Simon Trewin has left William Morris Endeavor after 6 years to start his own agency, Simone Trewin Ltd., representing authors, brands and entrepreneurs in the areas of art, culture, digital, literature, and live events. Trewin says in part, “This is a chance to return to my roots in the entertainment industry and I am looking forward to making live events, theatre and film production part of the mix of my new endeavor. I have authors who I would go to the wall for and they will always be my first priority but I can’t wait to get to work on seeing […]
New Imprints
Corporate: New Amazon Imprint, Hachette Buys Board Game Company, and More
Amazon Publishing is adding an Amazon Crossing Kids imprint, publishing children’s picture books in translation, with three announced titles, for publication beginning in July. Two Lions editorial director Kelsey Skea is editorial director of Amazon Crossing Kids as well, working in collaboration with Two Lions editor Marilyn Brigham and Amazon Crossing editorial director Gabriella Page-For. Separately, Random House Children’s announced the launch list of three titles, starting in September, for Christopher Myers‘ Make Me A World imprint, which started in 2016, originally aiming for a 2018 debut. He says in the release: “Imagine inviting all the smartest people, the artists and […]
Wattpad Launches Book Line, Radish Commissions Stories
Wattpad is building on their previous book publishing partnerships and experiments to launch their own book publishing line. Debuting in fall 2019 with six young adult titles, Wattpad Books will be distributed by Macmillan in the US and Raincoast Books in Canada. Ashleigh Gardner leads the division, with recently-hired Deanna McFadden managing operations. But the company says they will rely on machine learning to “identify and publish stand-out stories” from the Wattpad corpus, with the humans adding “special consideration for stories written by diverse authors.” Separately, Wattpad competitor Radish, which focuses on serialized short-form fiction for mobile, has hired Sue […]
People, Etc.
Harper Children’s UK publisher Rachel Denwood will move to Simon & Schuster UK, where she will be managing director for the children’s publishing division, reporting to ceo Ian Chapman. Denwood will also join the publisher’s UK board. Chapman says, “Rachel is highly talented with a wealth of experience and great energy and passion for children’s books. She is the perfect publisher to take the helm of this vital and growing area of our business.” Denwood adds, “After ten happy and successful years at HarperCollins it is hard to say goodbye, but the opportunity to lead and build the gem-filled Simon […]
Children’s Publishing: Executives Buy Bonnier’s US Children’s Lines; Sourcebooks Adds Three Imprints
Continuing last year’s developments that saw changes in leadership at Bonnier Books’ English-language divisions and a slimming of their lines (including the sale of Weldon Owen to Insight Editions), the company has sold the children’s publishing lines that comprised Bonnier Books USA. CEO Shimul Tolia and cfo Thomas Morgan have bought the division from Bonnier Books. Tolia and Morgan founded Little Bee in 2014, as the first part of Bonnier Books US. The company will continue to publish under the established three imprints: Little Bee Books, BuzzPop, and Yellow Jacket. They will remain in their current offices, and continued to be distributed by […]
People, Etc.
Trish Daly will join Portfolio as senior editor, acquiring narrative nonfiction and big idea books in the business and economics space, starting January 14. Most recently, she was editor at Little, Brown. Claire Potter will join Basic Books on January 14 as editor. Most recently, she was associate editor at Crown. Andy Ward has been promoted to senior vice president of the Random House imprint, and Molly Turpin moves up to editor. At Ballantine Bantam Dell, Sara Weiss has been promoted to executive editor; Emily Hartley and Elana Seplow-Jolley to editor; Bridget Kearney to publishing coordinator, business insights; and Thomas Yuhas to […]