Australian author Kate Morton, author of a number of internationally bestselling novels including The Shifting Fog and The Lake House, and her former agent Selwa Anthony have sued each other over the fate of future commissions from Morton’s backlist. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, which obtained Anthony’s original lawsuit and Morton’s counter-claim, the conflict began when Morton fired Anthony in December 2015 after more than 10 years of representation. Morton then retained Lizzy Kremer at David Higham Associates, to represent new and future works and also to “manage the royalty flow from her backlist.” Anthony sued Morton, claiming the pair […]
Authors
People, Etc.
At Chronicle Books, Madeline Moe has been promoted to production developer, food and lifestyle. Bernd Leukert has joined the supervisory board of Bertelsmann. He is the executive board member at SAP responsible for products and innovation at SAP. Chairman Christoph Mohn notes in a statement: “He is a digital thought leader with outstanding professional expertise, especially in the areas of innovation management, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. As a member of the executive board of an important global software group, he will be able to give Bertelsmann excellent advice and support in the identification of new opportunities for growth […]
Roxane Gay Withdraws from Ted Books Contract Over Simon & Schuster’s Milo Publication
Author Roxane Gay tells BuzzFeed that she asked her agent Maria Massie to “pull” her forthcoming How to Be Heard — scheduled for March 2018 publication from Ted Books, through Simon & Schuster — from the publisher. “I can’t in good conscience let them publish it while they also publish Milo,” Gay said. To be clear, Gay’s new book Difficult Women was just published earlier in January, by Grove Atlantic. TED Conferences LLC co-publishes a line of books with the Simon & Schuster adult trade imprint. The author was due to submit her manuscript shortly: “I was supposed to turn […]
Trump National Security Pick Crowley’s 2012 Book “Plagiarized Large Sections”
Conservative author and former Fox News contributor Monica Crowley, who has been picked for a leading national security communications role by the Trump administration, plagiarized upwards of 50 sections of her 2012 book What the (Bleep) Just Happened, according to CNN’s KFile. Among those from whom Crowley appears to have lifted material based on KFile’s investigation include National Review writers Andrew C. McCarthy and Rich Lowry, Michelle Malkin, conservative economist Stephen Moore, Karl Rove, and Ramesh Ponnuru of Bloomberg View. Crowley “also lifted word-for-word phrases from the Associated Press, the New York Times, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, the New […]
Briefs
The Costco Pennie’s Pick for January is Amy Stewart‘s Girl Waits With Gun (HMH) while the company’s book club pick for the month is The Tumbling Turner Sisters (Gallery) by Juliette Fay. Updating our very best of the best books of 2016 report, Jacqueline Woodson is represented now by Kathleen Nishimoto at William Morris Endeavor. Also, USA Today weighed in with their top 10 books of the year (now added to our vote count), also naming Colson Whitehead as their author of the year. Announcements The Ward & Balkin Agency is being acquired by Roam Agency as of July 1, 2017, when […]
People, Etc.
Steven Pace will join Norton on January 2 as director, trade sales, succeeding William Rusin, who is retiring after 45 years with the company at 36 years as director of trade sales. Pace was previously sales director at Workman. Norton vp trade sales & marketing Brendan Curry said in the announcement: “There are few people who could step smoothly into the shoes of the exceptional Bill Rusin, but Steven Pace is superbly qualified to do so. With his background in all aspects of book sales at firms both large and small, his outstanding reputation for management and leadership, and his sterling […]