Amazon and Barnes & Noble agree on four titles in their “best books of June” lists, recommending: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman TransAtlantic, Colum McCann The Last Summer of the Camperdowns, Elizabeth Kelly Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis Amazon’s spotlight pick for the month — The Son, by Philipp Meyer — was another title featured in our spring/summer edition of Buzz Books 2013, as was BN June pick The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel. (So far, an amazing 15 of the 28 books we featured right around Winter Institute have been named to monthly […]
Awards
People, Awards, Etc.
Wiley has hired John Kritzmacher as evp, chief financial officer, starting July 1. Current cfo and chief operations officer Ellis Cousens, who previously announced his retirement at the end of fiscal 2014, will “retain responsibility for certain global operations and oversee the company’s $80 million restructuring program.” Kritzmacher, 52, recently served as svp, business operations and organization planning at WebMD and was previously cfo of Lucent Technologies and Global Crossing. On Friday at BEA, the Publishing Hackathon awarded first prize to Evoke — which maps how characters in fiction are emotionally similar to each other as a way of discovering […]
People, Etc.
Sarah Harrison Smith has been named children’s editor at the New York Times Book Review. She was most recently on the paper’s metropolitan desk. Scholastic unveiled the new cover designed by Kazu Kubuishi for HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, which will be published on August 27 (along with the other redesigned books in the series) at BEA Thursday morning. At the Audiobook Publishers Association’s Audie Awards ceremony last night at the New-York Historical Society, Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair (read by Colin Firth, Audible) was named named Audiobook of the Year and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (multi-voiced […]
People, Etc.: Harper Changes, Young Lions Winner, AEP to Merge With AAP’s School Division, and More
HarperCollins has announced some adjustments in their General Books group, driven by It Books publisher Cal Morgan‘s move to the Harper division as svp, executive editor. (He will continue as editorial director of Harper Perennial and Harper paperbacks as well.) Lynn Grady has been promoted to svp, publisher of It Books, now reporting as part of the Morrow division to publisher Liate Stehlik. Grady continues as deputy publisher of Morrow/Voyager/Avon as well. Newmarket Press will also operate as part of the Morrow division, while Harper Design becomes part of the Harper Division. At Melville House, Kelly Burdick has been promoted to associate publisher. James Phirmam […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Longtime Barnes & Noble employee Brenda Marsh has left her position as vp, author relations, Publishing Trends reports. She can be reached at brendasmarsh@gmail.com. Founder of Hanser Berlin Elisabeth Ruge will leave the company at the end of 2013 for what she characterized as “personal reasons.” Ruge, who founded the imprint at Carl Hanser Verlag in January 2012, will be replaced by Karsten Kredel, currently head of translated fiction at Suhrkamp Verlag. “Hanser Berlin’s lively and unique profile will no doubt be developed and strengthened by Karsten Kredel – of this I am confident – and I wish him and my colleagues […]
People: Twelve Adds An Editorial Director, As Does Knopf, and More
Following Deb Futter’s appointment as publisher of Grand Central’s Twelve imprint in April, Sean Desmond will join the line in the new position of editorial director, starting May 28. He is currently an executive editor at Crown. Futter says in the announcement, “When I became Publisher of Twelve, my first order of business was to hire a top-notch editorial director who would work with me to define the next era at Twelve. In Sean Desmond, I could not have found a more perfect fit in terms of acquisitions and vision.” Knopf announced two editorial promotions, both effective immediately. Robin Desser […]