The longlist for the Booker Prize was announced Wednesday morning, the first to include American authors after a widely discussed rule change late last year. Titles by four American authors — TO RISE AGAIN AT A DECENT HOUR by Joshua Ferris, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler, THE BLAZING WORLD by Siri Hustvedt, and ORFEO by Richard Powers — as well as THE DOG by Joseph O’Neill, a dual Irish/American citizen, made the Booker longlist, along with other notable forthcoming titles by David Mitchell (THE BONE CLOCKS, September), Howard Jacobson (J, September in the UK, March […]
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Lance Fitzgerald will join the Crown Publishing Group as vp, director of subsidiary rights on August 4. Previously he was director of subsidiary rights at Simon & Schuster. Succeeding Fitzgerald at S&S is Marie Florio, who has been promoted to director, subsidiary rights, overseeing rights for all books within the Simon & Schuster imprint as well as select Threshold titles. Riverhead director of publicity Jynne Martin will take on the additional role of associate publisher, joining Kate Stark and Catherine Lynch. The new title for Martin, who joined Riverhead in 2011, “recognizes the role she has taken on beyond being […]
People, Etc.
Start-up BitLit has announced a pilot program with Harper Collins. The publisher is testing the app that provides a discounted ebook as a bundled offer to a proven print book purchaser or owner on 6 titles for now (Halfway to the Grave, by Jeaniene Frost, Black Magic Sanction, by Kim Harrison, Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson, Wicked, by Gregory Maguire, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, and 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross). In personnel news, at Harper Collins, Erin Gorham has been promoted to director, digital accounts, while Lindsey Kline has been promoted to digital sales specialist. Colleen Venable will join Workman […]
Jesse Ventura Defamation Trial Highlights Editorial & Marketing of AMERICAN SNIPER
Last Friday both sides in the defamation trial brought by former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura against the estate of Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL and author of AMERICAN SNIPER. At issue was an account in the book headlined “Punching Out Scruff Face” that described — though not by name — a 2006 bar fight purportedly between Ventura and Kyle, that Ventura believed harmed his reputation and helped boosted sales of AMERICAN SNIPER. Co-author Jim De Felice, William Morrow executive editor Peter Hubbard, and director of media relations Sharyn Rosenblum all testified for the defense, claiming by consensus, according to the […]
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Scholastic has hired Lee Peters as svp, strategic marketing for Scholastic Education, reporting to division president Margery Mayer. “Peters will be responsible for helping shape the strategic direction of the division by guiding marketing and messaging across multiple major product lines within a unified Scholastic Education brand.” Most recently, he was vp of strategic marketing, North America for Pearson Education. Penny Makras has joined Harper as senior marketing manager. Previously she was a marketing manager at Wiley. At Norton, Alice Rha has been promoted to senior publicist and Lauren Opper has been named publicist.
Kindle Unlimited Officially Launches; KDP Select Authors to Share Another $800,000 for July
Amazon officially announced and made live its Kindle Unlimited subscription program, which was previewed earlier this week and which we have written about extensively already. Notably, the announcement does not specify which publishers have opted in by specific agreement (as opposed to having Amazon include some of their books without direct consent; we already reported on the example of Scholastic’s Hunger Games series). Like competing services, Amazon is offering a 30-day trial period (which will likely be a more expensive promotion for Amazon than their smaller competitors. A KU subscription also includes up to three free months of an Audible subscription. Participants […]