Nan Vermylen Thornton will join Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as an agent. Previously, she was in-house counsel practicing copyright law at Pearson Education. The January Pennie’s Pick at Costco is BOSTON GIRL by Anita Diamant. More Best of 2014 lists keep coming in as the year draws to a close. Vanity Fair offers “11 Best Books of 2014 You Can Spend 2015 Reading” while the SF Chronicle‘s Top 10 list leads off with current “Best of the Best” fiction frontrunner ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr. On that theme, the NYT recently featured Anthony Doerr’s long journey to […]
Personnel
People: Peter Wiley to Retire from Board Chair
John Wiley chairman Peter Booth Wiley announced that he intends to retire from that position as of September 2015, when his term expires, though he will maintain his board seat. Current director and former group president at Pitney Bowes Matthew Kissner has been nominated to take over as chair. Peter Wiley has held the position since 2002, when he took over from his brother Bradford Wiley II. While this breaks the Wiley family’s tenure at the top, he indicates that is temporary: “Although I am stepping down as Chairman after twelve years, the Wiley family remains committed to its leadership […]
Briefs
Following Macmillan ceo John Sargent’s indication that they will, with some reluctance, “test subscription in the coming weeks,” Oyster announced that their collection now includes over 1,000 titles published by Bloomsbury. Harper UK has disclosed their annual results for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. Sales fell to £179 million, down £11 million from the prior year, while profits rebounded from terrible to just low, with pre-tax earnings of £7.2 million (still, much better than £2.8 million the year before). The company said profits were held down by £3.5 million related to their planned relocation to new offices in 2015. The Bookseller […]
People
Kara Sargent will join Little, Brown Children’s as executive editorial director, Brand, Licensed, and Media Tie-in Publishing on January 5th. Previously she was editorial director at Simon & Schuster Children’s, overseeing Simon Spotlight. Group director of domestic rights at HarperCollins Bob Spizer will leave the company at the end of January after 31 years. After February 1, he can be reached at robertspizer@yahoo.com. Abrams announced that Jeff Kinney‘s ninth book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, has sold more than 2 million units in all formats around the world since going on sale on November 4. Downtown Books in Craig, CO has […]
People: Reich to Retire from PGW
Perseus Books Group ceo David Steinberger announced to employees on Tuesday that president of Publishers Group West Susan Reich plans to retire on March 31 (and will remain in that role until her retirement). Reich was president and COO of Avalon for 10 years before it was acquired by Perseus, and has run PGW for the past 7 years (after working there in the 90s as vp). Reich “has done an exemplary job leading PGW,” Steinberger writes, adding, “She has a well-deserved reputation as a professional of high integrity and excellent judgment who guides PGW with an endearing combination of […]
People
Stephen Barbara will move to Inkwell Management on January 5 after six years at Foundry Literary + Media, and he will be followed by all 50 of his clients. He says in the announcement, “It’s an agency I’ve long admired, and I couldn’t miss the chance to work with such a world-class group of authors’ representatives.” New York Magazine book critic Kathryn Schulz is leaving to join the New Yorker, where she will “write book reviews, as well as web pieces and the occasional feature” according to Capital New York. Her first day is January 19. At National Geographic Books, Lisa Thomas has been promoted […]