becker&mayer! co-founder Jim Becker will retire from the company on November 4. President Mike Oprins will continue to oversee the 30-year-old company Becker founded with Andy Mayer. “Jim may be headed off for new adventures, but the team here continues to honor and uphold the values and creative spirit instilled by its founding members,” Oprins said in the announcement. “In true becker&mayer! fashion, we will continue to produce one-of-a-kind books that delight children and adults, SmartLab Toys will deliver on our mission of helping children explore and learn through play, and our Publishing Services Group will continue to provide outstanding […]
Awards
November Picks
It looks like celebrity month at Amazon, as the company makes Mary-Louise Parker’s Dear Mr. You their spotlight pick for November, while also choosing as its featured debut Jason Gay’s Little Victories an excerpt of which you can start reading right now in Buzz Books 2015: Fall/Winter. Filling out their top books for the month are: The Witches, Stacy Schiff Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Carrie Brownstein Lights Out, Ted Koppel The Grownup, Gillian Flynn Custer’s Trials, T. J. Stiles My Life on the Road, Gloria Steinem Avenue of Mysteries, John Irving St. Marks Is Dead, Ada Calhoun Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes Schiff’s book is also the November Pennie’s […]
Indie Next Lists Will Feature Highlighted Backlist “Revisit & Rediscover” Picks
The ABA announced a new initiative “to showcase and support favorite backlist titles,” as selected by panels of independent booksellers. Starting with the December picks, the Indie Next monthly and kids’ lists will feature the Revisit & Rediscover selections. For December’s Indie Next List, they are touting: Wild Swans, by Jung Chang (Touchstone) About Grace, by Anthony Doerr (Scribner) Lost in the City, by Edward P. Jones (Amistad) The January 2016 list features: Plainsong, by Kent Haruf (Vintage) The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea (Back Bay Books) Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Vintage) And February will highlight: The Fire Next Time, […]
People, Etc.
Cathy Goldsmith has been appointed to the newly created position of president and publisher of Random House’s Beginner Books line and Dr. Seuss publishing program, effective immediately, continuing to report to Mallory Loehr. Goldsmith was the “creative force” behind this summer’s publication of the posthumous Dr. Seuss book What Pet Should I Get? and worked directly with Ted Geisel — president of Beginner Books from 1957 until his death in 1991 — in the last decades of his life. “With her incredible wealth of knowledge about Dr. Seuss books and her unique experience working directly with Ted, Cathy is the perfect […]
People, Etc.
Longtime vp, director of publicity at Viking Penguin Carolyn Coleburn is stepping aside from her duties on December 1. She will take on the new role of vp, executive publicist, in order to “allow her to concentrate her full-time energies and expertise on individual publicity campaigns, while allowing more flexibility with the commute between her home in Philadelphia and our Hudson Street offices.” Succeeding Coleburn as director of publicity on December 1 is Lindsay Prevette, about whom Brian Tart said in the announcement: “She is highly respected by, and collaborative with, editors, authors, media, and booksellers. I am looking forward […]
People, Awards, Etc.
At SUNY Press, Rafael Chaiken has been promoted to assistant acquisitions editor and Emily Keneston has been promoted to assistant production editor. As of January 1, Dutch agency Sebes & Van Gelderen will change its name to Sebes & Bisseling, as Willem Bisseling becomes a partner after almost 10 years with the firm. The shortlists for the ALA Carnegie Medals were announced, with the winners to be named at the ALA Midwinter conference in January: Fiction The Book of Aron, by Jim Shepard A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen Nonfiction H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald […]