Longtime Random House executive Bonnie Ammer has resigned as evp, international sales, effective December 31. That department reports to newly-appointed president of sales, operations and digital, Madeline McIntosh. Previously Ammer was publisher-at-large, after serving as president and publisher of Fodor’s and running the Random House Information Group. Markus Dohle writes in a memo, “I have tremendous respect and gratitude for all Bonnie has accomplished for Random House, accomplishments for which her colleagues throughout the company worldwide and throughout trade-book publishing here and abroad hold her in high regard.” Publishing whiz and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ceo Barry Callaghan has hired Eric […]
Free
Bookselling: Borders UK In Bankruptcy; Another Gay and Lesbian Store to Close; Update On Elliott Bay
As expected, Borders UK filed for “administration” (the UK equivalent of bankruptcy) last week, with the firm MCR overseeing the process after another company, BDO, pulled out at the last minute citing an unspecified conflict. Stores started offering discounts immediately thereafter to help sell off existing merchandise while employees and publishers wait to see if anyone is interested in buying part or all of the chain. The Bookseller’s anonymous “Borders Insider” wrote of confusion and changing orders at the store level over how deeply to discount. Most UK newspaper accounts expect the chain to be liquidated, with the possibility that […]
People
Former Houghton Mifflin Harcourt director of field sales Paul Von Drasek has joined Capstone Publishers, which publishes children’s books for the educational market. He will lead the company’s planned expansion into the retail market. At Thomas Nelson, Russ Schwartz has been promoted to director, Christian independent retail sales, taking over from the recently-promoted Tom Knight. In the UK, Natalie Jerome was promoted to publishing director at Harper Non-Fiction, and Anna Valentine was promoted to senior commissioning editor. Author Colleen McCullough is due to have brain surgery in January in an effort to alleviate her trigeminal neuralgia, “an illness nicknamed the […]
People
Susan Hobson has been appointed director of international rights at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency. Macmillan Audio has hired Robert Allen as editorial director, effective immediately. Most recently he was a co-founder of Brands-to-Books, after serving as publisher of Random House Audio. A memorial service has been announced for book marketing and sales consultant Jim Sutton, on December 5 at 2:00 pm at Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore. Sutton, 64, died recently in Germany after suffering a heart attack at the Frankfurt Book Fair. He first made his mark with the launch of Tom Clancy’s career with the publication of […]
National Book Awards: McCann, Stiles, Hoose and Waldrop
The marketplace made the right predictions on the two highest-profile National Book Awards, as the fiction prize went to the book that has sold the best, both overall and (overwhelmingly) in the four weeks since the nominations were announced: Colum McCann’s LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (Random House). Nonfiction also saw the book that has by far sold the best win, with the award going to T. J. Stiles’ THE FIRST TYCOON: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf). Conflict issues raised online by Janice Harayda and echoed by the NYT over nominee David Small’s relationship having illustrated […]
People
Danielle Perez is joining New American Library as executive editor, where she will acquire commercial fiction and nonfiction, starting January 4. Perez has been at Bantam for 11 years. Michelle Brower is joining Folio Literary Management as an agent, after five years with Wendy Sherman Associates. Kristin Lang has joined Audible as director of editorial business development. managing the growing fiction publishing program and developing and acquiring new and innovative audio projects. She was editorial director at Macmillan Audio, overseeing the selection and acquisition of over 100 titles annually. Tangentially, Moby Lives speculates on a number of potential candidates for […]