Zachary Wagman will join Flatiron Books as vp, editorial director on February 10. He is currently executive editor at Ecco. Dena Rayess has been promoted to assistant editor at Chronicle Books. Roseanne Wells has been promoted to agent at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. Kaitlyn Johnson joined Belcastro Agency. She was previously with Corvisiero Literary Agency. Last week, Terence Campo joined Little Bee Books as production manager (he was at Sterling), as did Elizabeth Peskin (who was at Random House Children’s). In the UK, Paul Martinovic has been appointed promoted to associate editor at Picador. He will focus on backlist […]
Awards
Newbery to Craft, Caldecott to Nelson, and More
The American Library Association presented their annual book awards at their mid-winter meeting in Philadelphia. On Monday morning, at the Youth Media Awards, the Newbery medal went to New Kid by Jerry Craft (Harper Alley) — who also won the Coretta Scott King Author Award — and the Caldecott medal to The Undefeated, illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Kwame Alexander (Versify). Dig by A.S. King (Dutton Children’s) won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature. The William C. Morris debut award went to The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe (Balzer […]
2019’s Book Club Picks, Part Two: How Did the Booksellers Pick?
As promised, this is the second part of the in-depth look we started yesterday, tracking the performance of well-known monthly book club and spotlight picks. This installment focuses on selections from booksellers and librarians, who generally highlight new release titles, as they should. In some cases that helps their sales track record, since they often pick anticipated and pre-ordered books from commercial authors or titles that come with a big publisher promotional push. On the other hand, sometimes those titles publish late in the month, so our window on sales does not always include four weeks worth of data. (In […]
2019’s Book Club Books: How Did the Pickers Pick?
The burst in attention and impact for book clubs and monthly spotlight picks among booksellers, celebrities, and media outlets prompted our popular monthly “How Did They Pick?” feature, which tracks print sales of selected titles. Over time, that sales data has shown that not all picks are created equal; some are aggressively marketed commercial hits, while others are quiet releases and sell fewer than 1,000 copies in their selection month. The sales impact from club to club varies widely as well. Below we have charted each club’s most and least resonant picks of 2019, and we show you their average […]
People, Etc.
Lance Fitzgerald will move over to Penguin Random House Audio, in the new position of vp, content and business development, reporting to Amanda D’Acierno. He has been vp & director, subsidiary rights at Crown. He will be responsible for growing the list to “include foreign-language publishing, original audio publishing, and to deepen our connection to theatre.” With Fitzgerald’s appointment, svp and associate publisher Amy Metsch “has decided to leave the company” after 17 years there. Additionally, Catherine Bucaria has been promoted to director, acquisitions & editorial operations, reporting to Fitzgerald. Laura Schreiber has joined Jimmy Patterson as editorial director. She […]
People, Etc.
At Berkley, Jen Monroe and Kristine Swartz have each been promoted to senior editor. Tiffany Shelton has been promoted to associate editor at St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books. At Chronicle Books, Lydia Ortiz has been promoted to senior designer, children’s; Beth Steiner to production director, purchasing & vendor management; and Erin Thacker to production director, creative development. OR Books co-founder John Oakes will step down as co-publisher on May 1. He will remain on the board and continue to edit current projects. Jacob Bronstein left Apple after almost 9 years at the company, most recently as senior marketing manager for Apple Podcasts, […]