At Penguin Canada, editor Nicole Winstanley will take over as publisher as president David Davidar takes on additional responsibilities as ceo of Penguin International. The unit will also launch an Allen Lane Canada imprint in 2010, with Diane Turbide running the new nonfiction program as publishing director. Managing director Andrea Magyar will give up most of her editorial responsibilities to become vp of business development. Focusing on custom publishing opportunities, she’ll report directly to Davidar. Speaking of imprints, at last week’s Bouchercon Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch mentioned briefly that the house is working on a new crime fiction imprint. […]
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Fewer English-Speakers, But the World Still Gathers In Frankfurt
At the official opening press conference for the Frankfurt Book Fair today, show director Juergen Boos noted that “the economic crisis has also left its mark on the Book Fair: particularly our colleagues from the English- speaking world have reduced exhibition space due to economic developments. Eastern European exhibitors are also not present in the same numbers as last year.” But overall exhibition space is down just 2 percent this year, and Boos told the Fair’s own Publishing Perspectives more bluntly, “If you’re talking about an economic crisis, then you have to talk about an economic crisis hitting American and […]
Grove Atlantic Reduces Stake In Atlantic Books, As Allen and Unwin Buys In
Grove Atlantic is selling a portion of its majority stake in the UK’s Atlantic Books, remaining as “a significant minority shareholder,” while Australia’s Allen and Unwin is becoming a “significant” shareholder itself. The company is said to have obtained “substantial” (we don’t know if that’s more or less than significant) new financing as well, in part to help drive the expansion of the Corvus line–all logical developments following Anthony Cheetham’s joining the company earlier this year. Morgan Entrekin will remain on the Atlantic Books board, now joined by Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Ravi Mirchandandi.Bookseller
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Lonely Planet has hired John Boris as managing director for the Americas. He was svp of marketing and interactive for Zagat’s. In a piece about the company, All Things Digital cites new ceo Matt Goldberg reporting that “Lonely Planet’s digital businesses have doubled their revenues to $20 million this year via premium pricing and advertising.” Lonely Planet was an early and successful player in building an online community of their fans/customers (including 700,000 registered members in their Thorn Tree community.) Among their digital initiatives, Goldberg cites “500,000 downloads from around 70 premium-priced apps” on various mobile platforms. ATD says, “While […]
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Vicki Lame has been promoted to associate editor at St. Martin’s. John Freeman, who was named acting editor of Granta after the departure of Alex Clark in May, has been made editor on a permanent basis, The Bookseller reports.http://www.thebookseller.com/news/99842-freeman-named-granta-editor-on-permanent-basis.html.rss Mystery writer Stuart Kaminsky, 75, died last Friday. Sarah Weinman rounds up the coverage and testimonials.
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The Reece Halsey North, Reece Halsey New York and Reece Halsey Paris literary agencies have melding into Kimberley Cameron & Associates, with the same staff and offices (new contacts are at the site: www.KimberleyCameron.com). Penguin UK managing director Helen Fraser will retire from the publisher at the end of the year. She is going to become chief executive of the Girls’ Day School Trust, and will also join the board of Frances Lincoln as a non-executive director. The Guardian Children’s Fiction prize has gone to Mal Peet‘s EXPOSURE.