Jeff Umbro has joined Goldberg McDuffie Communications as digital marketing manager, integrating digital marketing into their overall communications strategies. He began his career with Appsolute Media, focused on social media marketing, content strategy and seo. Toronto’s Transatlantic Literary Agency has added three agents. Meghan Macdonald will work part-time, growing a list of adult fiction and non-fiction clients. She worked for David Grossman before joining TLA. Patricia Ocampo will represent children’s authors, after working in editorial at Harper Children’s and in sales and marketing at Hachette Book Group Canada. Amy Tompkins will share representation of international rights sales for Orca Book […]
New Imprints
Harper Acquires Newmarket Press List
HarperCollins has acquired “the majority of titles” published by Esther Margolis’s Newmarket Press. The publisher’s list comprises over 200 books on film (particularly screenplays and “making of” books that tie in to award-winning movies), theater, and performing arts, as well as over 100 titles on parenting, psychology, health, biography, history, and business as well as some fiction. The only titles not included in the agreement are inactive ones that will revert back to the rightsholders. At one point, HarperCollins had served as Newmarket’s distributor. Margolis, who started Newmarket in 1981, will join Harper’s It Books as an executive editor. She […]
eNews: Kobo’s Tablet, Berkley/NAL’s Digital Imprint, S&S’s Author Portal, 11 Million iPads, Google’s Bookshelf, and More
Kobo is joining the ereader/tablet movement with their just-announced Vox, dubbed “the People’s eReader.” Selling for $199.99 and shipping as of October 28, it runs Android 2.3 and promises easy web browsing, e-mail, and access to “over 15,000 hot music, video and game apps.” It weighs 14.2 ounces (lighter than Nook Color or Kindle Fire), and a vibrating Kobo pulse icon signifies pages with more social activity. Kobo says it comes with three free color ebooks. Berkley/NAL has announced a digital imprint (actually they call it an “e-initial eBook imprint”) launching in January 2012, InterMix. The line will debut with […]
News Briefs
The Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency has acquired a number of authors for representation from Rosalie Siegel, International Agency, Inc., including the estate of William Wharton, Dennis Covington, Dana Johnson, Rev Jen and cookbook author Sudha Koul. Siegel is joining Lyons as a consultant, and has referred additional authors to the agency. Stephanie Madoff Mack’s memoir THE END OF NORMAL: A Wife’s Anguish, A Widow’s New Life, has been moved up to an October 20 pub date by Blue Rider Press (with Laurie Sandell’s Madoff book set for October 31 release). Associate publisher for Blue Rider Aileen Boyle tells us the […]
People, Etc.
At Scholastic’s trade publishing division, editorial director David Levithan has been promoted to publisher and editorial director. In other promotions, Charisse Meloto moves up to executive director of publicity for print and digital publishing; Bess Braswell is now director of marketing; Victoria Tisch is director of marketing operations; Maria Dominguez is executive editor and manager, Scholastic en español; and Paul Banks moves up to executive art director, licensed publishing and school market originals. Simon & Schuster’s children’s imprints Aladdin and Simon Pulse will co-publish Beyond Words Publishing‘s children’s list. S&S will handle sales, distribution, and fulfillment of their 10 to […]
Announcements: Hachette Cuts 11 From Sales Force; Abrams Acquires SelfMadeHero; and More
Hachette Book Group has eliminated 11 positions in its sales & marketing department. In a statement the company said the layoffs came about “after an extensive review of our overall sales and marketing structure to identify effective ways to meet the changing needs of our account base….This is an extremely difficult decision to make, but it was necessary to tighten our sales force in order to adapt to evolution in the marketplace.” Abrams has bought UK graphic novel publisher SelfMadeHero and and will launch a US version of the company next spring with titles by Fernando Trueba and Javier Marisca, […]