ICM has hired Nick Harris from Mosaic (which he joined last November) as co-head of their book-to-film department, alongside the newly-promoted Josie Freedman, who has been at ICM since 2001. Harris was a partner at Rabineau Wachter Sanford Harris, and prior to that worked at AP Watt. Borders has named Scott Henry as their new evp, chief financial officer, effective today, filling the post vacated by Mark Bierley in August. Henry, 45, has been president of business and financial consulting services firm S.D. Henry Strategic Services, after five years as cfo of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Barnes & Noble has […]
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People, Etc.: Janklow Hires NYT’s Julie Just, Phaidon’s New CEO, and More
Children’s book editor of the New York Times Book Review Julie Just will join Janklow & Nesbit as an agent in November. Mort Janklow says in the announcement, “It has been our intention for some time to expand the range of agency services we offer to include in a major way children’s and young adult literature.” Lynn Nesbit calls Just “the ideal person to spearhead this new effort.” Phaidon Press, which recently hired Amanda Ridout as managing director, has now appointed David Davies as chief executive officer, starting November 29 and based in London. He is currently managing director at […]
National Book Award Nominees Avoid the Predictable, Give Carey A Second Shot
The National Book Foundation announced their award nominees this morning, with novelist Peter Carey getting another chance at honors after coming up short last night in his quest for a third Booker win. Coffee House Press and McPherson claim two of the fiction nominations, likely to fuel rights and/or paperback interest. (Yamashita’s book is a paperback original; Gordon’s book has not been published yet.) Last year it was the bestselling books that won the two biggest categories, Colum McCann’s LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN for fiction and T. J. Stiles’ THE FIRST TYCOON: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt for […]
Amazon to Feature Shorter “Kindle Singles”
Veterans of the ebook business may recall a modest (at best) initiative from 2005 called “Amazon Shorts,” selling “short-form literature from top authors” including Audrey Niffenegger, Stuart Woods, Robert Rhodes, Robin Cook, James Lee Burke, Danielle Steel, and Ann Beattie at 49 cents each. Amazon officially discontinued the program this June and reverted rights (with a suggestion to move that material to the Kindle platform). Today Amazon has announced what could be seen as that program’s successor, dropping the length/underwear metaphor for one from the music industry: Kindle Singles. “Singles” are described as pieces running between 10,000 words to 30,000 […]
Awards, People, Etc.
The new Barnes & Noble Recommends trade paperback selections are Lisa Genova’s Still Alice and Mary Karr’s Lit: A Memoir. The Booker Prize will be awarded this evening in London. Ladbrokes had suspended betting last week after 50 percent more money was wagered on a single title–Tom McCarthy’s C–on Wednesday than had been bet in total since the longlist was announced in July. Most illuminating, though, was the revelation that for all the attention the Booker betting draws, Ladbrokes took just 10,000 pounds of wagers up until Wednesday, when another 15,000 pounds was bet on McCarthy alone. Traditionally the favorite […]
Remembering Bookseller Carla Cohen, 74
Founder and co-owner of Washington, DC’s much-admired Politics and Prose bookstore Carla Cohen died this morning following her battle with a rare cancer of the bile ducts. The Washington Post remembers her as “a former urban planner who conceived of Politics and Prose as a salon where Washington readers and writers could gather to challenge each other in discussion about the big ideas of the day — a place that would reach beyond customers’ pocketbooks and become part of their lives.” Cohen and fellow owner Barbara Meade put the store up for sale earlier this year. In a obituary posted […]