Margaux Weisman has joined Penguin as editor, moving over from Vintage/Anchor where she was editor. Mora Couch has been promoted to associate editor at Holiday House. Lion Forge Comics has eliminated 12 positions, including editor Greg Tumbarello, Bleeding Cool reported. In line with the positioning of other publisher layoffs recently, the company says they fired people to fuel their future: “We are restructuring from the top down, and across departments to ensure that our organization’s size and structure remains in line with our sales, as well as providing support for future increase in title output.” They note: “Lion Forge has experienced a […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: The Quotable Daunt, and More
Waterstones’ managing director James Daunt is adorably, irresistibly quotable at every turn, and this Times profile does not disappoint. “I would rather there was no Waterstones” he says at the top of the piece. He would prefer “lots of nice independents, prospering up and down the high streets. I genuinely believe that. But there can’t be and will never be because it is very difficult to run independent bookshops. They can’t survive; you need the structures and efficiencies of chains.” But the chains have their own problems, in his view. “All chain booksellers in the world right now have got it […]
People, Etc.
James Jayo has joined Penguin as senior editor. Previously, he was at Sterling. Two longtime Penguin Random House sales executives will retire soon. VP, group sales director, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Janet Cooke will leave at the end of the year, and Christopher Dufault is being promoted to that position. SVP, director of adult hardcover sales, Penguin Publishing Group John Lawton is retiring in the spring (having worked for Penguin since 1996), and vp, group sales director Lauren Monaco will expand her oversight to all of the division’s imprints. Additionally, Cynthia Lasky is formally named svp, group sales director for the newly-combined […]
People, Etc.
At Doubleday, Margo Shickmanter has been promoted to editor. Tara Feehan will join Harper Children’s as vp, finance and administration, moving over from the operations & technology finance team, and reporting to Suzanne Murphy. Feehan succeeds Randy Rosema who will retire in January. Shari Black has joined Harper Christian as senior director of marketing for the specialty publishing division. She previously worked in account sales and marketing for Warner Bros. Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, and Walmart. At Workman Publishing, Constance Edmonds has been promoted to promotion coordinator across all imprints. Ashley McPhee joins as promotion coordinator for the Workman imprint. She was previous a […]
Briefs: Wiley Audiobooks, Gucci Books, Another BN Legal Conference, and More
Audio RBmedia has an agreement with Wiley to publish audiobook versions of more than 650 of the book publisher’s titles over the next three years, starting in January. The deal “allows for publication of all frontlist titles, with a primary focus on business, finance and the well-known Dummies brand, as well as select titles from tech and other key subject areas,” and it includes “select backlist titles” as well. They note that “a significant percentage of audiobooks [will] be narrated by Wiley authors, including global thought leaders, educators, and practitioners.” Bookselling Soho’s latest bookselling space is “gucci.” As in the […]
Bookselling: Crown Reports Opening-Day BECOMING Sales of 725,000 Units, B&N Names It Biggest First Week of the Year, and More
On Friday afternoon Crown reported that former First Lady Michelle Obama’s BECOMING sold more than 725,000 units in all formats and editions in the US and Canada (including pre-orders) on the first day of its publication, November 13. On top of the initial first printing of 1.8 million hardcovers for North America, the company says it has gone back to press for another 800,000 hardcover. (There goes your print capacity.) Barnes & Noble followed with a release Monday morning noting that Becoming recorded “the biggest first-week sales of any book this year” — and the best opening week for any adult book […]