Tara Parsons will join the Harper One Group on October 29 in the new role of associate publisher for Amistad, Harper Español, and the international fiction program, for which she will also acquire, reporting to Judith Curr. She has been editor-in-chief at Touchstone (where she reported to the soon-retiring Susan Moldow). M’Bilia Meekers joins the University of Washington Press team as publicity manager on Monday. She was publicist and copywriter at LSU Press. Also starting next week is Julie Fergus, exhibits and direct marketing manager. She was most recently associate marketing manager at Routledge, managing a list of social sciences […]
People, Etc.: Moldow to Retire
Susan Moldow, president of Scribner Publishing Group and publisher of Touchstone, is retiring at the end of the year. She has been with Simon & Schuster since 1994, shortly after the Macmillan acquisition. CEO Carolyn Reidy notes, “Her first order of business was to rationalize and reorganize a collection of three disparate adult imprints-Charles Scribner’s Sons, Macmillan and Atheneum-and forge them together as one: Scribner, a single powerful brand that at once acknowledged and cherished the distinguished history and tradition of those diverse imprints, while also signaling a new and contemporary focus that would revitalize and move Scribner forward. And what […]
Anna Burns Wins Booker Prize
The Booker Prize was a solid win for independent publishers, going to Irish writer Anna Burns for her novel Milkman. Faber & Faber publishes her in the UK, and Graywolf had purchased rights recently. The US publisher originally had the book scheduled for fall 2019 publication, but has moved the release date up to December 11. Faber is going back to press for another 100,000 paperbacks in the UK based on strong bookseller demand, after having sold a modest 2,000 hardcovers and 3,500 paperbacks so far. Chairman of the judges Kwame Anthony Appiah said of the novel, “None of us has ever […]
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Devin MacDonald has joined as marketing manager. She was most recently brand manager for Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, and Dog Man at Scholastic. Audrey Gibbons has been promoted to publicity manager; Jill Hacking moves up to marketing operations and events associate; Amy Hendricks becomes marketing associate; Samantha Benson has been promoted to associate publicist; and Emily Hutton becomes associate director of sales. Kjersti Egerdahl has been promoted to senior editor at Amazon Original Stories. Patrick Crotty joins Random House Graphic as designer. He was previously publisher and co-founder of Peow. Morgan Vogt has joined Sourcebooks as marketing associate. Tina Wilson has been promoted […]
Briefs: Obama Picks, BuzzFeed Book Club, New Kindle, And More
Picks Barack Obama published a few pre-election reading recommendations. They include How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt and The Broken Ladder by Keith Payne, in addition to magazine pieces by Matthew Desmond and Yoni Appelbaum. BuzzFeed has finally launched the monthly book club, they have been talking about for a while. Family Trust by Kathy Wang is the inaugural November pick. Enrolled members will receive two newsletters a month with “exclusive content from the authors, highlights from the Facebook group, blurbs from future selections, giveaways, and more.” Unfortunately, like Oprah, there is at least some kind of awkward Amazon promotional arrangement involved. Though it’s […]
People, Etc.
Alessandra Bastagli has joined Dey Street Books as executive editor. She was previously editorial director of Nation Books. Warren Bass will leave Penguin Press after almost a year to return to the Wall Street Journal’s weekend Review section, “with a nicely tailored portfolio of commissioning and editing big essays that’ll include lots of ongoing interface with the publishing world.” At Atria, Ariele Fredman has been promoted to associate director of publicity, and Alison Hinchcliffe moved up to associate publicist. Katie Zanecchia, formerly a literary agent at Ross Yoon Agency, has joined PEN America as national outreach program director. Pittsburgh former bookseller Mary Alice Gorman, […]