Film development and publishing veteran Ruth Pomerance will join Hyperion on January 28 as a senior editor, focusing on the acquisition and development of new stories and author talent that will translate across the Disney/ABC Television Group businesses. Most recently she was executive producer for the adaptation of Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes and a consultant to entertainment firms. Pomerance has worked for producers including Scott Rudin, Arnold Kopelson, Fred Zollo, and John Davis, for whom she acquired and developed literary properties for film and TV, and has worked at The Rockwell Group, USA Films, Artists Management Group, and the William Morris […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
New and Forthcoming: Fifty Shades Hardcovers, USA Today Picks, and More
Random House’s Doubleday imprint will issue hardcover editions (at $26.95 each) of EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy on January 29. They are starting with a total of 200,000 copies of the three hardcovers–compared to sales of over 35 million units in the US so far for the paperbacks and ebook editions, and 65 million units worldwide. Vintage/Anchor’s Anne Messitte says in the announcement, “As interest in the Fifty Shades trilogy has grown, readers have been asking for hardcover editions of the books. These new hardcovers include unique production elements, making them the ultimate collector’s editions for readers of […]
People, Etc.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has hired Brook Colangelo as their chief information officer, reporting to ceo Linda Zecher. Colangelo has been CIO for American in the Executive Office of the President of the United States of America since 2009. Antony Topping has been named managing director of UK literary agency Greene & Heaton, where he has worked since 1995. Carol Heaton will continue as chairman, and Nicola Barr has been appointed to the agency’s board of directors. Heaton said in a statement “I am delighted by our new structure. Antony has built up a splendid list while demonstrating real leadership qualities. […]
Transworld Won’t Publish UK Edition of Lawrence Wright’s Scientology Book After All
GOING CLEAR, the book-length investigation into Scientology by LOOMING TOWER author Lawrence Wright, will be published on January 17 by Knopf in the US, but the UK edition will not go forward as planned. The NYT reported as part of a profile on Wright that Transworld “recently canceled its plans to publish GOING CLEAR, though a spokeswoman insisted that the decision was not made in response to threats from the church.” Transworld spokesperson Patsy Irwin told the Bookseller “We’ve decided [GOING CLEAR] doesn’t fit in with our schedule.” The Wylie Agency is selling UK rights to the book, but had not […]
People, Etc.
At Penguin Group’s Portfolio, Sentinel, and Current imprints, Kristen Gastler has been hired as a senior publicist (she was at Doubleday). Margot Stamas has moved over to the group as a publicist from Putnam and Riverhead; Christy D’Agostini has been promoted to senior publicist; and Jacquelynn Burke has been promoted to publicist. Last Friday Gawker “published here for the first time” Lena Dunham‘s highly-designed and illustrated 66-page book proposal, which you think would be protected by copyright. (They also dragged Scribd.com into the potential infringement by using the service to host and post the PDF.) When we contacted Random House […]
Amazon Publishing to Open European Branch Under Griffith
While Amazon did not respond directly to our request for information for Kindle sales information for THE FOUR-HOUR CHEF, company publishing vp Jeff Belle claims in a letter (posted in full by PaidContent) that their total sale is over 60,000 units so far (or roughly 30,000 of those $4.99 ebooks in addition to the print sales we reported on Wednesday morning; the December 9 NYT bestseller lists show FOUR-HOUR CHEF at No. 4 on the advice, how-to and misc. list). Belle says the Ferriss book was the bestselling nonfiction title for the week, though their own list for all of […]