Macmillan evp Will Schwalbe has brokered a deal with Carrie Welch at the New York Public Library “to create and publish a wide variety of print and e-books for adults and for children drawing from and inspired by” the library’s collection. Michael Flamini will oversee the adult program, and Jean Feiwel and Christian are overseeing the children’s line. Among the first adult titles will be a book featuring menus from the library’s collection of 45,000 New York eatery menus and Book Face, collecting top posts from the #bookface Instagram. Early children’s titles include a coloring book featuring vintage art; a picture book starring the […]
Deals
Past the Hype, Data Shows Modest Dealmaking As Dollars Move Away From Big Fiction
With the Frankfurt Book Fair underway, our annual analysis of actual dealmaking data stands in contrast to the standing fair daily stories hailing a few big deals made a few weeks ago. Our data shows overall dealmaking just below last year’s soft season, comprising the fewest pre-Frankfurt deals since 2012. (And that’s with an extra day counted in; since Frankfurt is late this year, we start counting the five-week selling season from Monday, September 12 rather than the Tuesday after Labor Day. In terms of where publishers are making their biggest investments, the momentum continues last year’s shift to nonfiction. Overall […]
People, Etc.
Doug Jones has been promoted to the new position of svp, deputy publisher of the Harper group, reporting to Jonathan Burnham. In addition, he will serve as publisher of Harper Perennial and Harper Paperbacks. All marketing and publicity for the Harper imprints and lines will report to Jones, who has been svp, sales for HarperCollins. Senior vice president, associate publisher Kathy Schneider is leaving the company. Sarah Bedingfield has joined Levine Greenberg Rostan as an associate agent, working with Stephanie Rostan and building a clientele of literary and upmarket commercial fiction authors. She was previously an assistant editor at Crown and Hogarth. Claire Kelley has joined Roost […]
LBF: This Will Be Familiar
Back at Olympia for a second straight year, the London Book Fair opened Tuesday in familiar form, similar to last year’s show. The special above-ground train that is supposed to connect London’s tube directly to Olympia is still out of commission (fortunately it was a good morning for a leisurely wall). The hotel-style nomenclature, with its Grand Halls and galleries, remains in place, and the International Rights Center is still situated on another floor where elevators are maddeningly slow and the stairs up and down can be crowded. The wifi is still free and still works, automatically reducing one of the biggests […]
Now Michael Mann Has An Imprint, at HarperCollins; Jackson to Reboot One World; and More
After announcing a couple of book deals with himself via Deadline.com, writer/director Michael Mann is reported to have made a deal for his eponymous imprint with HarperCollins. David Highfill is said to be overseeing the books for the publisher, acquiring world rights to three Mann-co-authored books, sold by Shane Salerno at The Story Factory and attorney Harold Brown. The first title is by Mann and fellow Salerno client Don Winslow, a novel about the complex relationship between organized crime figures Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana for publication in 2017. The second will be a prequel to Mann’s Heat. Separately, Spiegel & Grau executive editor Chris Jackson […]
Scribner Acquires Majority of Stephen King Backlist
After 20 years of publishing new works by Stephen King, Scribner announced that it has print, ebook, and audio rights to “almost the entirety of the bestselling author’s body of work,” comprising 27 titles. (They have North American and open market rights for the licensed titles.) Nan Graham negotiated the deal for Scribner — as well as Gallery/Pocket and Simon & Schuster Audio — with Chuck Verrill at Darhansoff & Verrill. The agreement covers works including IT, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, Christine, Cujo, The Dead Zone, and Firestarter, and the first four volumes of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The company will start issuing ebook and […]