“If you see me struggling with language, and being tentative, it’s because I’m going to be called to testify next week in court,” Macmillan ceo John Sargent said near the beginning of his ABA keynote conversation with outgoing president Becky Anderson. He’d already cautioned the audience that he was nervous to “step out of the background” as, someone generally reticent to comment publicly. Despite those caveats, Sargent ended up having quite a bit to say about the Department of Justice (though not as much about Macmillan’s settlement), self-publishing, Amazon, and other publishing matters. Sargent felt the need to speak out […]
More Buzzworthy Fall/Winter Commercial Fiction
In addition to presenting substantial excerpts of 40 highly anticipated titles, our free Buzz Books 2013 fall/winter ebook also includes an extensive preview of additional upcoming titles put together by editor Sarah Weinman. By itself it’s a great overview of important books and authors to look for at BEA and throughout the big fall publishing season, and another reason why downloading this free ebook now is a great way to prepare for the convention. We have been featuring extracts from that preview of the season as part of our run-up to BEA. Last week we started with the fiction overview, […]
BEA-Timed Announcements: S&S Streamlines Promo Funds for Indies; Penguin Sells Books on Wheels; PublicAffairs Pairs with The Economist; Ingram Partners with Courier; and More
Simon & Schuster is expanding its offerings to booksellers with a new “premier marketing plan” that simplifies access to promotional funds for independent booksellers. They will bolster that new plan on June 10 with a new customer portal that consolidates marketing/co-op information, order tracking, invoices and digital catalogs. Independently owned and operated brick and mortar bookstores with a maximum of 15 shipping destinations qualify for the new allowances, which replace traditional and newsletter co-op, and eliminate existing co-op approval procedures. Promotional funds will be based on the previous year’s total direct and indirect net physical purchases, paid to booksellers in quarterly credits. It also offers […]
More on Granta Cost-Cutting, Exodus
The Guardian offers some much-needed details on the growing (and to many, perplexing) exodus at Granta, which began last month with editor John Freeman’s departure, followed swiftly by the resignation of three additional magazine staffers and earlier this week, the exit of Granta Books/Portobello publisher Philip Gwyn Jones, with additional departures possible. In an emailed statement, Freeman said that Granta owner Sigrid Rausing “decided a while back she wanted to run the magazine and books on a very reduced staff” and he “didn’t want to be part of that change, or the smaller ship, because I’ve seen us make huge […]
People, Etc.
At the Random House Publishing Group, Andy Ward has been promoted to vp, editorial director, nonfiction, while David Ebershoff moves up to vp, executive editor. At Crown Archetype, Suzanne O’Neill has been promoted to executive editor, while Talia Krohn moves up to senior editor and Stephanie Knapp has been promoted to associate editor. Mary McCue has been promoted to senior publicity manager for Gallery and Threshold. At Inkwell Management, Charlie Olsen has been promoted to agent. He joined Inkwell in 2007 and is interested in commercial fiction; young adult and middle-grade fiction and non-fiction; graphic novels and illustrated works for […]
People: Pearson Realigns Management, International Booker for Davis, and More
Pearson’s new ceo John Fallon has created a new organizational and leadership team under him, “designed to accelerate Pearson’s push into digital learning, education services and emerging markets” — and reflecting the coming disposition of Penguin into the joint venture with Berteslmann. Fallon says, “This is a significant change in the way we run the company that will take time and sustained commitment, but it is one we must make to be able to accelerate the execution of our global education strategy.” (That doesn’t sound like a company that owns FT for the long-term, does it?) The new structure begins […]