Charlie Conrad will join Gotham Books as executive editor, starting January 7. He had been vp and executive editor at Crown, and worked at Random House Inc. and Bantam Doubleday Dell for 22 years. F+W Media chief financial officer Jim Ogle has been promoted and adds the additional title of chief operations officer. He has responsibility for all financial functions of the company, as well as all legal matters, production, information technology, and logistics, and “will play a significant role in the development and execution of the company’s strategic plan.” In Germany, Blessing editorial director Tilo Eckardt will join Swiss-based Mohrbooks […]
Briefs: Safari Online Acquires Pub Factory; Foyles Holiday Sales Drop
Safari Books Online acquired PubFactory, which builds systems for delivering books, videos, reference, and other content on the web, from RDW Group’s iFactory division for an undisclosed sum. The deal closed on Decmeber 31, 2012. Under the agreement, Safari Books Online now owns the proprietary software developed by iFactory, which is used to develop scalable and semantically rich electronic libraries for publishers. “For some time now, we’ve admired the PubFactory team’s expertise in building powerful web-based systems for delivering mixed content like books, videos, journals, and reference databases. Their platform will be a robust complement to our growing stable of […]
Transworld Won’t Publish UK Edition of Lawrence Wright’s Scientology Book After All
GOING CLEAR, the book-length investigation into Scientology by LOOMING TOWER author Lawrence Wright, will be published on January 17 by Knopf in the US, but the UK edition will not go forward as planned. The NYT reported as part of a profile on Wright that Transworld “recently canceled its plans to publish GOING CLEAR, though a spokeswoman insisted that the decision was not made in response to threats from the church.” Transworld spokesperson Patsy Irwin told the Bookseller “We’ve decided [GOING CLEAR] doesn’t fit in with our schedule.” The Wylie Agency is selling UK rights to the book, but had not […]
People, Etc.
At the Columbia Publishing Course, longtime director Lindy Hess is taking a leave due to health issues, with assistant director Susan Caplan running the program during her absence. At Trident Media Group, Mark Gottlieb has been promoted to audio rights agent. Kate Rados has joined the Crown Publishing Group in the new role of director of community development, reporting to director of marketing Jill Flaxman. Previously she was group digital marketing director for F+W Media. Emily Davis has been promoted to assistant marketing manager, reporting to Rados. Justin Hargett joined Basic Books this week as a publicist. Most recently he was a publicist at […]
Bookselling: Prairie Lights’ New Publishing Venture: Robin’s Bookstore, Puddn’Head Books Close; And More
Prairie Lights Bookstore is teaming up with the University of Iowa Press to publish a handful of books annually, starting with Philip Levine’s poetry collection SWEET WILL. The Iowa Press-Citizen reports Prairie Lights will act as the publisher, while UI Press will produce, design and distribute the books. Store co-owner Jan Weissmiller told the paper there aren’t any strict guidelines on what will be published, but the work “will likely be fiction, poetry and literary non-fiction, rather than history or journalism.” The LA Times profiled recently-opened bookstore Bank of Books, Malibu, highlighting the “novel ways” the store attracts customers, including […]
People, Etc.
At Writers House, Stephen Barr has been promoted to senior agent. Brian Jud will take over as executive director of the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) on January 1, following the resignation of Brad Flora. Jud is an author, book-marketing consultant, seminar leader, television host and a partner in Premium Book Company. Rachel Burkot has been named assistant editor for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. Danielle Plafsky will join Knopf as assistant marketing manager on January 2. Previously she was a marketing associate for Harper. Daniel L. Knotts has been named coo of R.R. Donnelley, replacing John R. Paloian, who is retiring after over 25 […]