University of North Carolina Press director Kate Torrey will retire this summer after 23 years at the press. She first joined in 1989 as editor-in-chief and was promoted to director in 1992. A search committee has been formed as part of the selection process for the next director. Celeste Fine will join Sterling Lord Literistic on January 30 as an agent, focusing on health, science, food, business, and lifestyle topics. She will also manage foreign rights for the agency’s children’s and young adult list. Previously, Fine was svp, subsidiary rights director for Folio Literary Management. At Random House Children’s Books, […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Coming Soon: Baseball Novel From Grisham; Picture Book from Jill Biden; and More
Doubleday announced an April 10 publication date for John Grisham‘s next novel CALICO JOE, set within the world of major league baseball in 1973. USA TODAY Simon & Schuster Children’s will release DON’T FORGET NANA, GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, a picture book by vice president Joe Biden’s wife Jill Biden, on June 5. The AP reports the book, illustrated by Raul Colon, is “told from the point of view of granddaughter Natalie Biden and a tribute to soldiers and their families.” In a brief interview Biden said: “I really feel that you write your best about what you know best…That’s […]
The 2012 Winter Institute Books Preview
The ABA’s Winter Institute convenes this week, and each year the number of attending authors and books being touted grows ever larger (this year more than 70 writers are taking part in various luncheons and evening receptions over the three-day event.) As part of our coverage of Wi7, and repeating what we did for last year’s Winter Institute, we’ve culled a list of what we think are the most notable forthcoming Winter and Spring adult trade titles being touted in New Orleans this week to ten — offering a mix of reviews of those we’ve already read with “scouting reports” […]
eNews: Amazon Trumpets Kindle Owners Lending Library; Plagiarized Titles Plague Kindle Store; and More
Amazon is delighted to declare “strong customer adoption” of the Kindle Owners Lending Library and oodles of money for participating Kindle Select (e.g. Kindle-exclusive) self-published authors. Interestingly, however, the extra money that Amazon claims participants received–“an incremental 26 percent in December”–is roughly equal to the proclaimed market share of No. 2 ebook player Nook, where Select authors and publishers can no longer sell. Which begs the question of whether participants are actually making more money in toto. Even the top 10 authors–whom Amazon says earned over $70,000–only got a 30 percent boost over their ebook sales with their lending library […]
Nancy Pearl Partners With Amazon For ‘Book Lust Rediscoveries’ Series
Amazon announced Wednesday morning that noted former librarian and frequent NPR contributor Nancy Pearl will launch a new curated line under the Book Lust Rediscoveries banner, reissuing out-of-print books originally published between 1960 and 2000 that Pearl had previously recommended in her title Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason. Part of the Amazon Encore imprint, the series will republish up to six titles a year in digital, paperback and audiobook editions starting in April with Merle Miller’s A GAY AND MELANCHOLY SOUND (originally published in 1961) and then in June with Rhian Ellis’s AFTER LIFE (originally […]
Rachael Ray Moves to Atria; Gets Imprint (and QR Codes)
Following Reader’s Digest’s sale of the magazine Every Day With Rachael Ray to Meredith last October, the cooking personality is moving publishing houses as well, signing with Atria after nine books with Clarkson Potter. (Ray was originally published by Lake Isle Press.) Ray tells the WSJ she wants to make her new cookbooks “exciting for people using their Nooks or iPads” and says she was attracted by a Tom Watson golf book Atria published last year that used QR codes editorially to link to instructional videos. (Yes, this is the first known example of QR codes actually benefiting a publisher.) […]