Ace Atkins announced that he is finished writing Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books to focus on other projects. His tenth book in the series, ROBERT B. PARKER’S BYE BYE BABY, comes out from Putnam in January. Putnam tells PL that Mike Lupica will take over writing the Spenser books and continue writing Parker’s Jesse Stone series. Allison Gaylin will take over the Sunny Randall titles from Lupica, whose last book in that series, ROBERT B. PARKER’S REVENGE TOUR, publishes in May.
Authors
Custom House Confirms Canceling Chris Cuomo’s Book
Chris Cuomo’s untitled book has been canceled by Custom House. HarperCollins said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon, “Custom House no longer intends to publish the book.” Earlier, PL reported that the hardcover had been removed from Amazon. Cuomo was fired by CNN on Saturday.
Representation
Author of Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Champion-Adeyemi has moved representation to CAA, listing Michelle Weiner for publishing rights. In May Deadline had reported that the author had signed with WME, moving over from ICM, which sold her trilogy to Holt Children’s in 2017. (If approved by the government, CAA is set to acquire ICM.)
PRH Releases Author Diversity Audit
Penguin Random House released their “phase one” U.S. publishing programs audit, which investigated the identities of contributors — authors, illustrators, and translators — of titles published between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021. Contributors were asked to self-identify, and 3,415 people participated. Initial conclusions were clear: “Our Contributor demographics do not reflect U.S. reader demographics when it comes to race and ethnicity. Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous representation is low, while white representation is overindexed. Significant growth in the underrepresented contributor populations is required to accurately reflect U.S. demographics.” The company noted, “The data also show a correlation between workforce […]
Getting Gurnah
The NYT reiterates what we reported the day Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature: From his extensive backlist, only one title was active in the marketplace in print, PARADISE. On October 7, Ingram had about 300 copies available. Working with Ingram’s print-on-demand service, The New Press has been able to make more copies available quickly: NPD Bookscan shows sales to consumers of approximately 600 copies the week ending October 9, and just over 9oo copies the week ending October 16. (Update: It sold another 1,150 copies the week ending October 23.) The publisher tells the NYT they will […]
Authors: Banks Estate Moves to Curtis Brown UK
The literary estate of Iain Banks has moved all of their representation to Curtis Brown UK, taking over from the Mic Cheetham Agency and others. Becky Brown at Curtis Brown Heritage will handle book rights and Alexander Cochran at C&W represents translation rights. Luke Speed represents film and TV rights, and announced a deal to adapt The Business for television with Stigma Films.