Stephanie Gorton has joined The Overlook Press as editor. She was previously managing editor at Canongate UK. Tom Willshire has joined Overlook as national accounts manager. He was previously at Continuum. At St. Martin’s, Monique Patterson has been promoted to executive editor. At HarperCollins, May Chen has been promoted to senior editor. Also at the company, John Jusino has been promoted to director of production editorial for the Harper, Harper Business, and Collins Reference imprints. Joan Slattery is joining Pippin Properties as an agent and contracts manager. She has been at Random House for 20 years, most recently as senior […]
Debut Novel Breaks Out in Canada, with Help from Costco
Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s debut novel SECRET DAUGHTER has had only modest sales in the US since its release in March despite being an Indie Next selection, but in Canada the book hit No. 1 on the Globe and Mail bestseller list in late spring and it continues to top lists there. The Globe and Mail says the book has “sales of about 6,000 copies a week and still climbing,” calling “its surprise success the juiciest mystery in Canadian publishing.” By their account, the trigger was the book’s selection by an “anonymous buyer” at Costco’s Ottawa office. Harper Canada vp of […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, September 20
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Taylor Polites’s untitled novel in the Southern Gothic tradition set in […]
More Proxy Support for Barnes & Noble
Proxy advisory firm Egan-Jones has recommended general support of management in the Barnes & Noble battle. They say “we have not seen a convincing strategy put forward by Yucaipa which would…put the company on a materially different pathleading to increased shareholder value.” And they are concerned about the angle raised by BN itself–that Yucaipa and Aletheia will be able to take control jointly if the poison pill is amended. (These proxy firms don’t seem imagine enough to entertain the prospect that the best way to fetch a good buyout price for BN shares is to pique chairman Len Riggio’s competiveness […]
Officially Official: Oprah Picks Franzen’s FREEDOM
Introducing the already-known pick on this morning’s show, Oprah Winfrey told her audience that author Jonathan Franzen had sent a galley to her with a note–and the Winfrey in turn asked Franzen’s permission to select the book for her club. “We have a little history,” she said. Perhaps most importantly, Winfrey said this is not her final book club pick. She promised to “continue to pick books all season long” and said that even after the Oprah Winfrey Show finishes its run at the end of this season, she will continue her book club on the Oprah Network.” Publisher Farrar, […]
People, Etc.
Packager Downtown Bookworks has started publishing a line of children’s books and has signed with Simon & Schuster for sales, warehousing and distribution, effective immediately. Downtown Bookworks expects to issue 24 kids books annually, with their launch titles on the way this month. Colin Shepherd has been promoted to assistant editor at Twelve, which he joined in April 2008. At Westview Press, Anthony Wahl has been promoted to associate editorial director. The PEN Pinter Prize is being given to novelist and playwright Hanif Kureishi, who “courageously and irreverently speaks the truth about life in our multicultural world, beyond any platitudes […]