Harlequin ceo and publisher Donna Hayes “has decided to retire” at the end of the year, with current Harlequin North America coo Craig Swinwood set to become the new publisher and ceo on January 1 “as part of the succession planning process.” Parent company Torstar president and ceo David Holland says in the announcement: “Donna Hayes has served Harlequin and Torstar with great distinction for the past 28 years. She has led Harlequin from being a series romance publisher to becoming a broad-based publisher of women’s fiction and has demonstrated invaluable foresight in positioning Harlequin for a more digital future.” As for Swinwood, who has […]
Awards
People, Etc.: Andre Schiffrin Dies At 78, and More
Co-founder of The New Press and longtime editor in chief and managing director of Pantheon prior to the Andre Schiffrin died in Paris on Sunday from pancreatic cancer. He was 78. The NYT calls him “a publishing force for 50 years, whose passion for editorial independence produced shelves of serious books, a titanic collision with a conglomerate that forced him out to stem losses, and a late-in-life comeback as a nonprofit publisher.” And they certify in print a definition of Pantheon as “a Random House imprint where making money was never the main point.” Bertelsmann’s president of corporate development and […]
Costa Shortlists, and More
In the UK, the shortlists were announced for the Costa Awards in four categories. Women claimed all the nominations for best novel, while men took most of the first novel slots: Novel Life After Life, Kate Atkinson Unexpected Lessons in Love, Bernardine Bishop Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O’Farrell All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld First Novel Idiopathy, Sam Byers Meeting the English, Kate Clanchy The Shock of the Fall, Nathan Filer Marriage Material, Sathnam Sanghera In Canada, trade magazine Quill & Quire named their top six works of fiction of the year: The Orenda, Joseph Boyden The Luminaries, Elizabeth […]
People
At Vintage/Anchor, Russell Perreault has been promoted to vp, executive director of publicity & social media, continuing to report to Anne Messitte. In a statement she said Perreault “has always had a keen instinct for partnership in the greater media landscape. Working closely with film and television companies, he has built the imprints’ movie tiein program to one of the largest in the industry. And, in the social media space, Russell has been strategically expanding consumer reach both for our publishing program and for our authors.” In addition, Kate Runde has been promoted to director of publicity. At Nicholas Brearley […]
McBride, Packer Lead National Book Award Winners
The National Book Awards’ move towards greater visibility and recognition culminated in much the same way as in previous years: a mixture of expected and surprise winners. New Yorker staff writer George Packer took the nonfiction prize for THE UNWINDING, while James McBride’s THE GOOD LORD BIRD (Riverhead) won the fiction prize, surprising the author — who did not prepare a speech, since he was among those who expected one of the other nominees to prevail. “They are fine writers,” McBride said of the other nominees, “but this sure is nice.” The judges called him “a voice as comic and original as […]
Awards: Business, NBAs and More
The FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award was presented in London to Brad Stone for THE EVERYTHING STORE. Goldman ceo Lloyd Blankfein commented:”Amazon is a remarkable force that has revolutionized the retail world since Jeff Bezos founded the company almost two decades ago. Brad Stone offers a provocative take on how Jeff Bezos and Amazon have transformed industries as varied as publishing, consumer electronics, and cloud computing.” It’s National Book Awards week in New York, and many of the events will be streamed or broadcast this year. Tonight the finalists in all four categories read from their works […]