At Viking/Penguin Books, Rebecca Marsh has been promoted to associate director of publicity. Shelby Meizlik has joined as executive publicist. Tricia Lawrence has been promoted to senior agent at Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Awards The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced recipients for its highest honors for excellence in the arts, including two of last year’s Pulitzer-winning authors. Richard Powers will receive the William Dean Howells Medal for THE OVERSTORY. The prize is “given every five years for the most distinguished American work of fiction published during that time.” Yale professor David Blight, author of six books on slavery, […]
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Drew Reed will move to Sony Pictures as evp of literary affairs, starting May 1. He has served in a similar role at Fox for 17 years. Jake Bauman continues as vp of literary development, and will report to Reed. Patricia “Patty” M. Wong, city librarian at Santa Monica Public Library, was elected as president-elect of the American Library Association. She will serve as president-elect for one year before taking over as president at the 2021 ALA Annual Conference. At Scribe UK, Sarah Braybrooke has been promoted to publisher and managing director and Molly Slight to editorial director. Both will […]
Assistance: Patterson Helps Indie Stores In New Campaign, PEN Increases Grants to Writers
James Patterson is making a personal donation of $500,000 to help save independent bookstores across the country, as part of a new fund to be administered by BINC (Book Industry Charitable Foundation) that is raising money to support stores rather than individual booksellers in need. Patterson is joining with Reese Witherspoon, as well as the ABA, in a new awareness and fundraising campaign, #SaveIndieBookstores, running through April 30. BINC will distribute the pool of funds raised to eligible independent bookstores “by May 15.” Apparently those grants will be available to ABA member stores only. The site indicates, “Funds received are […]
Takedown Emergency: An Internet Archive Shortcut (Now Updated for Agencies)
The Authors Guild has posted a template takedown notice that authors can send to the Internet Archive to have their books removed from the organization’s websites. Note, however, that the simplest and fastest route to have your books taken down is to message the IA’s Jason Scott, who is @textfiles on Twitter. (He has also appealed to the online mob to stop attacking authors who are concerned about protecting their intellectual property and livelihood: “One particular theme in the attacks is ridiculing the work of the authors, the books, and I wanted to beg people to stop doing that…. These […]
Briefs: Aid for Canadian Authors, Kobo Expands In Australia, Bertram’s Closes and More
The Writers’ Trust of Canada and The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) created a Canadian Writers’ Emergency Relief Fund to support professional authors. The fund will distribute grants of $1,500 to “writers that have seen contracted or projected income evaporate due to the current public health crisis.” RBC joined the two organizations in funding the initial pool of $150,000. Rakuten Kobo has formed a joint venture with Australia’s largest online bookseller, Booktopia, to sell ebooks, digitial audiobooks, and ereading devices. In the UK, distributor Bertram’s has joined Gardner’s in temporarily suspending all operations, and the company is furloughing its staff, […]
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Allison Carney has joined Holt as assistant director of marketing. She was most recently marketing manager at Riverhead, Viking, and Penguin. Maia Sacca-Schaeffer has joined as assistant marketing manager; previously she was digital marketing & sales associate at Farrar, Straus. Kneerim & Williams agent John Butman died unexpectedly on Monday, March 23, from what appears to have been a heart attack. He was at home in Maine after a vacation with his family. The agency remembers him as, “A priceless agent, thinker, writer, and pal. He brought us his overflowing wit, intelligence, kindness, and joy, and we will miss him sorely.” […]