Simon & Schuster Children’s will launch Salaam Reads, a new imprint focused on Muslim characters and stories, in 2017. Salaam Reads is spearheaded by executive editor Zareen Jaffery and publisher Justin Chanda, with plans to publish a minimum of nine titles per year for all ages, ranging from picture books to middle grade and young adult titles. The imprint launch titles include Salam Aleikum by Harris J. (based on the song of the same name); Musa, Moises, Mo & Kevin by H. A. Raz; The Gauntlet of Blood and Sand by Karuna Riazi; and Yo Soy Muslim by Mark Gonzales. […]
Dr. Carla Hayden Nominated As Librarian of Congress; Would Be First Woman and First African American In the Post
President Obama has nominated Dr. Carla Hayden, ceo of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD since 1993, to serve as the 14th Librarian of Congress. President Obama noted, “If confirmed, Dr. Hayden would be the first woman and the first African American to hold the position – both of which are long overdue.” The position was vacated last September when James Billington retired ahead of schedule, after 27 years. The President said, “Michelle and I have known Dr. Carla Hayden for a long time, since her days working at the Chicago Public Library,” and declared: “Dr. Hayden has devoted her […]
Corporate: Chegg Drops, KU In China, and the Barnes & Noble Prototype
Chegg‘s fourth quarter sales were down 19 percent to $68 million and below what analysts were expecting — and their forecast for Q1 and all of 2016 also shows sales declining, once again below analysts’ expectations, as the company continues its pivot to focus on student services and outsource textbook rentals to Ingram in exchange for commission revenue. Investors evacuated the stock on the news on Tuesday, sending shares down over 35 percent to their lowest point yet (dropping about $1.90 a share). Shares have rebounded some in Wednesday morning trading, regaining about 50 cents a share. China Daily reports […]
Open eBooks Initiative Goes Live, with National Geographic Joining In
The Open eBooks project — a private effort inspired by President Obama as part of his larger ConnectEd initiative — has gone live, announced by the White House, with encouragement from Michelle Obama. As previously announced, the program makes available a large collection of ebooks for free to low-income students in need. Operating as a partnership among Digital Public Library of America, The New York Public Library, and First Book, with content support from Baker & Taylor, driven by what is billed as “over $250 million of free reading material.” The Open eBooks app lets participating students borrow up to 10 ebooks at once, […]
People
At Basic Books, TJ Kelleher has been promoted to vp, associate publisher. Going forward, Ben Platt, Quynh Do, and Helene Barthelemy will report to Kelleher. At Headline, deputy managing director Mari Evans will take over as managing director of March 1, when Jane Morpeth moves up to chair of the group after 7 years as its leader. At Victoria Sanders & Associates, Chris Kepner has been promoted to director of foreign rights. At Sourcebooks, Monika Ebly has been named licensing and strategic partnerships manager (she was program manager at Media Star Promotions; Michelle Dellinger joins the company as managing editor, overseeing editorial production (she […]
People
At Penguin Random House, Benjamin Steinberg has been promoted to associate director, content marketing & partnerships. Paul Stevens has joined Donald Maass Literary Agency as agent. He was previously an editor at Quirk Books and Tor. At Ingram Content Group, Jacqueline Letson has been promoted to vp, human resources. Michael Bell has been named director of national accounts, moving over from Ingram, where he was director of consumer fulfillment. Finally, Emily Weiss has been promoted to director, corporate communications. At David C. Cook, Chriscynethia Floyd has been promoted to vp, marketing and sales for the newly created Learning Resources Strategic […]