As sometimes happens when you get a little older, with the big election and early arrival Thanksgiving we decided to postpone marking the anniversary of PublishersMarketplace.com for a month. Now just over 17 years old, we’re almost legal and getting ready for our adulthood. The standard reminder: Publishers Lunch is older by about a year and half, though we didn’t know we were starting something when we started, so there’s no easy day to mark. PublishersMarketplace was a second start-up, that involved some actual investment and physically going live on the internet — inauspiciously near the trough of the burst […]
Picks: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and More
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield is Amazon’s Spotlight Pick for December, and they skipped a featured debut this month. The rest of the list: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?, by N.K. Jemisin Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny Milkman, by Anna Burns This is Cuba, by David Ariosto The Dakota Winters, by Tom Barbash The Museum of Modern Love, by Heather Rose North of Dawn, by Nuruddin Farah Watching You, by Lisa Jewell The Day the Sun Died, by Yan Lianke Barnes & Noble chose only four fiction titles to highlight this month, including: Verses for the […]
Celebrated: Moldow’s Career, Obama’s Sales
Simon & Schuster convened a celebration of retiring president of Scribner Publishing Group and publisher of Touchstone Susan Moldow — a self-admitted “Murphy Brown of book publishing” — with an affectionate, admiring and at times rollicking collection of toasts (and roasts) on Thursday night. Presenters included her longtime partners at Scribner, publisher Nan Graham and associate publisher Roz Lippel (who read a statement from Stephen King) — along with a song from Scribner director of publicity Brian Belfiglio, performed to the tune of These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ (“These clips are made for marketing, wave them high you’ll do…). […]
People, Etc.
Margaux Weisman has joined Penguin as editor, moving over from Vintage/Anchor where she was editor. Mora Couch has been promoted to associate editor at Holiday House. Lion Forge Comics has eliminated 12 positions, including editor Greg Tumbarello, Bleeding Cool reported. In line with the positioning of other publisher layoffs recently, the company says they fired people to fuel their future: “We are restructuring from the top down, and across departments to ensure that our organization’s size and structure remains in line with our sales, as well as providing support for future increase in title output.” They note: “Lion Forge has experienced a […]
Another Best Books List from the Chicago Tribune, and More Picks
The Chicago Tribune named its ten best books of 2018, including Sheila Heti’s novel, which is available to sample now in our Buzz Books 2018 Spring/Summer. The full list: Nonfiction Boom Town, by Sam Anderson This Land, by Dan Barry Frederick Douglass, by David W. Blight Rising, by Elizabeth Rush Feel Free, by Zadie Smith Fiction Motherhood, by Sheila Heti The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, by Denis Johnson X-Men: Grand Design, by Ed Piskor The Overstory, by Richard Powers Heads of the Colored People, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires In other selections JP Morgan announced its annual recommended reading list, and […]
The NYT’s Ten Best Books of the Year
For the first time, the New York Times announced its ten best books of year at a live event in Manhattan on Thursday morning, at the Greene Space, recorded for their podcast. Book Review editor Pamela Paul spoke with a panel of NYT editors about each selection, stating that a best book of the year is “a book that is not only of the moment but a book that we think transcends the moment.” The five fiction selections include debuts from Lisa Halliday and Tommy Orange, as well as Esi Eduygan’s Giller Prize-winning novel. The complete list: Fiction The Great Believers, […]