People Steve Wasserman has joined Yale University Press as Executive Editor-at-Large, General Interest books. He remains with Kneerim & Williams as a literary agent. He was previously Literary Editor of the LA Times and Editorial Director of Times Books. Literary agent David Hale Smith has joined Inkwell Management, bringing his own list with him. He…Continue Reading
People Philip Patrick has joined Amazon.com, in Seattle, as Senior Leader, Rights & Licensing. He was most recently VP, Digital & Marketing Strategy, Publisher Ebooks at Crown Publishing Group. Margot Schupf has left her position as VP, Publisher, Sterling Innovation. She was previously SVP, Editorial Director, Digital Publishing for the Morrow/Avon/Eos group. Meanwhile, Derry Wilkins,…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Richard Rhorer has been named Associate Publisher of Simon & Schuster, reporting to Jonathan Karp. Previously he was Director of Digital Business Development at Macmillan. . . . Sally Kim joined Touchstone on March 7 as Editorial Director, reporting to VP, Publisher Stacy Creamer. Kim was Executive Editor of the Harper imprint at HarperCollins….Continue Reading
PEOPLE As widely reported over the last month, while BN.com staffs up, layoffs continue at both Barnes & Noble and Borders. About 40 people were let go from Barnes & Noble recently, including Bob Wietrak, Lee Stern, Marcella Smith, Mo Stewart, and buyers Dan Mayer, Dave Hathaway, and Kim Corradini. At Borders, just after New…Continue Reading
For more results from this survey, check out Book-Giving Etiquette Guide and I Love You, Keith Richards. “My siblings assume that every book I get is free, so they expect books AND a ‘real present.’” “Any time I give a book, I fear it will be assumed that I did not pay for it, so…Continue Reading
PEOPLE At Macmillan, Troy Williams has been appointed to the new position of VP & GM, New Ventures. Williams founded Questia Media, which he sold in 2007, and PeoplePad. Meanwhile, Dan Farley is leaving Macmillan, where he was President and Publisher of the Children’s Publishing Group, after 14 years of bicoastal commuting. Mark Polizzotti has…Continue Reading
PEOPLE So much for the dog days of August. . . . Jim King, SVP and General Manager at Nielsen BookScan, has left the company to become a consultant to the industry. He may be reached at jim.king.j [at] gmail dot com. Simon & Schuster Publisher Jon Karp has announced several more changes over the…Continue Reading
In this age of undead Bennets and robo-Karenina, a different kind of mash-up is on the literary horizon: cross-vertical social media. Startups like GetGlue, LivingSocial, and Blippr are all-in-one social media hubs for a user’s complete entertainment discussion needs: books, films, TV shows, music, even beer and wine. Cross-vertical referrals match books with films or…Continue Reading
The 3 million iPads sold as of June were a major topic of discussion at two conferences this month: The Big Money’s Untethered 2010: Profitable Media in the Tablet Era, and the Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference. Untethered was aimed more directly at book publishers, and its “Future of Book Publishing” panel included publishing head…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Jonathan Karp is now settled in as EVP and Publisher of the Simon & Schuster trade imprint. Karp, who succeeds David Rosenthal, came from Twelve, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group that he founded in 2005. A new Publisher for Twelve is actively being recruited. Isabel Swift, who was Editor Emeritus at Harlequin,…Continue Reading
