Ralf Markmeier will join Harper Germany as managing director and publisher starting January 15. He succeeds Thomas Beckmann, who will retire in February, after 18 years with Harlequin and Harper. Markmeier was previously with Random House Germany, which he joined in 2003. Harper Collins cdo and evp of international publishing Chantal Restivo-Alessi said, “Ralf’s extensive trade publishing knowledge and management skills, gained at the biggest publishing conglomerate in Germany, will help us continue our growth trajectory.” Restivo-Alessi also commended Beckmann’s “outstanding service over the last two decades” and added: “During his career, Thomas consistently demonstrated his deep understanding of book […]
Bookselling: Regulator Bookshop Sold; Kinokuniya To Open in Austin; and More
The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC will be sold to two store employees. Longtime owners Tom Campbell and John Valentine announced plans to retire on March 1 and sell the bookstore, which has operated for more than 40 years, to Wander Lorentz de Haas and Elliot Berger. Campbell, a co-founder of the shop, told the Herald-Sun: “We are not as young as we once were and we were thinking of moving on. We had two people who were interested in taking over that we thought would do a good job, and it all kind of came together.” The bookshop is […]
Awards: Windham-Campbell Prizes, American Academy of Arts & Letters
The Windham-Campbell Prizes announced this year’s winners, which each recipient to receive $165,000 at a ceremony held at Yale University during the weekend of September 13-15. The Prizes included awards in poetry for the first time. The full list features: Fiction: André Alexis (Canada) and Erna Brodber (Jamaica) Nonfiction: Maya Jasanoff (U.S.) and Ashleigh Young (New Zealand) Poetry: Ali Cobby Eckermann (Australia) and Carolyn Forché (US) Drama: Marina Carr (Ireland) and Ike Holter (US) The American Academy of Arts and Letters inducted its newest roster of members, including the writers Junot Diaz, Amy Hempel, Ursula K. LeGuin, Colum McCann, and Ann Patchett; poets Henri […]
Reliability of “Pill City” Author Questioned Further With NYT Unable to Corroborate Reporting
Questions continue to mount about the veracity of the reporting in Kevin Deutsch’s PILL CITY, published earlier this month, after the New York Times writes that it was unable to corroborate claims and locate sources in a separate story Deutsch published in the paper last December. That story, on how fentanyl is outpacing heroin use on Long Island, was confirmed for the “main facts and thrust” in an editors’ note over the weekend, but the NYT could not “locate or confirm the existence of the two people who were named and quoted.” Deutsch insisted his reporting was accurate, as were […]
Trade Sales Pulled to Even In Third Quarter of 2016
Year-end stats from Bookscan and PubTrack Digital and current earnings season reports from public companies have been giving us a good picture of 2016 trade publishing performance. So it feels a little odd to step back as the AAP — still running a month or two behind their normal schedule — has released monthly StatShot statistics for September 2016. Total digital sales for the month of $116.7 million were down 8.3 percent (or $10.6 million) compared to $127.3 million in September 2015. (Remember that the year-over-year ebook shortfall starts getting smaller in the September comparisons, since September 2015 is when Penguin Random House became the […]
People, Etc.
Little, Brown vp, associate publisher and executive director of publicity Nicole Dewey is leaving at the end of April, to become managing director at Shreve Williams Public Relations as of May 1. Sabrina Callahan has been promoted to executive director of publicity at Little, Brown, effective immediately. Tiffany Liao has joined Holt Children’s as editor. She was previously editor at Razorbill. In the UK, Trevor Dolby will retire from Penguin Random House UK in the fall, after transitioning to part-time work at beginning of May. Dolby joined Random House UK in 2007 to create Preface. Also in the UK, Ian Stewart has been found guilty of murdering […]