Ryland Peters & Small’s owner and managing director David Peters, 66, has died of cancer. Peters founded RPS in 1995 with Anne Ryland and Jacqui Small. The publisher writes, “His loss leaves a large hole for all those who knew him, and to his colleagues both in the UK and US. With RPS, he has created a great legacy… Losing David is devastating for everyone at RPS. Throughout his long career, he cultivated long-standing relationships all around the world. We know David will be sorely missed by many. His legacy will be carried on through his loyal staff and partners […]
Pave Publishing House Launches, Partners with S&S
Media company Pave Studios will launch a book publishing venture, Pave Publishing House, which “will work with emerging and established creators as well as existing authors.” “Pave Publishing House is putting storytellers at the forefront with our innovative business model because we understand that when creators succeed, everyone succeeds,” founder Max Cutler said in a release. “By meeting creators’ audiences where they are, we’re reimagining distribution and capitalizing on the massive podcast audience where monetization is limited to drive more revenue back to creators.” In a co-publishing agreement with the Simon & Schuster imprint for Pave branded titles, “the two […]
People 6/26
Wibke Grutjen has been named senior vice president, global chief marketing and communications officer at Simon & Schuster, reporting to president and ceo Jonathan Karp. She will also be a member of Simon & Schuster's Executive Committee. Grutjen was previously chief marketing officer at Hachette Book Group.
Agent Fired By KT Literary Over Twitter Posts
Hilary Harwell, an agent at KT Literary, has been fired following a Twitter controversy involving a post she made about a query she had received. On June 23, Harwell posted, “Just read a query that was essentially THE ROAD meets DELIVERANCE (#YA) and now I want someone to write this for me please.” She had since deleted her account. Twitter users, including other agents, noted that it’s bad form to receive a query and then publicly request that a different author write the premise. Author Jamie Damato replied, “With respect do you not see how it’s actually kind of insidious […]
People 6/25
Lindsay Sagnette will join Putnam as vice president, editor in chief, on July 15.
Former Scribd Co-Founder Launches AI Licensing Company for Books
Scribd co-founder and former ceo Trip Adler’s new start-up Created By Humans officially announced itself today, after the recent raising of a $5 million seed round led by David Sacks at Craft Ventures and Mike Maples, Jr. at Floodgate. (Other investors include Jason Calacanis at Launch Fund, Sam Lessin and Garry Tan at Slow Ventures, and author Walter Isaacson.) The intention is to create an AI rights licensing platform that “makes it simple for authors/publishers to license the AI Rights of their content to AI companies for use in training models and more” — even though the current status of […]