Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the latest pick for the Today Book Club. Hachette Book Group filed suit against Stephen Baldwin in New York Supreme Court, seeking to recover a $110,000 advance against a nonfiction originally due in 2009 that they say he never delivered. Harper UK is setting up a new fiction imprint, within their Harper Fiction division, called The Borough Press. Launching in 2014 — and publishing their already-announced Austen Project that has well-known authors retelling Jane Austen’s classics — it is led by Katie Espiner. As part of a reorganization that consolidates all […]
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Melina Gerosa Bellows has been promoted to publisher of National Geographic Books, adding responsibility for sales, marketing and distribution to her current role as National Geographic’s chief creative officer for Books, Kids and Family. Ken Rhodes has been promoted to managing director, NBN International. Will Lach is joining the American Museum of Natural History as director, licensing and publishing. Previously he was manager of product development, Department of Printed Product, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, Ross Harris has been promoted to literary agent. At Harper Children’s, Melissa Miller has been promoted to editor […]
Tom Clancy Dies
Author Tom Clancy, 66, died on Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore “after a brief illness,” the Baltimore Sun reported, confirmed by his publisher. Putnam is due to release his seventeenth novel COMMAND AUTHORITY in December, and the movie Jack Ryan: Shadow One is also scheduled for a Christmas day release. Penguin executive David Shanks, who was personally involved in the publication of Clancy’s books, said in a company release: “I’m deeply saddened by Tom’s passing. He was a consummate author, creating the modern-day thriller, and was one of the most visionary storytellers of our time. I will miss […]
Legal: Cussler Sues Producer Over Rights Claim; Supreme Court Will Hear Raging Bull Author Suit
Clive Cussler spent years engaging in a costly, complicated lawsuit with Philip Anschutz over script approval on the film flop Sahara, based on one of Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels, which ended in a stalemate. (Both sides claimed victory but neither prevailed in winning attorney fees.) Now, Deadline reports, Cussler has filed a fresh complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that a man named John Fassett, who “represents himself as a motion picture and film producer,” has been representing that he controls the rights to Cussler’s Oregon Files series of adventure novels. The suit asserts that Fassett was “using names […]
People, Etc.
Penguin Random House has formed a cross-company audio group in the US. Amanda D’Acierno will run the group as svp, publisher, Penguin Random House Audio, Fodor’s, and Living Language. Patti Pirooz is senior executive producer and Dan Zitt is vp, content production. Madeline McIntosh indicated in a memo: “Our frontlist and backlist audio titles will continue to be sold by the respective Penguin and Random House retail sales reps who currently sell them. The dedicated audio marketing, library sales, and publicity teams of the former Random House Audio Group will extend their activities to support Penguin’s audio list.” Cookbook author […]
Booker Prize May Allow American Entries In Wednesday Announcement
The Booker Prize is set to announce several rule changes on Wednesday, and now one expected adjustment includes opening the Commonwealth-only prize up to entries from US authors in some form. A weekend story in the Sunday Times reported such a change as fact, citing unnamed organizers as saying they “increasingly believe that excluding writers from America is anachronistic” and that “US writers must be allowed to compete to ensure the award’s global reputation.” Booker literary director Ion Trewin dismissed press reports as “incomplete” but confirmed in a statement “there are going to be some changes to the rules of […]