The National Book Awards moved up the announcement of their finalists to Thursday (after originally planning to release the news next Thursday) — which will keep these lists from getting overshadowed by the naming of the Nobel laureate for literature on October 13. Fiction Chris Bachelder, The Throwback Special (Norton) Paulette Jiles, News of the World (William Morrow) Karan Mahajan, The Association of Small Bombs (Viking) Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (Doubleday) Jacqueline Woodson, Another Brooklyn (Amistad) Nonfiction Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land (The New Press) Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning (Nation Books) Viet Thanh Nguyen, […]
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At Penguin Random House, svp, corporate director business affairs John Schline is stepping down after more than three decades with Penguin and Random House. He will serve as a consultant to the company through the end of 2016. David Sanford has been promoted to svp, executive director, contracts and permissions companywide, with responsibility for all the adult and children’s imprint and divisional contract directors. Robin Simon, Erica Cuculic and Megan Thomas are each appointed director, contracts, Penguin Publishing Group, with respective imprint responsibilities. At Delacorte Press, Wendy Loggia and Krista Marino have both been promoted to senior executive editor, while Monica Jean moves up to assistant editor. Jessica […]
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Marketing technology start-up OptiQly, which is working on optimizing the display and sales of books, ebooks, and other products at online retailers, has acquired The Logical Marketing Agency, a boutique digital marketing consultancy. Logical co-founders Pete McCarthy and Jess Johns have joined OptiQly full-time, as chief product officer and director of marketing, respectively. The third co-founder, Mike Shatzkin, will remain involved through a long-term consulting agreement, and already sits on the OptiQly board. OptiQly ceo Evan Schnittman says in the announcement, “Since the three Logical Marketing partners are among the founders of OptiQly, this is a unifying step with the intention of providing more – and more […]
New Ken Follett Book Coming In September 2017
While Ken Follett has previously indicated in vague fashion that his next book would be published in the fall of 2017, today Viking has told Publishers Lunch that the new epic, A COLUMN OF FIRE, will release in North America on September 12, 2017. The book is the third installment in the Kingsbridge series, following The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. A final page count and price are still to be determined, though Viking says the length “will be similar to World Without End, which was close to 1000 pages.” (World Without End was published in 2007 as $35 hardcover.) […]
Amazon: KU Dispute In Japan, Revised Review Rules
A few big Japanese publishers are reporting that Amazon abruptly withdrew their titles from the Kindle Unlimited subscription program over the weekend. Though in the US and other major territories most big publishers resisted willingly participating in KU, in Japan the WSJ says that “as part of a deal to attract customers to the service” when it launched in August, “Amazon made contracts with Japanese publishers to pay them a premium through the end of this year when a customer read at least 10 percent of a book or other content.” A publisher told them the incentive worked too well and […]
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At Chronicle Books, Melissa Manlove and Naomi Kristen have both been promoted to senior editor, children’s. Scholarly publisher Emerald has hired Philippa Grand, PhD as editorial director, social science books and publisher, sociology, criminology & social policy. Pete Baker runs their scholarly and professional business, finance and economics books division, Jenny McCall has joined as a publisher, and Amy Potter is their new head of books marketing. Author of the National Book Award winner The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor, 66, died last Wednesday of heart failure. Awards In Canada, the shortlists were announced for the Governor General’s Literary Awards. The fiction list includes […]