At Writers House, Stephen Barr has been promoted to senior agent. Brian Jud will take over as executive director of the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) on January 1, following the resignation of Brad Flora. Jud is an author, book-marketing consultant, seminar leader, television host and a partner in Premium Book Company. Rachel Burkot has been named assistant editor for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. Danielle Plafsky will join Knopf as assistant marketing manager on January 2. Previously she was a marketing associate for Harper. Daniel L. Knotts has been named coo of R.R. Donnelley, replacing John R. Paloian, who is retiring after over 25 […]
Awards
People, Etc.
Jennifer Garza has joined the Simon & Schuster publicity department as publicity manager. Previously she worked at Media Connect. Novelist Jennifer Egan and Knopf Doubleday executive editor Erroll McDonald are joining the PEN American Center board of trustees. Ben Fountain won the 2012 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction for his novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The award was presented at a ceremony in New York Tuesday night that also honored New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman with the organization’s Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction.
Celona’s Novel Tops January Indie Next List
The novel from Free Press beats out Oprah pick The Twelve Tribes of Hattie to top the ABA’s Indie Next list for January: #1 Y: A Novel, by Marjorie Celona Tenth of December: Stories, by George Saunders Me Before You: A Novel, by Jojo Moyes The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel, by Ayana Mathis The Third Bullet: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel, by Stephen Hunter Finding Camlann: A Novel, by Sean Pidgeon The Death of Bees: A Novel, by Lisa O’Donnell Hikikomori and the Rental Sister: A Novel, by Jeff Backhaus The Intercept: A Jeremy Fisk Novel, by Dick […]
People: Oprah Chooses Ayana Mathis Debut For Book Club 2.0
Oprah Winfrey’s revamped, Occasional Book Club 2.0 has selected Ayana Mathis‘ debut novel THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE (Knopf) as its second choice. The book was originally set for publication in mid-January but has been moved up to release today instead. As part of the announcement Oprah said: “The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away. I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me in quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison.” Oprah had picked Cheryl Strayed’s WILD in June, following the book’s publication in March. At the time, she said the OBC2.0 would feature “several […]
People, Etc.
Patrick Mulligan has resigned from Gotham Books, to work full-time for Pop Chart Lab, a design startup he cofounded in 2010. He can be reached at patrick@popchartlab.com. Mark Short joins Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as svp and head of international markets. He was at Pearson. The Bookseller has updated their piece on United Agents’ acquisition of AP Watt: 12 of 16 AP Watt staffers are joining UA as part of the merger. In the UK, Christian publisher Lion Hudson will publish crime and women’s fiction aimed at a broader audience through a new imprint, Lion Fiction, set to launch in spring 2013. […]
People, Etc.
Midas Public Relations CEO Jacks Thomas will join Reed Exhibitions UK in January as senior exhibition director for the London Book Fair. LBF has been a Midas client for 10 years, and will remain so in the future. Kelly Welsh will join Putnam and Amy Einhorn Books as senior publicity manager on December 3. Previously she was publicity manager at Simon & Schuster’s trade imprint. Author and motivational speaker Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar, 86, died on Wednesday. Best known for his 1975 book SEE YOU AT THE TOP, the WSJ notes he “preached in the tradition of American self-help that stretched back […]