CEO of Penguin Random House Canada Brad Martin will retire as of June 30. He began his publishing career in 1981 as a sales representative at McClelland & Stewart, and became ceo of Random House Canada in 2007. President and publisher Kristin Cochrane will take over as ceo, and will join the PRH global executive committee. Cochrane joined the company in 2005 as associate publisher at Doubleday Canada. (With her appointment, both PRH US and PRH Canada will have female ceos.) PRH ceo Markus Dohle writes of Cochrane, “As a leader, Kristin has an impressive track record of mentoring and […]
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Penguin Random House Australia conducted “a review of our structure ” and found they “no longer require the role of publishing director-Penguin Random House Literary” (comprising Hamish Hamilton, Vintage, Knopf, Viking and Penguin). As a result, Penguin veteran Ben Ball has left the company. The team for the Literary division (created last year) will now report to group publishing director Nikki Christer. Fairfax Media reports that “the immediate departure of Ball has created shockwaves in the Australian literary community, with authors, colleagues, booksellers and agents left in disbelief.” Four-time Miles Franklin Award winner Tim Winton said he was “deeply wounded by […]
Our Big Buzz Books Fall/Winter Sampler, Just in Time for Book Expo
With Book Expo just two weeks away, today we launch Buzz Books 2018: Fall/Winter and the companion Buzz Books 2018 Young Adult: Fall/Winter. As usual, the samplers are the best way to prepare for the season ahead, with substantial pre-publication excerpts from major authors, as well as breakout and discovery books from across the publishing landscape. The consumer editions are available for download now for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple’s iBooks (where they are being promoted on a number of high-profile pages), Google Play, and Kobo, among other online retailers, with click-throughs for preorders. (Also all linked at our main […]
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Samantha Fabien has joined Laura Dail Literary Agency as international rights manager. Former associate publishing manager at Viking Children’s Leila Sales has relocated to Austin, TX, where she will continue to edit select projects on Viking’s list, along with working on other editorial and writing projects. Awards The British Book Awards were presented on Monday, honoring both the trade and authors, with Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine named both debut of the year and book of the year. Launching Otto Penzler has started a new company, Penzler Publishers, now announcing its first imprint, American Mystery Classics. The line will focus […]
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Atria executive editor Johanna Castillo will “return to her roots” and join Writers House as a senior literary agent on June 6. (Prior to her long career at Atria, Castillo worked at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.) Castillo says: “After working closely with a wonderful roster of authors and colleagues for nearly fifteen years, I wanted to go back to being a literary agent and be able to find new talent authors and nurture writers’ literary careers long term. I have always said that if I ever decided to get back to being an agent, my dream would be to do so at […]
Publisher Peter Mayer Dies
Renowned publisher Peter Mayer, 82, has died. Penguin Random House said in a brief statement, “We are deeply saddened by the passing of our forever colleague Peter Mayer, one of the towering giants of trade publishing, whose long and brilliant leadership of Penguin will always be part of the DNA of Penguin Random House.” President of The Overlook Press, which he founded with his father in 1971, Mayer was best known for his long tenure as ceo of Penguin Books, from 1978 to 1996. Prior to that, he was publisher and president at Pocket Books, and spent 14 years at […]