In the capital-raising arms race among the big Hollywood talent agencies — which have grown into entertainment conglomerates themselves — United Talent Agency sold a minority stake to Investcorp and PSP Investments. Deadline and Variety say they sold approximately 40 percent of the agency, for an estimated $200 million. (When the search for investors was initiated earlier this year, Deadline said UTA has revenues of over $325 million a year, with profit of $50 million.) Some proceeds will be spread among employees throughout the agency, while a portion will go to “accelerate” their growth and “enhance UTA’s services.” The agency has more than […]
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Tom Miller has joined Liza Dawson Associates as senior agent. He spent the last three years at Carol Mann Agency. Maggie Haas has joined Chronicle Books as website and ecommerce coordinator. Previously she helped manage the SFMOMA online store. Tyrus Books founder and former publisher Ben LeRoy will serve as executive director of the Independent Publishers Caucus (IPC) on a part-time basis. IPC aims to “foster a true and mutually beneficial sense of community among independent publishers, between publishers and booksellers, and with readers.” They note that steering committee (comprising Ibrahim Ahmad at Akashic, Terrie Akers at Other Press, Jon […]
RWA Changes RITA Judging Policy to Address Bias
The Romance Writers of America (RWA) revised its procedures for evaluating bias in judging for the RITA awards, adopted at their July board meeting and effective in 2019. The changes are in response to charges of prejudice, especially complaints that diverse and queer books have been given low scores or erroneously rated “not a romance.” RWA said in a release, “the Board passed a new policy that we hope will allow patterns of biased judging to be identified and for actions to be taken against those judges if deemed necessary.” One new measure allows authors who are concerned about “invidious discrimination against […]
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Nancy Sheppard will join Basic Books on August 13 as marketing director. Most recently, she was marketing director at St. Martin’s. Matt Ortile has joined Catapult as digital managing editor. Ortile was most recently the global publishing lead for BuzzFeed International and the founding editor of BuzzFeed Philippines. Farin Schlussel has been promoted to assistant marketing director at Avery and Tarcher Perigee. Loyola Press executive editor, trade Joe Durepos will retire at the end of October after nearly 17 years with the publisher. He said, “I’ve had the best job in the world, working with an incredibly talented team and the finest […]
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Jenn Gonzalez has been promoted to executive vice president, director of sales at Macmillan, taking over as longtime president of sales Alison Lazarus moves to Hachette Book Group. Gonzalez joined Macmillan in 2012 as vp of children’s sales and most recently served as svp, trade sales. Macmillan president Don Weisberg writes: “Jenn has a great passion for books, deft business sensibilities, and a superb rapport with colleagues, customers, and authors. The growth in children’s books and merchandise sales have been spectacular. I am confident that Jenn, with the terrific support of her first-rate team, is the right person to lead not only our […]
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Lynn Kovach has been promoted to vice president, director of national accounts, Random House Adult, newly overseeing sales for the division and PRH Audio to Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. Stephen Hull will join the University of New Mexico Press as director on September 17, also serving as a professor of practice in publishing for UNM’s College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences. Previously he spent nine years at Dartmouth College as editor and publisher at the University Press of New England. Zoe Nelson will join Janklow & Nesbit UK in September as rights director, after eight years at Rogers, Coleridge and […]