Simon & Schuster has launched North Star Way, a new publishing unit focused on practical nonfiction that the company says “will offer authors an expanded suite of profile-building, ancillary services that extend beyond the boundaries of traditional publishing.” Bringing books to market starting in spring 2016, it is lead by vp, publisher Michele Martin. She reports to Scribner Publishing Group president and Touchstone publisher Susan Muldow, and North Star will get support f0r its program from existing Touchstone personnel. Martin relinquishes her role as associate publisher for the Gallery Publishing Group, with that position to be filled by someone new at a later date. […]
New Imprints
Gallery Announces Literary Scout Press, and More
Gallery formally acknowledged their new literary imprint Scout Press on Monday, as promotion continues to build for one of their titles, literary agent Bill Clegg’s first novel (and third book), Did You Ever Have A Family?. Set for publication September 15 (with published metadata for some time, and rights sold in multiple territories), Clegg’s book will be promoted at the upcoming ABA Winter Institute. Gallery publisher Jennifer Bergstrom introduces a new conceit of “great accessible literary fiction,” which she describes to the NYT as, “literary but very accessible, not precious, not fussy, not esoteric.” In the release, she adds, “We will […]
People
Agent Sara Megibow, who recently left the Nelson Literary Agency, is joining KT Literary. At Farrar, Straus, Brian Gittis and Steve Weil have both been promoted to assistant director of publicity. In addition, Sarah Scire has been promoted to publicist, and Lis McAvoy moves up to assistant publicist. At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Stephanie Kim has been promoted to publicity manager. Rick Pascocello will leave his position as vp, executive marketing director at Penguin Random House at the end of the month after 23 years in publishing, mostly at Penguin. He can be reached at rpascocello@gmail.com. Imprint News: Carole Tonkinson‘s new inspirational lifestyle imprint at […]
Coming Soon from Regan Arts
Judith Regan’s start-up publishing line Regan Arts (backed by Phaidon Global), has not formally announced their publishing list — but with a steady trickle of pre-publication announcements-as-deals coming in, we took a closer look. After issuing one title last fall (a Virtual Reality Beginner’s Guide, with Google Cardboard inspired VR viewer), the line starts publishing in earnest shortly. Distributor Simon & Schuster’s web site lists roughly 30 forthcoming titles in all, from ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, due out soon, to James Riswold’s HITLER SAVED MY LIFE: What’s So Funny About Hitler, The Reign of Terror, Napoleon, Crucifixion, […]
Harper One Launches Mind/Body/Spirit Imprint
Harper One in San Francisco is adding a new mind/body/spirit imprint, Harper Elixir, launching in fall 2015 under the direction of Harper One associate publisher Claudia Boutote. Libby Edelson has joined the company as senior editor for the imprint (she was at Ecco most recently), and in other respects Elixir will draw on the rest of the team at Harper One. The lead title will by a new book by Don Miguel Ruiz, author of the bestselling THE FOUR AGREEMENTS. The line is expected to build to 15 books a year. Harper One publisher Mark Tauber says in the announcing, “Forming […]
Bookspan Plans Book-of-the-Month Club Relaunch, and Adds Affiliated Publishing Lines
Still the largest family of book clubs in the US, Bookspan has been quietly at work on ambitious new plans, PL has learned. A few months ago, with little fanfare, their “flagship” Book of the Month Club went dormant as a stand-alone club, integrating BOMC members in the companion club, The Literary Guild. (As best we can determine, the transition happened around August 1. The Wayback Machine last captured a BOMC home page in late July, and by August 7 the page was redirecting to the Literary Guild, which welcomed the old BOMC members. Also, the BOMC Facebook page went […]