At Johns Hopkins University Press, Davida Breier has been promoted to director, Hopkins Fulfillment Services and Hopkins Sales Partners, and Terrence Melvin to customer service and operations manager, Hopkins Fulfillment Services. Heidi Vincent has joined as business development and sales manager, Hopkins Sales Partners. Most recently, she was vice president of marketing for books at National Geographic. Ellis Avery, 46, author of works including The Last Nude and The Teahouse Fire, has died. Book Expo Rachel Maddow will host the Book Expo adult author breakfast on Thursday, May 30, and announce her new book. The panel will feature: Malcolm Gladwell (Talking to Strangers), Karin Slaughter […]
Legal
Author Cliff Sims Sues Trump For Trying to Block His Book, Aims to Protect Federal Employees’ Free Speech
Cliff Sims, former White House aide and author of the recently-published book Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House, filed suit against President Trump and the United States government on Monday in a District of Columbia Federal court. The action alleges that President Trump “seek[s] to unlawfully penalize and impose a prior restraint upon Mr. Sims with respect to the publication and discussion of his book…and any information he learned as a result of serving as a federal employee.” The filing says the suit is designed “to protect the unequivocal and distinct constitutional rights of […]
People, Etc.
Liz Kelsch has been promoted to director of marketing for nonfiction and mystery at Sourcebooks. Picks Reese Witherspoon‘s book club pick for February is Jasmine Guillory’s The Proposal. Distribution Rizzoli New York will distribute Pavilion Books, Pavilion Children’s, Portico, Pitkin, and the National Trust via Penguin Random House Publisher Services, starting July 2019. Previously these lists were distributed by IPG. Bookselling A new bookstore, Still North Books, will open in Hanover, NH in the space that belonged to Dartmouth Bookstore, which closed last year after 146 years of operation. The new owner Allie Levy, who previously worked in the marketing department at HMH, says […]
People, Etc.
Veronica Park has joined Fuse Literary as an associate agent. She was previously literary agent and marketing specialist at Corvisiero Literary Agency. Alexandra Franklin has been promoted to associate agent at the Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. Maya Baran has joined Viking Penguin as publicity manager, returning to publishing full-time. Most recently she has assisted Broadside PR and The Countryman Press. The ALA has named Melinda Gates the honorary chair of National Library Week, starting April 7. At Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA, Leila Meglio has joined as events manager. Most recently, she was publicity associate at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Sarah Rettger becomes […]
YA Author Jay Asher Sues Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for Defamation
Jay Asher, author of the young adult novel Thirteen Reasons Why, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, which in February 2018 indicated that he had been expelled from the organization the previous year after having been “found to have violated the SCBWI code of conduct in regard to harassment.” At the time, Asher said he remained a member in good standing of the organization. Filed January 18 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Asher’s lawsuit claims that SCBWI executive director Lin Oliver and the organization made false and defamatory statements that harmed his career and […]
Printer EPAC Wins Lawsuit Against Thomas Nelson, Awarded $15 Million in Damages
After a year of proceedings in Nashville’s U.S. District Court, a jury has ruled in favor of book printer EPAC Tech in its longstanding lawsuit (first filed in 2012) against former customer, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson. Finding Thomas Nelson guilty of breach of contract and fraudulent concealment, the jury awarded the printer $12 million in punitive damages and another $3 million in compensatory damages. Thomas Nelson had dropped EPAC eight months into an exclusive five-year contract to bind all its books, in favor of a cheaper option at Lightning Source, alleging that “EPAC was never able to show that it […]