Author, former editor and attorney Jeff Ourvan has joined the Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency as a literary agent. He focuses on non-fiction works, especially memoirs, histories, biographies, international current events and sports, along with some young adult, thriller and international fiction. Stephanie Knapp is joining Crown trade paperbacks assistant editor, reporting to Heather Lazare and Alexis Washam. She was an editorial assistant at Rodale Books. She will “concentrate on backlist optimization in print and digital formats with a focus on practical non-fiction.” Keen Communications mourns the passing of Thomas Winnett, founder of Wilderness Press, who died last week at 89. […]
Agency News
People: Machinist Moves to Janklow, and More
Literary agent Alexandra Machinist is leaving the Linda Chester Literary Agency to join Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Mort Janklow says in the announcement, “Alexandra is another example of the kind of bright and established younger agents whom we have been bringing into our firm.” Phil Budnick has been named editorial director of Plume. He spent the past ten years as a national account sales manager for Penguin. In promotions at Crown, on the trade team, Sarah Brievogel moves up to assistant director of publicity and Dyana Messina is now senior publicist, as Julie Cepler becomes associate marketing director. At Crown […]
People: Wills’ New Agency, and More
Lydia Wills, formerly the head of the Paradigm Literary division, has formed Lydia Wills LLC, a literary and multimedia agency. She will “oversee and manage the daily activities of several new media and web-based ventures” undertaken in partnership with Neal Baer. Baer, who is executive producer of Law & Order SVU, is also represented by Lydia for his three book deal with Kensington. She will continue to represent her literary clients, including Denis Leary, Steven Johnson, Daniel Mendelsohn, Matt Taibbi, and John Dean among others. Amanda Stewart has left Severn House after 11 years as publishing director. At Penguin Canada, […]
Briefs: Author Sues Former Agent Over Bacon Cookbook; Spring Design Phasing Out Alex E-Reader And More
Brooklyn author Lisa Skye is suing her former agent, Jayne Rockmill, for puportedly stealing the idea that became the cookbook “I Love Bacon”, published by Andrews McMeel in 2009. According to the lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Skye said she and Rockmill jointly put together a proposal for the book after meeting at a launch party in 2007 for an earlier, self-published cookbook. Skye claims she fired Rockmill in early 2009 after she “became disenchanted with Rockmill’s aggressive style”, and was “stunned” to find a copy of the book with Rockmill’s name on it in a San Francisco bookstore […]
Sheedy Sues Sterling Lord, Seeking Her Accounting Records and Payment Due from 2009
Last week the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency filed suit in New York State Supreme Court against Sterling Lord Literistic, which Sheedy’s agency had been affiliated with since 1995. The complaint charges SLL with multiple breaches of a contract between the two agencies from 2009, which was terminated on February 15, 2011. Among the most serious allegations are that SLL had agreed in that 2009 contract to pay Sheedy $128,000 and has “refused and failed to pay the entire sum” and “purported to grant itself numerous set-offs…in order to reduce the amount shown to be owed.” Sheedy also claims that SLL […]
Macmillan Acknowledges Kindle Outage Adjustment for Authors
A year after the showdown between Amazon and Macmillan over the publisher’s switch to agency terms that left most Macmillan titles unavailable for sale for about a week at the etailer, the companies’ joint move to make financial amends to authors has become public. In a letter from Macmillan ceo John Sargent to authors and agents, he explained their Amazon Kindle Outage Adjustment. (Most of the supplementary compensation was already paid in the prior royalty reporting period last year.) “We believe it was not fair that authors should suffer from the Amazon buy button takedown imposed on us for a […]