E.L. Doctorow, 84, author of critically admired and award-winning novels such as Ragtime and Billy Bathgate, died Tuesday in Manhattan from complications of lung cancer. Before turning to fiction full-time, Doctorow worked as an editor at NAL and then Dial Press (where he became editor-in-chief). Among the many honors Doctorow received throughout his career included the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, two PEN Faulkner Awards, the Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal. Doctorow’s longtime editor at Random House Kate Medina said in a statement: “Edgar’s work has always been ascendant, […]
People, Etc.
At HarperCollins Children’s, Alana Whitman has been promoted to senior manager, integrated marketing while Alison Noll moves up to assistant manager, integrated marketing operations. Obituary Owner of Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook, NY Scott Meyer died July 19. The store has been up for sale. Co-owner of nearby Oblong Books & Music said, “The work that he has done for books and authors and readers is unmeasurable.” Initiatives HarperCollins is the latest large publisher to launch an agent portal which will provide US-based agents with royalty statements (from June 2014 going forward), US sales data (broken down by sales channel) and anti-piracy information (as well as […]
Briefs: WATCHMAN Opening Week Sales; Entitle Shuts Down; and More
HarperCollins announced that Harper Lee‘s Go Set A Watchman sold more than 1.1 million units in North America since going on sale last Tuesday, with 3.3 million copies now in print. (Earlier Penguin Random House UK indicated Watchman had sold 105,000 copies in its first day on sale.) Subscription service Entitle Books announced it will shut down on Tuesday, July 21, telling customers on its website that they can move over to Scribd for a one-month free trial. Touchstone is launching Glommable, a consumer-facing pop culture website featuring content from various Internet personalities, shareable quotes, slides, and more. Authors featured include […]
Bookselling: Cobble Hill’s The Community Bookstore Sells Building, Will Close; and More
The Community Bookstore in Cobble Hill (not to be confused with Community Bookstore in Park Slope) is set to close in 2016 after owner John Scioli agreed to sell the three-story building that houses the bookstore on the ground floor for $5.5 million to a real estate group that owns several buildings in midtown. Scioli has 10 months to clear out the bookstore, where between 60,000 and 100,000 titles are stocked from floor to ceiling, and two years to move out of his apartment upstairs. “I’ll be the first to admit I’m a bit of a hoarder,” Scioli, who has operated the bookstore […]
People
Former publisher of Egmont USA Andrea Cascardi has joined Little, Brown as executive editor for the Jimmy Patterson imprint, reporting to Reagan Arthur. Prior to her stint at Egmont USA, Cascardi was a literary agent and held editorial positions at Knopf/Crown and Disney.
People, Etc.
Crown’s community development team has hired Abbe Wright as editor of Read It Forward, their online literary community. (She recently completed a year-long editorial project at Glamour and before then, was assistant books editor at O, the Oprah Magazine.) Ariel Norwood has been named community and social media manager for the online food community Tastebook (she ran social media for the furniture distributor Viyet); and Ryan DeShon has joined as front end developer for all of Crown’s community websites (he worked at LitHub.com). DongWon Song has joined Howard Morhaim Literary Agency as an agent. He was formerly an editor at Orbit and oversaw product at Zola Books. Expansion Simon […]