At Crown Business, Ayelet Gruenspecht has been promoted to marketing manager, while Megan Perritt moves up to publicity manager for the imprint as well as for Crown Forum. In addition, associate publisher for Crown Forum and Three Rivers Press Campbell Wharton will take on an additional role in project directing Crown Business campaigns on a case-by-case basis. At the Random House Publishing Group, Sam Nicholson and Anna Pitoniak have been promoted to editor. Mika Kasuga, Caitlin McKenna, and Molly Turpin have been promoted to assistant editor. Dervla Kelly will join Rodale as senior editor on April 7. Previously she was an […]
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People Etc.
Devin Kirk will join Macmillan on April 14 as vp, international sales and marketing, succeeding Judy Sisko, who is retiring next month after more than 46 years in publishing and 22 years at Macmillan. Kirk was previously senior director, international sales for Penguin Random House. At Penguin Random House, Kim Shannon has been appointed to newly created position of vp, director, adult retail sales, Random House. Adult retail sales at Penguin continue to be overseen by John Lawton and Norman Lidofsky. At Sterling Lord Literistic, Caitlin McDonald and Mary Krienke have been promoted to associate agents, while Nadyne Pike moves […]
Indies Choice Nominees Named
The ABA announced the finalists for the Indies Choice Awards, with winners to be announced April 17. Among the adult candidates 5 of the 6 debut nominees and 3 of the fiction nominees were all featured pre-publication in Buzz Books last year. (Check out the excerpts in the current Spring/Summer edition to sample some of the potential breakout books of this year spring and summer.) The nominees are: Adult Fiction Gun Machine, by Warren Ellis (Mulholland Books) Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson (Reagan Arthur Books) Snow Hunters, by Paul Yoon (Simon & Schuster) The Son, by Philipp Meyer (Ecco) […]
Hastings Merger Would Pay Top Execs to Leave
A series of documents filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed buyout of retailer Hastings indicate that current ceo John Marmaduke and cfo Dan Crowe will “voluntarily retire from the company in exchange for” cash payments once the merger goes through. The agreements call for Marmaduke to receive $1.5 million after taxes (so closer to $2.6 million gross), and for Crowe to receive $750,000 after taxes. Both men agree to waive the current change in control clauses in their existing employment agreements. Chief operating officer Alan Van Ongevalle has agreed to stay on after the deal closes. The payout […]
Booksellers Object to LAT Festival’s Amazon Links
On Tuesday the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books posted the list of authors scheduled to appear at this April’s event — and in contrast to previous years, they appended “buy” links next to each author’s name, which usually lead to Amazon pages (via affiliate links). Local bookseller Skylight Books has spoken out, objecting to the Amazon links, and other booksellers are starting to do so as well. Last year, when Kobo was a sponsor of the festival, the author listings linked to informational sites rather than retailing pages. LAT director of communications Hilary Manning wrote in a statement that […]
Barnes & Noble Improves Profit On Lower Sales; Cut 190 Nook Jobs and Promises New Color Device, Higher Ed Tech Launch
Sales for the big holiday third quarter at Barnes & Noble fell 10.3 percent overall to $1.996 billion (down $228 million), but EBITDA improved considerably — on a reduction of Nook losses — to $173 million, compared to just $59 million a year ago, when they first took big inventory losses on unsold Nook devices (of $74 million). In coming attractions, one way or another, in their ever-shifting device strategy they “plan to launch a new Nook color device in early fiscal 2015” (which begins in late April), doing so “in collaboration with a third-party partner.” More broadly, BN says […]