Former Houghton Mifflin Harcourt director of field sales Paul Von Drasek has joined Capstone Publishers, which publishes children’s books for the educational market. He will lead the company’s planned expansion into the retail market. At Thomas Nelson, Russ Schwartz has been promoted to director, Christian independent retail sales, taking over from the recently-promoted Tom Knight. In the UK, Natalie Jerome was promoted to publishing director at Harper Non-Fiction, and Anna Valentine was promoted to senior commissioning editor. Author Colleen McCullough is due to have brain surgery in January in an effort to alleviate her trigeminal neuralgia, “an illness nicknamed the […]
Authors
People and Authors
Stephenie Meyer will make a rare promotional appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show this Friday. She blogs on why she is “making an exception” from “doing the hermit thing”: “I am so pleased and amazed and thrilled with what Chris Weitz has done with New Moon that I want to talk about it, and to show my support for him.”Meyer blog Gwendolyn Heasley will join Artisans and Artisans as an agent, focusing on young adult. Her own debut YA novel, Confessions of a Teenage Recessionista, was sold to Harper Collins in a two-book deal in July. Vook has hired Peggy […]
Royalty Revisionism: New Macmillan Contracts Looks to Change eRoyalties and More
Macmillan ceo John Sargent wrote to agents earlier this week to present for the first time a new standardized boilerplate contract across all of the trade publisher’s imprints and divisions that the company intends to introduce as of November 9, featuring a number of comprehensive changes in their basic business terms. The goal, he writes, is “to facilitate a more efficient contracting process, for ourselves as well as for our authors and their agents, and to make sure our author agreements reflect current business realities.” One notable effect, as agent Richard Curtis underscores on his blog, is a proposed new […]
Palin Discloses $1.25 Million from HarperCollins
In a disclosure form required under Alaska law covering her final months in office, from January through July 26, 2009, former governor Sarah Palin listed as income $1.25 million received from HarperCollins as a “retainer for book.” You can do your own math as to which portion of the contractual guarantee that might cover. Palin’s deal with Harper was announced in May.Alaska Politics Blog
Florida Attorney General Sues Writer's Literary Agency and Robert Fletcher
The state’s crimes division “received more than 175 complaints from around the world claiming Fletcher and his associates, who claimed to act as literary agents and publishers, allegedly collected money from victims anxious to see their work published.” The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief as well as full restitution. According to the suit, “few books were ever sold as a result of the efforts of Fletcher’s companies.” He “used more than 20 websites and related companies to collect funds from potential authors, but misled victims about fees, costs, and promised results.” The filing asserts that “usually each prospective author was good […]
People: Munro Leaves Giller to Others
Recent Man Booker International Prize winner and two-time Giller winner Alice Munro, 78, has withdrawn her just-released story collection TOO MUCH HAPPINESS from consideration for the 2009 Giller prize. Publisher Douglas Gibson says: “Her reason is that she has won twice and would like to leave the field to younger writers. In my role as greedy publisher I pointed out that the Giller Prize produces so much publicity, that even to be nominated for it is tremendous publicity. But her mind is made up on this. Alice preferred to withdraw from the competition.”Globe and Mail