At Crown Business, Ayelet Gruenspecht has been promoted to marketing manager, while Megan Perritt moves up to publicity manager for the imprint as well as for Crown Forum. In addition, associate publisher for Crown Forum and Three Rivers Press Campbell Wharton will take on an additional role in project directing Crown Business campaigns on a case-by-case basis. At the Random House Publishing Group, Sam Nicholson and Anna Pitoniak have been promoted to editor. Mika Kasuga, Caitlin McKenna, and Molly Turpin have been promoted to assistant editor. Dervla Kelly will join Rodale as senior editor on April 7. Previously she was an […]
Archives for March 2014
Authors and Editors
Author Michael Lewis garners a lot of attention for the release today of FLASH BOYS (including this excerpt in the NYT Magazine). He tells NY Magazine he finished the manuscript two months ago. “Lewis says he turned down large advances to remain with his longtime editor, Norton head Starling Lawrence, and for his last two books, he’s taken no book advance at all. ‘I like the risk,’ he says. ‘Most writers treat their publishers as banks — very expensive banks. Norton is owned by its employees, and I feel sometimes responsible for their financial well-being. When they give me a bunch of money it’s even worse.‘” Amazon Studios has ordered a full […]
Judge Cote Certifies Consumer Class, Excludes Much of Apple’s Expert Witness Testimony
Late Friday afternoon Judge Denise Cote issued two rulings in the ongoing ebook antitrust case. The first finally grants class certification for the consumers who first sued Apple and the Agency Five publishers back in 2011 and officially sought certification last October, in an 86-page order. (The publishers, of course, settled, and consumers started seeing the $166 settlement funds issued just recently as store credit by Amazon, Nook, and other retailers). The second 59-page ruling denied Apple’s bid to exclude the opinions of the plaintiffs’ damages expert while largely dismissing the opinions of Apple’s own experts. With respect to the class, Judge […]
People, Etc.
Diana Gill will join Ace and Roc Books on April 1 as executive editor, reporting to Susan Allison. Previously she was executive editor at William Morrow, where she ran the US branch of HarperVoyager for the past 12 years. Jacky Klein will join Phaidon Press in June as commissioning editor, Art, working primarily out of the London offices. Previously she was commissioning editor at Thames & Hudson. Former director of publicity at Hachette Nashville Shanon Stowe will join Icon Media Group as partner and president of the PR firm’s literary division on March 31. As of April 1, all trade […]
eNews: Verso’s eBook/Print Bundle; DropBox Rumored to Buy ReadMill; and More
Verso Books will sell its books, both print and digital, direct on its website as of April 8, and will also offer print/ebook bundles for all new titles and “hundreds” of recent ones (free postage is also included.) Verso is working with Booxstream on DRM, and each ebook will be visibly watermarked. In a statement managing director Jacob Stevens said Verso readers can choose which title to read regardless of format, print or digital. We know that our core readership would like to support radical publishing directly, and we hope that this new approach will benefit our writers, readers, and […]
Diesel eBooks Will Shut Down By Month’s End
Diesel eBooks finally confirmed that it is shutting down by the end of the month, just shy of its tenth anniversary. The news was made more obvious as a result of the company’s March 14 lawsuit (under the “new” name of Lavoho, Inc.) against Apple and the “Agency Five” publishers last week for effectively ruining its business by implementing the agency model. In a statement on its website the independent digital retailer said: “It’s been a great ride! We’re exploring our options – eBooks are still in the infant years and there are many opportunities opening up now and in […]