HarperCollins has taken a clear lead in celebrity imprint production, adding Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil (the same name as his film production company) to a roster that already includes Dennis Lehane Books and Anthony Bourdain Books. In similar fashion, Depp’s line has announced a slate of two books so far: Historian Douglas Brinkley’s The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan (for publication in 2015), and a second collaboration with Brinkley, who is writing an introduction along with Depp to folk singer Woody Guthrie’s novel, House of Earth, for publication in January 2013. (Brinkley has been a HarperCollins author already for numerous […]
New Imprints
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Zondervan and Thomas Nelson will merge its fiction divisions into a single unit overseen by vp, publisher Daisy Hutton. Though fiction acquisitions will be “managed centrally,” with editors working across both Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, the publishers will keep separate offices in Grand Rapids, MI and Nashville, TN respectively. Hutton said in a statement: “This is an era of unprecedented challenge and opportunity for Fiction publishing. The Thomas Nelson and Zondervan brands each have a rich heritage. We intend to build on that heritage by developing more distinctive, stronger identities for each brand. We will use the assets that both […]
Harper Formalizes Wave Imprint Under Rinaldi
HarperCollins, which hired Karen Rinaldi in March to start a new health and wellness line, has now named that imprint Harper Wave. Called a general health, wellness and lifestyle line, the company says they have been targeting “the best thinking from top personalities, experts, doctors and journalists.” Executive editor Julie Will is also working on the list. The imprint will launch in the marketplace in April 2013 with television personality and dating expert Matthew Hussey’s GET THE GUY, and the fall list will include their Cameron Diaz book. Harper adds that “Rinaldi and team are working closely with authors to develop their […]
Quercus to Try Again With Freestanding US Line
The UK’s Quercus will try again with a US publishing operation after their first effort, a joint venture with Sterling called Silver Oak, withered at Sterling after that company lost its ceo and some of the focus of its parent company Barnes & Noble. The new freestanding Quercus US venture will be run out of a New York office of their own and sold and distributed by Random House, aiming to launch in fall 2013. They plan to launch with 40 titles from across the Quercus UK list. When announced in September 2010, the Sterling joint venture was set to […]
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Bloomsbury India will start publishing in November, drawing on titles from the company’s UK and US lists. Rajiv Beri is managing director; Diya KarHazra is trade publisher, and Amit Bhatia is academic and professional publisher. Douglas Markham, recently fired by Books-a-Million from his position as evp and chief administrative officer, alleges through attorney Mark White that “for some time, BAMM has made it known to our client that the company did not support his service to the US Navy.” Markham is a captain, and as BAMM had reported previously, was on leave for part of 2009 while on active duty […]
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Kevin Doughten will join Crown as senior editor on September 24, focusing on non-fiction. He was most recently an editor at Viking. Olga Rogozina has joined the Van Lear Agency in Moscow as both a literary agent and contracts manager. Previously she was foreign rights manager at Astrel. Founder of Chicago’s 10-store Beck’s Bookstores, Bob Beck, 91, died last week at Northwestern Hospital. “Today, a marketing major would say he had a business plan. Back then, it was called an angle. He sold books at Beck’s for less than the college bookstores charged, and he paid more when the used […]