Astra Publishing House is launching an imprint dedicated to publishing illustrated books for children, to be led by Jill Davis. She was most recently executive editor at Harper Children’s. She will report to coo Ben Schrank and president Leying Jiang. Davis says, “My focus at Astra will be developing authors and illustrators from all over and helping them create unforgettable stories with sparkle, soul, and lots of surprises. The majority of my list will be illustrated books for ages 0–12, with an occasional teen title.”
Free
Legal
A lawsuit in the UK has revealed that Neil Blair at The Blair Partnership paid his former employer Christopher Little £10 million as a settlement fee in January 2012. The payment came after Blair set up his own agency in 2011 and took over representation of JK Rowling. The filing also indicates that Blair borrowed the money for the lump sum payment from Rowling. The only previous report of the settlement was a Daily Mail account in February 2012, with a statement from statement from reputation and crisis-management firm Project Associates indicating that Rowling and Little “have reached an amicable agreement […]
Distribution
The SPCK Group, including Lion Hudson, IVP UK and SPCK, will be sold and distributed by Baker & Taylor Publisher Services in the US and Canada starting July 1.
Erdrich Wins Fiction Pulitzer
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced Friday afternoon, with Louise Erdrich winning the fiction prize for The Night Watchman. The rest of the winners and finalists: Fiction The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich (Harper) Finalists A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, by Daniel Mason (Little, Brown) Telephone, by Percival Everett (Graywolf) History Franchise, Marcia Chatelain (Liveright) Finalists The Deviant’s War, by Eric Cervini (FSG) The Three-Cornered War, by Megan Kate Nelson (Scribner) Biography The Dead Are Arising, by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (Liveright) Finalists Red Comet, by Heather Clark (Knopf) Stranger in the Shogun’s City, by Amy Stanley […]
People, Etc.
Bev Rivero has joined Beacon Press as senior publicist. She was most recently communications and marketing manager at The National Book Foundation. At Penguin Random House Canada, Talia Abramson has joined the design team as full-time junior designer. She was previously with the team on contract. Joy Bean has joined Arctis Books USA as lead editor. She was previously senior editor at Boyds Mills & Kane and Little Bee Books.
Bookselling
The Tattered Cover’s new downtown Denver store in the McGregor Square development will have its grand opening on Saturday. Later this summer, owners will open a dedicated children’s store in Aurora, CO.