Alessandra Lusardi has joined Rizzoli as senior editor for its Ex Libris imprint, dedicated to upmarket transatlantic literary fiction and non-fiction and set to launch officially in Fall 2012 after a soft launch this fall. Lusardi will acquire titles from Europe, particularly in French and Italian, as well as original titles in English. Previously she was an editor at Viking for the past nine years. In addition, senior editor Kathleen Jayes will also acquire for Ex Libris. Barbara Jones will join Henry Holt as executive editor on October 24, concentrating on acquiring fiction as well as some memoir and narrative […]
Perseus Adds Digital Distribution for Authors and Agents, Argo Navis
The Perseus Books Group’s digital distribution platform Constellation is adding a service offering targeted at the many literary agencies helping their authors epublish, called Argo Navis Author Services. After presentations to a small set agencies, Perseus is announcing that Janklow & Nesbit and Curtis Brown “are planning to make [the service] available to their clients.” Separately, co-head of publications at ICM Sloan Harris confirmed to Publishers Lunch that the agency is close to finalizing a deal to participate in Perseus’s initiative. “They are not going to be an exclusive destination for us,” Harris said, “but I expect that they will […]
Two New Buys For Amazon New York
Deal-watchers will take particular note of two reported buys for Amazon’s budding New York-based publishing unit. Liao Yiwu, who escaped from China this summer, is moving to Amazon from Harper One, for his account of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, FOR A SONG AND A HUNDRED SONGS: A Poet’s Journey Through a Chinese Prison. Gregg Housh and Barrett Brown’s ANONYMOUS, covered while on submission by the Observer, has been bought by Julia Cheiffetz for Amazon. The book is pitched as “Barbarians at the Gate” for the digital era, the story of the ordinary people who became hacker-activists and successfully brought […]
Audible Lines Up Film Stars for Audiobooks; Hay House Launches Film/TV Divisions
Audible is going Hollywood, enlisting a number of accomplished actors–including Annette Bening, Colin Firth, Dustin Hoffman and Kate Winslet–to narrate a new line of audiobooks, featuring many classic works selected by the performers. Scheduled for release beginning in early 2012, the offerings include these pairings: Kim Basinger (The Awakening by Kate Chopin) Annette Bening (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe) Jennifer Connelly (The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles) Colin Firth (The End of the Affair by Graham Greene) Anne Hathaway (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum) Dustin Hoffman (Being There by Jerzy Kosinski) Samuel L. Jackson (A Rage […]
People, Etc.
At Basic Books, editorial director since 2007 Lara Heimert has been promoted to editorial and publishing director. In her new role she will play a larger role in the presentation and publication of the imprint’s books while freeing Basic Book Group publisher John Sherer to concentrate on the new Perseus digital marketing initiatives and to focus on the efforts at Westview Press and Nation Books. At Little, Brown Children’s, both Connie Hsu and Kate Sullivan have been promoted to editor. Liz Gately begins scouting for De Boekerij and Meulenhoff in the Netherlands as of October 1. Books-A-Million has hired Tyler Novak as general counsel. […]
Julian Assange WikiLeaks Canongate
It will come as no great surprise that Julian Assange has released correspondence with Canongate and purported transcripts of apparently-taped phone calls with Canongate publisher Jamie Byng. Though Canongate published the unauthorized draft in part due to admitted “financial imperative,” according to an email from Assange’s agent Caroline Michel, by going ahead with publication, Canongate now is obligated to pay Assange, “in accordance with the agreement, the remaining amounts of £225,000 on delivery of the complete manuscript and £175,000 on first UK publication.” (That should provide enough to pay back Knopf and still leave some for Assange.) As we noted […]