USA Today writes: “Oprah Winfrey and book clubs across America get it: Certain books are ‘talkers.’ They make you think, react and want to chat up your friends about what you’ve just read. Here are 10 titles worth talking about this fall:” 1. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb (Harper, $29.95)2. The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 by Bob Woodward (Simon and Schuster, $32)3. A Mercy by Toni Morrison (Knopf, $23.95)4. One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell (Voice, $25.95)5. A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey through Fatherhood and Divorce by Alec Baldwin with Mark Tabb […]
Personnel, Bookstores, and Distribution
Mary Cummings, former administrator of the McKnight Award in Children’s Literature and organizer of the Festival of Children’s Literature at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, will be representing children’s books in association with Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises. Hollan Publishing’s principals Holly Schmidt and Allan Penn have joined with literary agent Lori Perkins to form Literary Partners Group, which is launching an online publishing company called Ravenous Romance. They will publish daily novel-length erotic romances, as well as lunchtime short stories, in e-book and downloadable MP3 format, starting December 1. Schmidt says in an announcement “we will succeed by producing […]
Volini Out at Random House
The first big personnel change following Markus Dohle’s appointment as ceo of Random House is not a new hire (though bookish folks still express a desire/expectation for a publishing veteran directly under Dohle) but a departure. Deputy chairman and chief operating officer Ed Volini is leaving the company at the end of September. His positions will be eliminated and his reports will report directly to Dohle as of October 1. Volini has had a senior management role at the company since 2001. Dohle praises him as “a valued decisionmaker, strategist, analyst, mentor and leader for our financial, sales, human resources, […]
Dollar Rally Intensifies
We’ve spent the last few weeks reporting on publishers’ individual quarterly earnings releases without noting the most significant development for the bottom line of foreign owners: the recent dollar rally. The currency has reversed a long decline and gained ground against both the euro and the pound for nearly all of August as both the EU and the UK face the beginnings of recession. Gains against the British pound have been greater, as the UK is encountering some of the same credit market problems that the US has been dealing with for over a year. In yesterday’s markets, traders were […]
Sargent Shortlist
The Mercantile Library Center announced the shortlist for the 2008 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. The winner will be named December 1: Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)Dervishes by Beth Helms (Picador) The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti (The Dial Press)Personal Days by Ed Park (Random House)Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter by Peter Manseau (Free Press)The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Ecco/HarperCollins)The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block (Random House) Separately, former US poet laureate Louise Glueck was given the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award for “outstanding and proven mastery in the art of […]
More on Sundance Sale, and Releases from Harlequin, Authonomy and DailyLit
* Rowman & Littlefield was a little slow with their press release yesterday, but ceo Jed Lyons hails their acquisition of Sundance/Newbridge as “a terrific entry for us into the K-8 educational marketplace. In addition, through our book distribution business, National Book Network, we believe there are many attractive NBN juvenile trade books that can be used to enhance the existing selection of trade books that Sundance distributes through its Sundance Picks core classroom library collections.” President and CEO Paul Konowitch will remain in place, running the business from its current Northborough, Massachusetts location. * In other press releases, Harlequin […]