Oprah’s latest Book Club pick, her first in approximately 18 months, is Colson Whitehead’s new novel The Underground Railroad. Originally scheduled for release on September 13, Doubleday has pushed up publication and the book, emblazoned with the Oprah Book Club logo, is on sale today. (The most recent Oprah pick was Cynthia Bond’s Ruby, in February 2015.) In a short video, Oprah begins, “Oh, have I found a great book!” while describing why she chose The Underground Railroad. There is a special page devoted to the pick on Amazon, where Winfrey adds: “This book has kept me up at night, had my heart […]
Briefs: Cooke International Bought Out By Its Agents; Hachette Titles on Tapas App
In Canada, Suzanne Brandreth and Ron Eckel are now full owners of The Cooke Agency International, the foreign rights branch of The Cooke Agency, after both being responsible for its day-to-day operations for the past three years. Dean Cooke and Sally Harding will remain owners of the originating agency, and will continue to personally represent their extensive list of authors. Brandreth and Eckel will continue to represent their own authors through The Cooke Agency as well as all their clients at Cooke International. Tapas Media, a mobile app offering bite-size content from books and comics, has partnered with Hachette Book […]
People, Etc.
Longtime Norton editor James L. Mairs, 77, died July 26 of heart failure, while also battling leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. Mairs first joined Norton as a traveling college sales representative in 1963 and rose through the ranks, promoted to vice president in 1970 and a company director in 1973. Mairs officially retired from Norton in 2002 but continued working at the same office both as editor of additional Norton books, including Jung’s The Red Book in 2009, and as founder and head of his own, one-man publishing house, Quantuck Lane Press, distributed by Norton. Norton president and chairman Drake McFeely […]
August Bookseller Picks
Amazon has made their monthly picks for August, with Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn as their spotlight pick, and Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers as the featured debut. In addition, Timothy Murphy’s debut novel Christodora was featured in our Buzz Books 2016: Spring/Summer ebook sampler (you can start reading excerpts of key fall & winter titles right now in Buzz Books 2016: Fall/Winter.) The rest of Amazon’s best books of the month are: Nadja Spiegelman, I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty James Andrew Miller, Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency Carolyn […]
People
Sarah Bowlin is leaving her position as senior editor at Henry Holt on August 25 to move to Los Angeles. She can be reached for freelance work and other inquiries at svbowlin@gmail.com. Melissa Zar has joined Macmillan Children’s as marketing manager. Previously she was a marketing manager at Random House Children’s. Katy Lynch has been promoted to publicist for Sourcebooks Jabberwocky and Fire. Acquisitions Software provider Ingenta has acquired 5 fifteen Ltd, a software supplier to the magazine and newspaper industry. They say it “will allow Ingenta to strengthen its product portfolio and strategically build on its existing plans to diversify its […]
Briefs: Emeritus Pope Benedict’s ‘Last Testament’; Rakuten Takes Minority Stake in getAbstract; and More
Forthcoming Bloomsbury will publish Emeritus Pope Benedict‘s Last Testament worldwide in November, in which the retired pope will formally break his silence after being the first Pope to resign from his position in 750 years. Bloomsbury says Pope Benedict will address “controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him” and “admit that he entirely lacked Pope Francis’s common touch with people.” The book is co-written with Peter Seewald and translated by Jacob Phillips. Investments Rakuten announced it has agreed to acquire a “substantial minority stake” in getAbstract, which […]