Agree Realty, hit particularly hard by Borders’ bankruptcy as a result of owning 14 properties where the retailer held long-term listings, has slashed the asking price for the company’s Ann Arbor headquarters from $18.349 million to $10 million. Earlier this year Borders indicated it was seeking cheaper and smaller space in the suburban Detroit area, as the 330,000 square-foot headquarters used to house as many as 1800 employees, but that number is down to 500 or less. AnnArbor.com The Tolkien Estate settled its lawsuit against author Stephen Hilliard, whose novel Mirkwood features JRR Tolkien as a character. The estate argued […]
New Imprints
Hachette Adds Another Nashville Imprint; F+W Adds Crime Imprint By Acquiring Tyrus Books
Hachette Book Group is launching a faith-based imprint called Jericho Books, launching in summer 2012. Led by publisher Wendy Grisham, the line will be part of the company’s Nashville division, which includes Faith Words and Center Street. She has been director of publishing for Hachette UK’s Hodder Faith imprint since 2007. Prior to that she was publishing director for EMEA, acting international publishing director at Alpha International, and rights manager at Random House UK. Grisham will work in Nashville, reporting to svp Rolf Zettersten, and “will continue to collaborate with the Hodder Faith team in the UK to acquire books, […]
People, Etc.
Dallas-based literary agent David Hale Smith has joined Inkwell Management as an agent, bringing along his list featuring crime, suspense and thriller writers as well as literary fiction and nonfiction that ranges from narrative history and business to health & wellness and cookbooks. InkWell partner Michael Carlisle says in the announcement, “Inkwell’s success has come from the collegial atmosphere among our colleagues and the quality of our clients. It is with special pleasure that we invited David Hale Smith to join our ranks. He represents some of the best young writers of our time with whom we will be working […]
Deepak Chopra to Set Up Imprint at Crown’s Harmony Books
Deepak Chopra will work with his longtime publishers at the Crown Publishing Group to create a Deepak Chopra Books imprint housed within Harmony Books, launching in 2012. The goal is to publish “important, innovative non-fiction books by visionary authors who are committed to enhancing people’s lives”–so books from other people, initiated and recommended by him. Chopra says in the release “together we will build a vibrant new publishing home for thought leaders who are committed to transforming people’s lives and who are on the cutting edge in providing new perspectives and solutions to the challenges that all humans face.” Chopra […]
Random Adds Fiction Line, Hogarth, to Crown in the US and Chatto in the UK
Random House begins the London Book Fair by announcing a new fiction imprint, Hogarth, which is part of the Crown Publishing Group in the US and part of Chatto & Windus in the UK. Molly Stern will lead the US line, which aims to publish eight to 10 books a year, and Clara Farmer will lead the UK version, which will issue a smaller list drawing from the US titles. The announcement says the units will have “a close, but non-exclusive, editorial relationship.” Lindsay Sagnette and Zachary Wagman are also acquiring for the US list; Becky Hardie and Poppy Hampson […]
NBCC Awards; New Imprints; and More
The National Book Critics Circle Awards went to: A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (Fiction) The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson (General Nonfiction) How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell (Biography) Half a Life, by Darin Straus (Autobiography) One with Others, by C.D. Wright (Poetry) Lyric Poetry and Modern Poetry — Russia, Poland, and the West, by Claire Cavanaugh (Criticism) NBCC Release Online comedy video site Funny or Die will start a line of books under the banner of Funny or Die Books, starting this July with an e-book of celebrity satire […]