Chronicle Books food and drink editorial director Bill LeBlond will retire on November 7 after 33 years with the company. Company president Jack Jensen says, “Bill has made a pivotal contribution to the ongoing success of Chronicle Books. I speak for many existing authors and colleagues, as well as probably hundreds who have come and gone over the years when I say Bill will be greatly missed.” Alex Littlefield has been promoted to senior editor at Basic Books, which he joined in March 2010. Pulitzer Prize winner for the novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love Oscar Hijuelos, 62, […]
Personnel
People, Awards, Etc.: Munro, Charkin, Levinson, Potter Postage, and More
Vintage is reprinting a total of 100,000 copies across their backlist of 14 story collections by Nobel laureate Alice Munro. Random House Canada ceo Brad Martin told the Globe and Mail, “As far as we know, we have stock of all of Alice’s active titles,” though booksellers were light on copies and ran out quickly. Indigo placed “nice, substantial orders” for fresh inventory. You can read (or hear) Munro’s short phone call interview with the prize organizers here. She said in a written statement Thursday: “This is so surprising and wonderful. I am dazed by all the attention and affection that has […]
People, Etc.
Karrie Witkin will join Abrams on October 21 in the newly created role of editorial director, Gift and Paper Products. Previously she was senior editor and publishing manager for Potter Style. In addition, Maya Bradford has been promoted to publicist, adult trade. At Atria, Sarah Cantin has been promoted to editor. Sulay Hernandez has left Other Press. She can be reached at SulayHernandez.Ed@gmail.com. Random House Children’s Books announced that RJ Palacio‘s WONDER has crossed the 1 million copy sales mark in North America. PGW has added seven more clients to its distribution list, including the Los Angeles Review of Books, Patagonia […]
People, Etc.
Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the latest pick for the Today Book Club. Hachette Book Group filed suit against Stephen Baldwin in New York Supreme Court, seeking to recover a $110,000 advance against a nonfiction originally due in 2009 that they say he never delivered. Harper UK is setting up a new fiction imprint, within their Harper Fiction division, called The Borough Press. Launching in 2014 — and publishing their already-announced Austen Project that has well-known authors retelling Jane Austen’s classics — it is led by Katie Espiner. As part of a reorganization that consolidates all […]
People, Etc.
Melina Gerosa Bellows has been promoted to publisher of National Geographic Books, adding responsibility for sales, marketing and distribution to her current role as National Geographic’s chief creative officer for Books, Kids and Family. Ken Rhodes has been promoted to managing director, NBN International. Will Lach is joining the American Museum of Natural History as director, licensing and publishing. Previously he was manager of product development, Department of Printed Product, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, Ross Harris has been promoted to literary agent. At Harper Children’s, Melissa Miller has been promoted to editor […]
People, Etc.
Counterpoint Press editor-at-large Dan Smetanka has been appointed executive editor. He will continue to acquire fiction and nonfiction for both the Counterpoint and Soft Skull lists and will remain based in Los Angeles. Sarah Younger has been promoted to associate agent at the Nancy Yost Literary Agency, where she has worked for two years. The Cooke Agency International will sell foreign rights outside of North America to the list represented by fellow Canadians Rick Broadhead & Associates. At Dutton, Liza Cassity has been promoted to senior publicist. In the UK, the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency has hired David Newton as […]