At Doubleday, Michael Goldsmith has been promoted to publicity manager, reporting to Todd Doughty. Journalist and author of 18 books Phil Patton, 63, died last week from complications of emphysema. Nantucket author of DEAR MR. JEFFERSON and several historical novels Laura Simon, 66, died last Friday. Forthcoming The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has commissioned translations into modern English of all of Shakespeare’s plays, and intends to have those new versions ready to perform on stage in three years. John McWhorter makes the case in the WSJ for what Conrad Spoke calls a “revolutionary 10% translation” that enables “every student to make contact with the original text.” […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Forthcoming: Books from Kondo, Woodward and Heaney
Ten Speed Press will follow up Marie Kondo‘s bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up with a new book releasing on January 5. The new title, Spark Joy, “presents a comprehensive, illustrated manual on how to declutter and organize specific items throughout the house, from kitchen and bathroom items to work-related papers and hobby collections.” They will also publish a companion volume, Life-Changing Magic: A Journal, on December 29. Tidying Up has sold over 1.5 million copies. Simon & Schuster announced the publication of Bob Woodward‘s The Last of the President’s Men for publication October 13. The book focuses on “the untold story of Alexander Butterfield,” now 89, […]
Briefs
Liz Esman has joined Crown as senior publicist, Crown, Hogarth, Broadway Books and Tim Duggan Books. Previously she was a publicist at HarperCollins. In addition, Morgan Carattini has been promoted to publishing manager for Crown, Archetype, Hogarth, Broadway Books, Tim Duggan Books, and Three Rivers Press. The Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin has acquired Kazuo Ishiguro‘s archive for a reported $1.1 million. Among the unpublished works included in the archive are an early pulp western, as well as a short novel called To Remember a Summer By. Entertainment Weekly has an excerpt of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S […]
Amazon’s Fall Favorites
Amazon has released their Fall Reading Preview package, picking their top books across multiple sub-categories. The highlighted lists include Amazon Editors’ “personal under-the-radar picks”: The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood Submission by Michel Houllebecq Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe: The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin Along with the bookseller’s slate of top 20 commercial blockbusters: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter The Survivor: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Kyle Mills M Train by Patti Smith Humans of New York: Stories […]
Hamilton Parts Ways With Minotaur Weeks Before Publication Date
Edgar Award-winning author Steve Hamilton is parting ways with Minotaur Books, his publisher for more than seventeen years, less than two months before the scheduled September 29 release date of his next thriller, THE SECOND LIFE OF NICK MASON. After issuing a terse announcement to various trade publications and accounts saying “publication had been cancelled”, Minotaur spokesperson Tracey Guest added in an updated statement: “After many years of publishing Steve Hamilton, unfortunately SMP has had a parting of the ways and will not be moving forward with the publication of THE SECOND LIFE OF NICK MASON. We wish Steve all […]
People, Etc.
Kathleen Schmidt will join Running Press as vp, director of marketing and publicity on August 10, reporting to Kristen Kiser and working out of the company’s Philadelphia offices. Previously director of publicity at Perseus’s joint-venture line Weinstein Books, Schmidt will continue to handle corporate communications for the Perseus Books Group as well. The American Booksellers Association is restructuring its technology department into two separate teams — one responsible for all of the association’s general technology needs, the other for IndieCommerce. As such Greg Galloway has been promoted to technology director and will become a member of ABA’s senior staff, while […]