Vanessa Mobley is moving to Little, Brown as executive editor, starting December 1, reporting to Judy Clain. She had been an executive editor at Crown. Jon Pott, vp, editor-in-chief of of Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, has announced that he will retire on June 30, 2015. He first joined the company in 1968 as editor, rising up to become editor-in-chief in 1982. “When I came to the company I intended to stay for one year,” Pott said in the announcement, “Forty-six years later, that is a deadline I am deeply grateful to have missed.” He added: “If — as I have been […]
Authors
Handler Acknowledges Remarks Were “Yes, Racist” and Apologizes — As Does NBF; He Pledges Matching Gift to #WeNeedDiverseBooks
After declining media requests for comment about his controversial remarks at the National Book Awards gala, Daniel Handler posted a modest apology on Twitter around noon on Thursday: “My job at last night’s National Book Awards #NBAwards was to shine a light on tremendous writers, including Jacqueline Woodson…and not to overshadow their achievements with my own ill-conceived attempts at humor. I clearly failed, and I’m sorry.” By early Friday morning Handler expanded that to a bigger admission: “My remarks on Wednesday night at #NBAwards were monstrously inappropriate and yes, racist.” He added, “It would be heartbreaking for the #NBAwards conversation […]
Daniel Handler Apologizes via Twitter
After declining media requests for comment about his controversial remarks at the National Book Awards gala, Daniel Handler posted a modest apology on Twitter around noon on Thursday: “My job at last night’s National Book Awards #NBAwards was to shine a light on tremendous writers, including Jacqueline Woodson…and not to overshadow their achievements with my own ill-conceived attempts at humor. I clearly failed, and I’m sorry.” By early Friday morning Handler expanded that to a bigger admission: “My remarks on Wednesday night at #NBAwards were monstrously inappropriate and yes, racist.” He added, “It would be heartbreaking for the #NBAwards conversation […]
Barnes & Noble Launches Bundling Promo (“Sync Up”), and Adds POD to Nook Press
After a number of quiet experiments over the years bundling print books and ebooks together, Barnes & Noble has launched an extensive holiday bundling promotion under the banner “Sync Up,” letting in-store customers add an ebook version of eligible titles for $4.99 when purchasing the print editions. Seventy “select paperbacks” are eligible, including Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. The savings on the bundle vary by title — with the King ebook selling regularly for $14.99, while the Kline and Gabaldon ebooks already sell for […]
More Amazon, and Publishing
Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter‘s December issue letter is online in advance of the issue itself, in which Keith Gessen “lays out a vivid and highly original account of the almost schoolyard conflict going on now between Amazon and the French-owned publishing giant Hachette.” Carter says Amazon’s response to Hachette “amounts to an economic blockade” and says of Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos, “make no mistake about it: he’s not the underdog in this pitched battle; he is the overdog. The book business is puny compared to its visibility and importance to the nation’s well-being.” Separately, Seattle Weekly has a long and […]
Government Still Pursuing SEAL Author Matt Bissonnette
Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, whose 2012 book NO EASY DAY (published under the pseudonym Mark Owen) disclosed details of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden and who is set to publish a new book, NO HERO, under the same pen name on November 10, is under criminal investigation from the Department of Justice for allegedly revealing classified material, his lawyer and federal officials told the NYT. Bissonnette’s lawyer Robert Luskin believes the investigation stems from the book itself, even after “he thought he had reached an agreement in the spring with Justice Department and Pentagon officials to settle […]