Melanie Benjamin’s newest historical novel The Swans of Fifth Avenue is booksellers’ number one pick on the ABA’s February Indie Next list. The rest of the list features: Be Frank With Me, by Julia Claiborne Johnson The Yid, by Paul Goldberg Breaking Wild, by Diane Les Becquets Orphan X, by Gregg Hurwitz The Portable Velben, by Elizabeth McKenzie The Forgetting Time, by Sharon Guskin All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders The Things We Keep, by Sally Hepworth The Arrangement, by Ashley Warlick Sweetgirl, by Travis Mulhauser Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O’Keeffe, by Dawn Tripp My […]
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Dutton Children’s vp, publisher Julie Strauss-Gabel has been promoted to president and publisher of the imprint, reporting to Jen Loja, who said in the announcement: “Julie does not only publish books, she publishes authors, and for that we are immensely grateful. She brings important voices and stories to readers each and every day, and she continues to grow Dutton into a house with not only a terrific legacy, but also a spectacular future. I know I speak for the entire Penguin Young Readers group when I say we are very galvanized to accomplish this alongside her.” Denise Oswald will move […]
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Renee Sedliar has been promoted to the new role of editorial director for Da Capo Lifelong Books. She is charged with “bringing Lifelong to the next level, further growing this crucial part of the Perseus publishing program by exploring new subject categories and taking the lead in charting Lifelong’s editorial course.” At Kobo, Pieter Swinkels has been promoted to evp, publisher relations and content, while Dave Anderson moves up to evp, content sales. Elizabeth Evans has left the Jean V. Naggar Agency, where she was an agent for the past five years, to launch Elizabeth Evans Editorial, providing freelance editorial and publishing […]
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At Picador, PJ Horoszko has been promoted to associate editor, while Isabella Alimonti moves up to associate publicist. In addition, Marlena Brown joins as publicist, working on fiction and nonfiction; she was previously at Oxford University Press and, before that, at HarperCollins. MacKenzie Fraser-Bub has joined Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. Previously she was an agent at Trident Media Group. Stacey Graham has joined Red Sofa Literary as an associate agent. Biagi Literary Management will handle all domestic and international subsidiary rights licensing for Polis Books, effective immediately. Amy Rosenbaum is joining the Nancy Yost Literary Agency as rights manager. She previously […]
Some Pre-Holiday Job Cuts In A Penguin Random House Group
Just before the holidays Penguin Random House quietly laid off an unspecified number of people in the umbrella group comprising PRH Audio, Fodor’s Travel, and Living Language. Division spokesperson Katie Punia confirmed in answer to our query that “a number of positions are being eliminated,” but said she was “not able to comment further” on the layoffs. One source indicated the eliminated positions were largely on the print side, possibly numbering around 15 jobs.
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Amistad Press founder Charles F. Harris, 81, died December 16. Harris began his career at Doubleday in the 1950s and also worked at Random House and Howard University Press before founding Amistad in 1986, which he sold to HarperCollins in 1999 (and stayed with until 2003.) The NYT covers the growth in personalized children’s books, from UK-based Lost My Name to Sourcebooks‘ Put Me In the Story program and others. But the paper may be a little off-base in dismissing the impact. While 2 percent growth in print units is hailed as a renaissance, adding a percent or two to children’s […]