Don Sedgwick is stepping down as chairman, director, and shareholder in the Transatlantic Agency after fifteen years. He explains in a statement that “most of my days are now taken up as executive director of the new MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of King’s College (Halifax). I need to ensure that these MFA students are given independent and unbiased advice about how to get their work published.” Louise Fury is joining The Bent Agency as an agent in their New York office. She represents young adult, new adult,romance, commercial fiction, pop culture and select nonfiction. Fury was previously at […]
Bookstores
Chicago Court Dismisses PIN Code Skimming Lawsuit Against Barnes & Noble
A federal court in Chicago dismissed a lawsuit filed against Barnes & Noble in October 2012 over the skimming of customer PIN codes from credit-card readers at stores in New York, California and seven other states, Bloomberg reports. The original suit, filed by Chicago customer Elizabeth Nowak and later consolidated with three other complaints for class-action seeking status, alleged that BN, by failing to disclose the PIN pad scam to customers for six weeks, was in “breach of an implied contract to protect that information and violation of Illinois consumer fraud laws” and that the company’s “security failures enabled the […]
Briefs
Dan Crissman has been promoted to senior editor at The Overlook Press. Amy Hatvany‘s OUTSIDE THE LINES is Costco’s “Pennie’s Pick” for September. The Northern and Southern California Independent Bookseller’s Associations have come to the end of their IndieGoGo fundraising campaign for the planned California Bookstore Day — to be convened Saturday May 3, 2014. While they raised less than half the stated funding goal, their page promises that “CBD is definitely happening!”
People, Etc.
Having overseen McGraw-Hill Education during its spinoff from McGraw-Hill to its standalone status as a private company owned by Apollo Global Management, ceo Lloyd G. “Buzz” Waterhouse, 61, will retire by the end of the year. He’s been in the post only since June 2012. Spokesman Daniel Sieger told the WSJ Waterhouse is stepping down for “a combination of personal and professional reasons,” but will remain on the board. A search is underway for a replacement. On Monday Crown “inadvertently” fed out catalog data indicating a May 6, 2014 pub date for former Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner‘s memoir and a working title […]
People, Etc.
Christine Munroe recently joined Kobo as US Manager for Kobo Writing Life. Previously she was a scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associates. In addition, Diego Marano has been named UK Manager for Kobo Writing Life. Previously he was a digital content acquisitions manager at Waterstones. Jenny Choy will join Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as senior manager, school & library marketing on September 16. Previously she was Manager, school & library marketing at Candlewick Press. At the Edinburgh Book Festival Ian Rankin announced he will take a year off, the Scotsman reports, after finishing the manuscript of the next […]
Hannah Kent’s Debut BURIAL RITES Leads September Indie Next List
Hannah Kent’s debut novel BURIAL RITES is the #1 pick for the September Indie Next List, which also features two BEA Buzz Book selections — THE AFFAIRS OF OTHERS by Amy Grace Loyd and KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR by Katy Butler — as well as ALEX by Pierre Lemaitre, the first of the 40 titles featured in our own Fall/Winter Buzz Book sampler that you can enjoy right now. The full list: #1 Pick: Burial Rites: A Novel, by Hannah Kent Night Film: A Novel, by Marisha Pessl Alex, by Pierre Lemaitre (translated by Frank Wynne) Enon: A Novel, by […]