Mitchell Ivers has been promoted to vp, editorial director of Threshold Editions, while continuing in his role as vp, senior editor at Gallery Books. Reka Simonsen will join Atheneum as executive editor, effective March 10. Previously she was executive editor at HMH Children’s. Scholastic has hired Heather McIntosh Cassano for the new position of chief experience officer. She will “help redefine and implement Scholastic”s next generation digital experiences for students, teachers, and parents. Leading a company-wide community of user experience designers, prototypers and user researchers, Ms. Cassano will help create a holistic user experience for Scholastic’s customers.” Most recently, she […]
Free
Briefs: WBN Adds Twelve Years A Slave, 100 Million Fifty Shades, and More
World Book Night announced that special editions of Solomon Northup’s public domain book Twelve Years a Slave will be given free to schools for distribution as part of World Book Night on April 23. Executive director Carl Lennertz notes, “One third of our half million free books each year go into underfunded rural and urban high schools, and when Dover Publications offered to work with us on this, we jumped at the chance.” In other announcements, Vintage announced that the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has sold 100 million units worldwide. Vintage itself has sold over 45 million units in the […]
Newspaper Book Reviews, Reviewers, and Gender
The latest VIDA statistics assessing gender representation in book reviews continue to draw comment and response. But VIDA’s lens, expanded this year to include more publications, still primarily examines periodicals and journals and overlooks the substantial body of daily and weekly book reviews in large-circulation newspapers. That’s exactly the world we have tracked for years in our Publishers Marketplace Book Reviews database (also shown via our cool Top Reviewers tool), which offers a rich data set for analysis. In examining that data over the past 5 years, there are some interesting findings that may expand on the view that VIDA […]
People, Etc.
Michael Carley will retire from Simon & Schuster on April 22 after more than 34 years with the company. He started at S&S in 1980 as a field sales manager covering the Pacific Northwest, and added Amazon to his coverage in 1997, the first at S&S to do so. Carley was also the first S&S rep to sell directly to Costco. In a statement, evp, sales & marketing Michael Selleck said that Carley “has always been a passionate reader and his enthusiasm and dedication have been integral to the success of countless books. Michael has been a joy to work […]
People, Etc.
Editor-in-chief of Ace and Roc Books Ginjer Buchanan announced that she will retire in March 2014, exactly 30 years after she was hired by the Berkley Publishing Group, now a division of Penguin Random House. Berkley president and publisher Leslie Gelbman notes: “During her thirty years with Ace and Roc, Ginjer was essential in growing our science fiction and fantasy list and launching the careers of several bestselling authors. Her love for the genre and books in general and dedication to her authors is unparalleled, and she’s a key reason Ace/Roc is one of the preeminent science fiction-fantasy publishers.” Cara Bedick has joined […]
Small Investor/Agitator Touts Unfinanced “Proposal” to Buy Control of Barnes & Noble Or Nook
Michael Glickstein’s G Asset Management — by all outward indications a one-man shop — has been agitating the Barnes & Noble board to increase shareholder value since 2011 without much success, but on Friday he discovered the power of a press release and put himself on the map. Put on the wire early Friday afternoon, G Asset Management’s announcement touted their “proposal” to acquire a controlling stake in all of Barnes & Noble or, failing that, the “Nook segment,” which does not exist currently as a freestanding piece. This is not an actual bid, or even a formal offer. G Asset […]