Supplementing yesterday’s The Year In Mergers, Acquisitions and Finance, this year saw a number of literary agency mergers — along with some significant movement by well-known agents, and even a few marquee authors. So here is a round-up. Many of the year’s notable mergers and acquisitions among literary agencies, as well as new agency launches, happened in the UK: [Acquirer/Seller or merged properties] Curtis Brown UK > Ed Victor Ltd (Following the death of Ed Victor in June) Later in the year, Charlie Brotherstone, who had been at Ed Victor Ltd., opened his own agency, Brotherstone Creative Management. And the Raymond […]
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Kim Thornton has been promoted to senior agent director for Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau. At Waterbrook Multnomah, Andrew Stoddard has been promoted to the new position of lead acquisitions editor. Amara Hoshijo has been promoted to associate editor and rights manager at Soho Press. The Fred Rogers Company has appointed Rachel Hecht Children’s Scouting as literary scout for television. Harassment Files Executive art director of the Penguin Workshop imprint Giuseppe Castellano resigned from the company, following accusations of sexual harassment by actor Charlene Yi. Castellano posts: “As a result of her online campaign against me, an untenable […]
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Saraciea Fennell joins Tor/Tor Teen/Starscape and Forge as publicist on December 4. She was previously publicist at Little, Brown Children’s and also held positions at Scholastic, Harlequin and Touchstone. Kimberly Carlton has been promoted to associate acquisitions editor for fiction at Harper Christian. Christina Boys has launched CEB Editorial Services. She was most recently senior editor at Hachette Nashville. Deborah Hofmann has joined the David Black Literary Agency. She was previously the editor of the New York Times bestseller lists. Agencies The Steve Laube Agency has acquired the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency. Steve Laube said in the announcement, “I’m always looking for ways to […]
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Penguin Random House chief financial officer Milena Alberti has decided to leave her position at the end of the year after 16 years with the company, the past two as cfo. Deputy cfo James Johnston will lead the finance group in the interim, reporting to ceo Markus Dohle, as the company searches for a permanent successor, which they hope to announce in the first quarter of 2018. Dohle said in the announcement: “I am one of many who has truly valued, enjoyed, and benefited from collaborating with Milena over the years, and I want to express my sincere appreciation for […]
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Molly Ker Hawn has been appointed director of the Bent Agency UK. In Germany, Constanze Neumann takes over at Aufbau and the imprint Blumenbar as editor-in-chief for literary fiction on December, replacing Gunnar Cynybulk. She was editor-in-chief at Hoffmann & Campe until 2016, and has been working as a literary agent. At Catapult, Morgan Jerkins has been promoted to associate editor of the magazine, while Megha Majumdar moves up to associate editor for the magazine and books. It was early August when we reported that Donna Tartt had left longtime agent Amanda Urban at ICM for representation in the US and […]
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Putnam executive vice president, associate publisher and editor-in-chief Neil Nyren will retire at the end of the year after more than 33 years with the imprint. Putnam, Dutton, and Berkley President Ivan Held noted Nyren has been “a beloved presence in the mystery and thriller communities” and the most recent winner of theMystery Writers of America’s Ellery Queen Award. (Nyren’s plans include projects with MWA as well as “other initiatives within the crime fiction community.”) Held continued: “In addition to losing his presence as a lifelong representative of Red Sox Nation, we will miss his encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, art, […]