero Literary Agency. Alexandra Franklin has been promoted to associate agent at the Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. Maya Baran has joined Viking Penguin as publicity manager, returning to publishing full-time. Most recently she has assisted Broadside PR and The Countryman Press. The ALA has named Melinda Gates the honorary chair of National Library Week, starting April 7. At Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA, Leila Meglio has joined as events manager. Most recently, she was publicity associate at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Sarah Rettger becomes […]
ABA Town Hall: Stock Shortages, Minimum Wage, and More
On the final day of Winter Institute, ABA ceo Oren Teacher announced that next year’s event will take place in Baltimore on January 21-24, 2020. On Thursday morning, the ABA Town Hall began with an update from the diversity task force, which will become a permanent committee going forward. The group is working on a range of projects, including developing a mentorship program, creating a glossary of diversity and inclusion terms for booksellers, working with Edelweiss to add filters pertaining to diversity, and more. Afterward, the floor was was opened to booksellers, who raised a range of concerns. Sarah Pishko of […]
Buzz Books Spring/Summer Young Adult Preview
To help you sift through the many thousands of planned spring and summer titles, we’ve compiled a preview of the notable YA books, divided into fiction and nonfiction. You can sample some of the highlighted titles right now in Buzz Books 2019: Young Adult Spring/Summer; they are noted with an asterisk. Download our free Buzz Books collections in major ebookstores (the “download” button here links to them all). To get the trade editions — with publicity and marketing info, and click-throughs for full galleys, go to NetGalley. And please remember: because we prepare this preview many months in advance, titles, content, and publication dates are […]
Realistic Expectations at Winter Institute
ABA ceo Oren Teicher spoke to international attendees at a lunchtime session on The State of the U.S. Book Industry, as part of Wednesday’s opening day of Winter Institute (Wi14) in Albuquerque, NM. He struck a cautious note that echoed throughout the day, noting that indie booksellers had “a pretty consistent year,” with a 4.9 percent increase in sales, but didn’t see any particular bumps from this year’s blockbusters. He said, “Things are reasonably healthy. We are always cautious…. There’s good news for sure, but it’s also pretty fragile.” Teicher remarked on seeing younger faces among the more than 700 […]
People, Etc.
Another Crown employee gets a new assignment, as Donna Passannante moves to Penguin Random House Audio on February 4 as senior vice president, marketing & publicity, reporting to president & publisher, Amanda D’Acierno. She was vice president & executive director, marketing at at the Crown Publishing Group. Newly reporting to Passannante are Katie Punia, vice president, publicity, and Heather Dalton, vice president, marketing. At Chronicle Books, Madison Killen has been promoted to digital marketing manager, children’s; Jennifer Yim moves up to marketing and publicity coordinator, children’s; and Jenna Homen is now digital marketing manager, Adult. At Random House Children’s, Kelly McGauley has […]