BEA show manager Lance Fensterman has done such a good job with Reed’s fast-growing comics and pop culture shows that he has been promoted to group vice president and will focus exclusively on the company’s pop culture business. With no replacement for BEA in place yet, Fensterman “will remain on BEA through the transition.” Fensterman’s boss–and one-time BEA show manager herself–Courtney Muller has also been promoted, now a senior vice president. Muller’s portfolio of shows continues to include oversight of BEA.Release After yesterday’s announcement from Random House in the US, a separate announcement noted that Kristin Cochrane will move up […]
Awards
Amazon Breakthrough Contest Adds YA Category, Reduces Advances
For the third year, Penguin Group is joining Amazon in their Breakthrough Novel Award contest–which will now add a second prize for young adult fiction. The contest, which starts January 25, will also now be open to novels that have been previously self-published (to not penalize all those existing CreateSpace customers). Alas in a less heralded change the promised advance to the winners has gotten smaller: originally promising a $25,000 advance, this new contest’s two winners are assured $15,000 advances each. (Sales of the three contest-related books published so far by Penguin imprints–Bill Loehfelm’s FRESH KILLS; BAD THINGS HAPPEN by […]
Ferris Tops January 2010 Indie Next List
The Unnamed: A Novel by Joshua Ferris (Little, Brown, $24.99, 9780316034012)Remarkable Creatures: A Novel by Tracy Chevalier (Dutton, $26.95, 9780525951452)Alice I Have Been: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin (Delacorte, $25, 9780385344135)The First Rule: A Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais (Putnam, $26.95, 9780399156137)Thereby Hangs a Tail: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn (Atria, $25, 9781416585855)The Breach by Patrick Lee (Harper, $7.99 paper, 9780061584459)The Red Door: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd (Morrow, $24.99, 9780061726163)Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking, $26.95, 9780670021659)Shades of Grey: A Novel by Jasper Fforde (Viking, $25.95, 9780670019632)Bloodroot […]
NYT Book Review's Top 10, Plus CSM Fiction Picks and Amazon's Consensus Mash-Up
Take three Michiko Kakutani picks, two Janet Maslin favorites (Richard Holmes made PW’s top 10 as well), and none from Dwight Garner’s list (or the National Book Awards, or Amazon’s 10 Best, or…) and you have the NYT Book Review’s ten best of the year: FictionBOTH WAYS IS THE ONLY WAY I WANT IT, By Maile MeloyCHRONIC CITY, By Jonathan LethemA GATE AT THE STAIRS, By Lorrie Moore [K]HALF BROKE HORSES: A True-Life Novel, By Jeannette WallsA SHORT HISTORY OF WOMEN, By Kate Walbert NonfictionTHE AGE OF WONDER: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, By […]
People
Former Houghton Mifflin Harcourt director of field sales Paul Von Drasek has joined Capstone Publishers, which publishes children’s books for the educational market. He will lead the company’s planned expansion into the retail market. At Thomas Nelson, Russ Schwartz has been promoted to director, Christian independent retail sales, taking over from the recently-promoted Tom Knight. In the UK, Natalie Jerome was promoted to publishing director at Harper Non-Fiction, and Anna Valentine was promoted to senior commissioning editor. Author Colleen McCullough is due to have brain surgery in January in an effort to alleviate her trigeminal neuralgia, “an illness nicknamed the […]
NYT's Critic's Top 10 Lists
Last Tuesday at the site we posted these individual top 10 lists from the NYT’s three book critics: Michiko Kakutani’s Top 10 Che’s Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image, By Michael CaserThe Good Soldiers, By David FinkelThe Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, By David GrannLit: A Memoir, By Mary KarrTrue Compass: A Memoir, By Edward KennedyA Gate at The Stairs, By Lorrie MooreLark and Termite, By Jayne Anne PhillipsPops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, By Terry TeachoutEverything Ravaged, Everything Burned, By Wells TowerIn Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic, […]