Little, Brown Children’s publisher Megan Tingley has been made executive vice president. At Grand Central, associate publisher Emi Battaglia has been named vp, marketing director in tandem with her current position, which she has held for the past eight years. President and publisher Jamie Raab writes, “it reflects Emi’s expanding role as chief strategist of our marketing efforts.” In addition, associate publisher at Twelve Brian McLendon will take on duties as associate publisher for Grand Central, “working hand in glove with Emi to orchestrate our marketing efforts and implement marketing plans perfectly tailored to the needs of our books, authors […]
International News
Australia Approves Penguin Random House Merger
The Penguin Random House merger cleared another regulatory hurdle Friday morning as Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission will approve the deal, the two publishing houses announced Friday. “Bertelsmann and Pearson welcome this ruling as an important step on the path towards completing the planned transaction,” the companies said in a joint statement, adding they “are confident of receiving [the] approvals” from other international antitrust regulatory bodies “over the course of the year.” New Zealand’s Competition Commission, which was also expected to arrive at a decision by the end of this week, has postponed the date to April 5. And as […]
People
Nancy Inteli has joined Harper Children’s early childhood as editorial director. Nancy She was the global editorial director at the Disney Book Group. The division has also hired both Kristen Pettit and Alexandra Cooper as executive editors. Petit was most recently with Razorbill and will acquire and develop teen and tween fiction; Cooper, who has been at Simon & Schuster Children’s for thirteen years, joins the company next week. At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Taryn Roeder has been promoted to associate director of publicity, while Brittany Edwards has been promoted to publicist of the new culinary group. In addition, at HMH Children’s, Karen Walsh has been promoted […]
iBookstore Opens In Japan, Writers Group Objects to Random Digital Contracts, and Other Updates
Apple announced the launch of the iBookstore in Japan Tuesday, including titles from a number of the country’s largest publishers, promising “hundreds of thousands of books available for purchase.” The Kindle store opened there last October, which followed Japanese offerings from Kobo and Google Play. Japan is the 51st country in which the iBookstore operates. In Apple’s release, they also note that the iBooks app has been “downloaded 130 million times worldwide.” Separately, Smashwords noted that the iBookstore’s merchandising feature for self-published titles “Breakout Books” was featured at the top of the UK and Irish iBookstores. The blog details promotional […]
People: A New Agency, and More
Agent Laurie McLean has left Larsen Pomada after 8 years and formed Foreword Literary, in partnership with former Larsen Pomada colleague Pam van Hylckama Vlieg and Gordon Warnock, who was an agent at Andrea Hurst & Associates. They are joined by assistant agents Danielle Smith and Jen Karsbaek. Foreword Literary will be a “virtual agency,” with professionals in the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, Chicago and the central coast of California to start. The agency aims to “blend the knowledge and skills of traditional publishing with the brash new opportunities engendered by digital publishing, self-publishing, ebooks, and technology. NYT bestselling YA fantasy author Julie […]
BBC May Have Buyer for Lonely Planet
Rafat Ali’s travel site Skift reported Monday that wealthy Kentuckian Brad Kelley “is in final stages of negotiation” with the BBC to “buy a majority controlling stake in Lonely Planet.” The story says the BBC would retain “a small-but-sizable stake to help maintain editorial control through current management, as well as save on inter-country taxes.” Veering further into speculation, the piece suggests that Kelley–who made his money from cigarettes, and then became a significant land-owner and conservationist–might pay “close to $100 million” for that unspecified share of the publisher. The BBC replied to the story with a statement that is […]