Candlewick announced a number of recent promotions. Liz Bicknell has been promoted to evp, executive editorial director and associate publisher, while also taking on responsibility as group trade publishing director, Walker Books Australia. Mary Lee Donovan has added the title of director of editorial operations to her current title of editorial director, while Sarah Ketchersid moves up to senior executive editor. Finally, both Kate Fletcher and Andrea Tompa have been promoted to senior editor. At Europa Editions, co-publisher Kent Carroll is transitioning to the role of publisher-at-large, where he will continue to focus on editing and bringing new authors in […]
Recorded Books Acquires Tantor Media
Recorded Books has acquired audio publisher Tantor Media, with a catalog of approximately 5,000 titles. Sale terms were not officially disclosed but the NYT reports the price was “about $25 million.” Private equity firm Wasserstein & Co. acquired Recorded Books from Haights Cross Communications a little less than a year ago, and then they bought HighBridge Audio from Workman Publishing in April, which was integrated into Recorded Books. Wasserstein co-managing partner Anup Bagaria tells the NYT, “We’ve taken a sleepy business and really accelerated growth” through acquisitions and organic improvements. Tantor will continue to operate out of its current Old Saybrook, CT facility. Jones Day […]
People, Etc.
Brant Rumble will join Blue Rider Press as senior editor on February 2. Previously he was senior editor at Scribner. Ingram Content Group chief operating officer Shawn Morin has been given the additional title and responsibilities of president. CEO John Ingram syas in the announcement: “Shawn Morin has provided great leadership for our team at Ingram, especially over the past two years. As much as we’re a distribution business, we’re also a technology business. Shawn is a businessman who is very knowledgeable and fluent in technology, which enables everything we do.” Lucas Hunt has joined Orchard Literary, a literary agency spinoff of PR […]
People, Etc.
Nan Vermylen Thornton will join Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as an agent. Previously, she was in-house counsel practicing copyright law at Pearson Education. The January Pennie’s Pick at Costco is BOSTON GIRL by Anita Diamant. More Best of 2014 lists keep coming in as the year draws to a close. Vanity Fair offers “11 Best Books of 2014 You Can Spend 2015 Reading” while the SF Chronicle‘s Top 10 list leads off with current “Best of the Best” fiction frontrunner ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr. On that theme, the NYT recently featured Anthony Doerr’s long journey to […]
BN Buys Back Pearson Shares in Nook, Too
When Barnes & Noble bought back Microsoft’s 16.8 percent stake in Nook Media earlier this month for $125 million in cash and stock, they gave Pearson an option to sell back their Nook shares as well. In a filing with the SEC Tuesday morning, BN announced they purchased Pearson’s stake on December 22 for $13.75 million and 602,927 shares of its common stock. The buyback is at the same reduced valuation as the Microsoft repurchase, down from the $89.5 million Pearson paid in 2012 for their 5 percent stake in Nook Media. The deal is what ceo Michael Huseby earlier termed a “tag-along right” that […]
Best of 2014 From NYT Critics Kakutani, Maslin, Garner
The New York Times’ daily critics Michiko Kakutani, Janet Maslin, and Dwight Garner each chose their 10 favorite books of 2014. As usual, there is little intersection between these 30 titles and the NYT Book Review’s official “10 Best” list. Also as is often the case, Kakutani picks are the most aligned with that 10 Best: She concurs on Klay, Chast, and Kolbert (and Garner is in sync on Lee): Kakutani Redeployment, Phil Klay Little Failure, Gary Shteyngart A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Roz Chast Duty, Robert M. Gates The […]