At Basic Books, editorial director since 2007 Lara Heimert has been promoted to editorial and publishing director. In her new role she will play a larger role in the presentation and publication of the imprint’s books while freeing Basic Book Group publisher John Sherer to concentrate on the new Perseus digital marketing initiatives and to focus on the efforts at Westview Press and Nation Books. At Little, Brown Children’s, both Connie Hsu and Kate Sullivan have been promoted to editor. Liz Gately begins scouting for De Boekerij and Meulenhoff in the Netherlands as of October 1. Books-A-Million has hired Tyler Novak as general counsel. […]
Live From NY, It’s The $199 Kindle Fire and New Kindle Touch Devices
It was within a block of the West Side’s fragrant horse and carriage stables that Amazon set up tent this morning–literally with a large, air-conditioned tent on the street as a holding pen for press-conference visitors–to introduce their new devices: the Kindle Fire tablet, the new line of Kindle Touch ereaders, and an inexpensive version of its original Kindle model. Bloomberg jumped the gun by about 25 minutes quoting unnamed Amazon executives about the specs, but Wednesday’s press conference made it official: the Kindle Fire Tablet will have a 7″ full-color touchscreen and Wi-Fi, weigh 14.6 ounces, and will retail […]
People, Etc.
Hector Sierra has been promoted to general manager and svp for National Geographic’s book publishing group, responsible for overseeing business operations and global sales for all categories of National Geographic’s trade and digital books. He was chief operating officer for the division, having joined National Geographic in 2000. F+W Media group marketing director Kate Rados was one of two people honored as MinOnline’s marketers of the year. Robert Wheaton will join Random House Canada in the newly created position of vp, director, strategic business development, reporting to ceo Brad Martin. Wheaton was previously director of inventory management for Indigo Books […]
Briefs: Amazon Lights a “Kindle Fire” Under Its Tablet; Quercus Sales Fall From Larsson Ebb; and More
Multiple reports (including this one from TechCrunch) indicate that Amazon’s tablet, which will be formally introduced at an event Wednesday morning, will be called the Kindle Fire, and will not be ready to ship until the second week of November. For the first six months of 2011, Quercus reported sales of 12 million pounds, down 20 percent from a year ago (largely due to a natural ebb in Stieg Larsson volume sales, which had boosted Quercus’s bottom line significantly for the past few years) though profits rose slightly to 3.4 million pounds during the same time frame. The cost of […]
Court Finally Approves BN’s Bid For Borders IP
Federal bankruptcy court Judge Martin Glenn finally approved Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million winning bid for the bulk of Borders’ intellectual property on Monday afternoon after various privacy concerns voiced last week by an independent ombudsman were worked out by all parties. Reuters reported that at the hearing, Borders lawyer Andrew Glenn said the deal will give customers 15 days to opt out of the transfer by responding to an email that will be sent out once the deal closes, though that date has not been decided upon yet. Further information on how the more than 48 million Borders customers […]
People: Mitchell To Retire As Del Rey Spectra Editor-in-Chief
As part of a number of promotions and changes at Ballantine Bantam Dell’s Del Rey Spectra imprint, editor-in-chief Betsy Mitchell will retire from Random house in December after more than 10 years at her position, and after more than 30 years as an editor in the science fiction and fantasy genre. Mitchell is leaving to launch her own editorial services company and to head up the Christian education department at her church in Brooklyn. Among the authors Mitchell edited during her career were William Gibson, Michael Chabon, Terry Brooks, Octavia Butler, Naomi Novik, Timothy Zahn, Dan Simmons, Peter F. Hamilton, […]