Michael Wolff’s FIRE AND FURY “set a new record” for Henry Holt since it went on sale on January 5 “with a historic rate of sales velocity,” the publisher said late Thursday in an official update regarding books in print. The title is in its eleventh printing and they “will have shipped” 700,000 copies to date. Additional reprints still on order for another 700,000 copies will bring them to a total of 1.4 million hardcovers in print once those orders have been completed. Holt promises that “a significant number of books will be arriving in stores by the end of the […]
New York and Los Angeles PEN Branches Unify Under PEN America Name
In a long-overdue move, the two separate PEN chapters in the US — PEN America, based in New York, with over 5,700 members, and PEN Center USA, based in Los Angeles, comprising about 900 members — will merge into a single entity going forward under the PEN America name. Suzanne Nossel, director of the New York office, will lead the newly-combined PEN America, while Michelle Franke will continue to direct the Los Angeles office. The current board of trustees, overseen by Andrew Solomon, will incorporate PEN USA’s board of directors, including chair Marvin Putnam, vp Jamie Wolf, and director Franklin Leonard. […]
Book TV: The New York Times Pairs with PBS NewsHour; Chicago’s Book Hunt Pilot
The New York Times and PBS NewsHour will launch a collaborative monthly book club, Now Read This, starting with Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award-winning novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. The book club will debut tonight on PBS NewsHour, and over the course of the month readers can join in on both outlet’s platforms and websites as well as a dedicated Facebook group. The month’s reading will culminate in the author being interviewed by NewsHour arts correspondent Jeffery Brown. “With the launch of ‘Now Read This’, we’re excited to expand the NewsHour’s decades long commitment to coverage of books and the arts,” […]
Scout Press Wins Roupenian “Cat Person” Auction
Simon & Schuster imprint Scout Press has won the auction for a short story collection, YOU KNOW YOU WANT THIS, and a novel by Kristen Roupenian, whose story “Cat Person” went viral earlier this month and became the New Yorker’s second-most-read article for all of 2017. Executive editor Alison Callahan acquired Roupenian’s collection and novel from Jenni Ferrari-Adler at Union Literary in a major deal, for seven figures (in excess of $1.2 million, according to multiple sources). UK rights to the story collection sold to Jonathan Cape in a pre-empt last Wednesday, and the US auction carried over to this week. Subsequent […]
Skyhorse Employee Unionization Vote Falls Short
A bid to unionize Skyhorse employees has fallen short, with 18 votes in favor of joining United Auto Workers Local 2110, and 28 against. The months-long union drive sought to increase employee compensation, restore personal time off and sick days that had been reduced, provide greater job security (noting in 2017 the company “laid off 12 employees with little to no warning”) and ensure Skyhorse complies with OSHA laws following complaints of working during water outages, and contending with facilities in “disrepair,” among other areas of negotiation. Twenty-three additional ballots were challenged by the union proponents, though it appears that would not affect […]
Swedish Academy Tainted By Reports of Nobel Prize Leaks, Allegations of Sexual Assault
Two weeks after Swedish media reported on allegations from 18 women of sexual assault and harassment by Jean-Claude Arnault, the artistic director and co-owner of a prominent cultural organization called Forum – Current Place of Culture (but referred to in Sweden as The Club), a new story alleges that he leaked the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature in advance on multiple occasions. Arnault’s wife and co-owner of Forum Katarina Frostenson Arnault is a member of the Swedish Academy. Dagens Nyheter reports that the Academy has retained law firm Hammarskiöld & Co. to “investigate each member’s ties to [Mr. Arnault], and if […]