JK Rowling announced on Twitter that she has written a play — Harry Potter and Cursed Child — that will open in London’s West End next summer. She calls it “a collaboration” with writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany, along with singer-songwriter Imogen Heap. Tickets will go on sale this fall, and the production will be stated at the Palace Theatre. The theater’s website says the play “will explore the backstory leading up to Harry’s parents untimely death at the hands of Lord Voldemort.” Rowling writes, “I’ve had countless offers to extend Harry’s story over the years, but Jack, […]
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People, Etc.
Jeff James will join Thomas Nelson as vp, marketing for Nelson Books on June 29. Previously he was the founder and ceo of Mythology, a marketing consulting practice for Fortune 500 firms. Steven Sussman will join Skyhorse as director of sales on June 29. Previously he was director of sales at Dover Publications. Antonella Pearce joins IPR License as business development manager. She was at the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS). J.K. Rowling has written extensively about the “reactionary, prejudiced, narrow-minded, ignorant and bigoted” Dursley family and their deep-seated resentment of Harry Potter on Pottermore, covered here by the Guardian. Partnerships […]
People, Etc.
Kim Shannon has been promoted to vp, director, retail sales at Penguin Random House. Awards The Carnegie Medal was awarded to Tanya Landman for Buffalo Soldier, while the Greenaway Medal was given to William Grill for Shackleton’s Journey, which he wrote and illustrated. Grill is the youngest prize winner (at age 25) in more than 50 years. Obituary James Salter, 90, died June 19 in Sag Harbor, NY. He was the author of novels including A Sport and a Pastime (1967) and Light Years (1975) as well as two short story collections and a memoir. The NYT reports his wife […]
Amazon Changes Kindle Unlimited Payments to Cover Pages Read Rather Than Titles Downloaded
Just a year after launching, Amazon told KDP authors on Monday that as of July they will completely change the payment formula for the monthly pool of funds distributed to authors whose works are borrowed through Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners Lending Library. Going forward the fund will be “paid out based on the number of pages KU and KOLL customers read” rather than “based on qualified borrows.” Amazon says, “We think this is a solid step forward and better aligns the interests of readers and authors. Our goal, as always, is to build a service that rewards authors for […]
Police Investigating Purported Theft of Finished Copy of EL James’ GREY
UK police are looking into the theft of a printed copy of EL James’s new novel GREY, which will be published June 18 by Vintage in the US and Arrow in the UK. “We can confirm that the Kent police are investigating the theft of a finished copy of EL James’s new book Grey,” a spokesperson for Penguin Random House UK told the Bookseller, adding there would be no further comment on the matter. A Kent police spokesperson told the publication the department was “making enquiries” into the purported theft. The finished copy was apparently discovered missing on Monday, June 8, with […]
NY Post Questions Details of Primates of Park Avenue
On Sunday the New York Post challenged a number of elements in Wednesday Martin’s recently-released Primates of Park Avenue, uncovering facts about her personal life that conflict with some of the anecdotes offered in her book. They question stories from an account of interview with her Upper East Side co-op board while pregnant in bed (at a time that appears to be years away from when she was pregnant) to a climactic scene in which her UES friends rally around her during a miscarriage — but “at the time, Martin already would have been living across town, far from the women […]