Consultant Dan Lubart, whose publishing-focused work has included regular analysis of Amazon Kindle price data, is joining HarperCollins in the new position of svp of sales analytics. (Harper has been a client of his firm Iobyte.) He will “develop, build and implement dynamic pricing strategies” for their books and “help ensure that [they] are priced at an optimal level for both authors and consumers.” Lubart will report to Josh Marwell. Vanessa Mobley is being promoted to executive editor at Crown, reporting to Molly Stern. At Public Affairs, Tessa Shanks has been promoted to assistant director of publicity. Mary Anne Thompson […]
Agency News
Rizvi Agrees to Buyout of ICM By Management
ICM announced to employees on Friday afternoon an agreement “on principle terms to establish an agent-owned partnership for ICM,” designed to buyout the controlling stake held by Suhail Rizvi and his private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management. The financial firm bought into ICM in 2005 for $75 million and helped finance the acquisition the following year of Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann. The agreement comes after weeks of breathless speculation from Deadline.com and other Hollywood trades, though the WSJ‘s sources “said the agents had been negotiating with Rizvi toward Friday’s deal for a month, and described it as an amicable transaction.” […]
eNews: Smashwords Adds Management for Agents
Smashwords has adjusted their system to make it easier for literary agents to use the ebook distribution service. Their system now recognizes and allows agents to upload and manage clients’ titles as an authorized third party. (Up until now, the Smashwords paradigm made the uploader the “publisher,” a relationship that many agents did not want to accept.) In the new arrangement, agents can upload titles that will credit the author as the “publisher” and list the agency with an appropriate credit line in the metadata stream. Agents sign-up for a regular Smashwords account and then “upgrade” to Agent status. A […]
People, Etc.
Jeff Umbro has joined Goldberg McDuffie Communications as digital marketing manager, integrating digital marketing into their overall communications strategies. He began his career with Appsolute Media, focused on social media marketing, content strategy and seo. Toronto’s Transatlantic Literary Agency has added three agents. Meghan Macdonald will work part-time, growing a list of adult fiction and non-fiction clients. She worked for David Grossman before joining TLA. Patricia Ocampo will represent children’s authors, after working in editorial at Harper Children’s and in sales and marketing at Hachette Book Group Canada. Amy Tompkins will share representation of international rights sales for Orca Book […]
People, Etc.
Among the continuing changes at Sterling Lord Literistic, agent Ira Silverberg is leaving the agency in mid- to late-November and will join the National Endowment for the Arts as literature director, starting December 5. Silverberg wrote to colleagues in an e-mail: “After 26 years in book publishing, it was time for a change. This particular change will keep me very close to the field I grew up in. I’m honored to do this kind of government service and am thrilled that I’ll be able to help the community of independent publishers, literary journals, writing centers and writers who are supported […]
News Briefs
The Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency has acquired a number of authors for representation from Rosalie Siegel, International Agency, Inc., including the estate of William Wharton, Dennis Covington, Dana Johnson, Rev Jen and cookbook author Sudha Koul. Siegel is joining Lyons as a consultant, and has referred additional authors to the agency. Stephanie Madoff Mack’s memoir THE END OF NORMAL: A Wife’s Anguish, A Widow’s New Life, has been moved up to an October 20 pub date by Blue Rider Press (with Laurie Sandell’s Madoff book set for October 31 release). Associate publisher for Blue Rider Aileen Boyle tells us the […]