Amazon has released their Fall Reading Preview package, picking their top books across multiple sub-categories. The highlighted lists include Amazon Editors’ “personal under-the-radar picks”: The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood Submission by Michel Houllebecq Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe: The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin Along with the bookseller’s slate of top 20 commercial blockbusters: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter The Survivor: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Kyle Mills M Train by Patti Smith Humans of New York: Stories […]
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People, Awards, Etc.
The Wylie Agency is launching a new venture, The Wylie Agency España, with Cristóbal Pera overseeing the new unit, starting in September. Pera previously spent more than a decade at Penguin Random House Mexico, where he was most recently editorial director. Quarto will launch a new children’s book imprint, Seagrass Press, in fall 2016, publishing 12-16 titles annually. Overseeing the imprint is Josalyn Moran, who most recently was vp, publishing at Albert Whitman and children’s publishing director at Chronicle Books. Margaret Harrison has joined Ingram Content Group as director of product metadata (she was the ebook global supply chain manager at Oxford University Press) and Ed Spade has […]
Monday Briefs
The big weekend read was the NYT piece with allegations about Amazon‘s “purposeful Darwinism” towards its employees. Jeff Bezos sent an email to all employees — and thus the world — saying, “Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.” Bezos agreed that “anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company.” But “Hopefully, you’re having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along […]
People, Etc.
Scholastic has announced a number of new hires and promotions. David Ascher has been promoted to svp, finance and strategic initiatives, while JoAnne Mojica will be vp, publishing operations, Scholastic Trade. Anamika Bhatnagar has been promoted to associate publisher of Pilkey Publishing and Scholastic Inc., and Sheila Marie Everett moves up to publicity director. Rick DeMonico has been promoted to senior art director and Elizabeth Herzog has been promoted to art director, Nonfiction and Branches. Finally, Elizabeth Schaefer has joined Scholastic as editor, licensed publishing. She was most recently an associate editor at Disney Book Group. At Vintage/Anchor, Angie Venezia has […]
People
Maya Ziv will join Dutton as executive editor on September 8. Previously she was a senior editor at HarperCollins. Judy Heiblum is leaving Sterling Lord Literistic after eight years with the agency. She will be taking on freelance editorial and consulting work and may be reached at jheiblum@gmail.com. At Public Affairs, Maria Goldverg has been promoted to assistant editor. At Maria Campbell Associates, Rachel Horowitz has been appointed senior scout for US children’s publishing. Also joining the company as senior scout is Annabelle Saks, working with Warner Bros Feature, WBTV, New Line, and Horizon. In the UK, Luke Speed has […]
Briefs: Pearson Sells The Economist, Too; GIRL ON THE TRAIN US Sales Reach 3 Million; and More
Following the recent sale of the Financial Times to Nikkei, Pearson has now sold its 50 percent stake in The Economist Group as well, for £469 million (or $731 million). Three-fifths of their stake (or a 30 percent share in the Economist) goes to Exor, the holding company for minority shareholder Agnelli, while the remaining portion (a 20 percent share) has been bought back by the Economist Group itself, funded by the sale of their headquarters, the Economist Complex, which has been the editorial team’s home for more than five decades. Pearson noted the “proposed changes will be put to a shareholder vote next month […]