New York magazine and Vulture writer and books editor Boris Kachka is leaving his position to become books editor at the Los Angeles Times. The LAT said in an announcement, “We’re pleased to announce that Boris Kachka is joining The Times as books editor. Boris comes to us from New York magazine, where has been books editor for the last few years, and a writer and editor for two decades…In recent years he has substantially expanded the magazine’s book coverage across all of its verticals, overseeing excerpts, stories on new authors and titles, publishing news, and more.” Julia Turner, deputy […]
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Sharon Shell has joined Independent Publishers Group as director of library & education sales. She was previously director of implementation, sales operations at Scholastic. Daniel O’Connor has been promoted to senior sales manager at Bloomsbury. Jacqui Lipton has founded Raven Quill Literary Agency, representing authors of books for children and young adults. Lipton is an attorney and a law professor, and author of Law & Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers. For people who want to stop by and pay their respects, there will be a viewing of Sonny Mehta on Friday, January 3, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM […]
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Robin Richardson will join Tommy Nelson as senior director of marketing starting December 18. Previously she was vice president of digital for RFD-TV. The Noble Prize site has posted the text of Olga Tokarczuk‘s Nobel Lecture. The Book Industry Study Group released their 2019 update to the BISCAC codes (the detailed genre/subject codes that tell trading partners and their machines how to categorize your books). Penguin Random House ceo Markus Dohle shares his annual year-end letter of thanks to company staff. Among the company’s notable accomplishments in 2019 was a string of acquisitions and investments: “As one major priority, we long […]
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Film/TV Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, through their company Escapist Fare, have signed a multi-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios. That deal starts with a limited series adaptation of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for Showtime, but includes a number of other projects in development. Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman will executive produce Kavalier & Clay, and Paramount Television will produce (since Paramount Pictures owns the film/TV rights). Initiatives This year James Patterson will give holiday gifts totaling over $200,000 to Barnes & Noble booksellers around the country as well, in addition to his annual holiday bonuses […]
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Heather Kelly has joined Abrams Children’s as senior designer. Previously she was senior designer at Sterling Children’s. At HG Literary, Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts was promoted to vp, foreign rights, and Rhea Lyons was named director, film/TV rights. Controversial Nobel prize laureate Peter Handke‘s originating publisher Suhrkamp prepared a lengthy document, “intended mainly for the benefit of foreign publishers of Handke’s work who had found themselves, like Suhrkamp, in an uncomfortable position as a result of Handke’s record of downplaying Serb atrocities against Muslims in the Bosnia war.” But “Suhrkamp’s rambling defense has not received positive reviews from” the German and Austrian […]
Penguin Children’s Acquires Eric Carle’s Rights
Penguin Children’s announced on Tuesday that as of January 1, 2020 it will acquire Eric Carle LLC, which owns the intellectual property rights to the author and illustrator’s over 70 children’s books, as well as his licensing business. Carle, 90, has sold over 145 million copies of his books worldwide by their report (including more than 50 million copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar alone). The acquisition was made by Penguin Random House US ceo Madeline McIntosh and Penguin Children’s president Jen Loja, and starting in January business operations for what has previously been the Eric Carle Studio will be […]