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 [...]
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, [...]
Crown Publishing Group President and Publisher Maya Mavjee announces big changes: Diane Salvatore, VP, Publisher of Broadway Books; Senior Editor Lorraine Glennon; and VP, Executive Director, Publicity Katie Wainright are leaving the company. Shaye Areheart steps down as Publisher of her eponymous imprint, Shaye Areheart Books (which will be discontinued), but will stay on as [...]
People Roundup Lots of movement at Barnes & Noble: Liz Scheier has joined Barnes & Noble.com as Editorial Director, working with publishers to create “unique, exclusive content digital opportunities throughout our digital distribution platforms, including in store programs” and reporting to Theresa Horner, VP Digital Products. She was most recently Director of Publishing Relations at [...]
PEOPLE ROUNDUP Madeline McIntosh has returned to Random House in the newly created position of President, Sales, Operations, and Digital. Her direct reports include Andrew Weber, SVP, Ops & Technology; Jaci Updike, SVP, Director, Random House Adult Sales; Joan DeMayo, SVP, Director, Children’s Sales and Director, Special Markets Sales; and Bonnie Ammer, EVP, International Sales. [...]
PEOPLE ROUNDUP As summer wanes, change remains the constant: Former Simon & Schuster President of Sales and Distribution Larry Norton has joined Borders as SVP, Merchandising and Distribution, reporting to EVP Anne Kubek. Norton will lead the merchandising team and will work out of his Connecticut home. Earlier it was announced that Dave Marsico has [...]
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Lorraine Shanley | July 2009
A much-anticipated panel on children’s books at NYU‘s Summer Publishing Institute brought out an amazing array of publishing talent, with newly minted literary agent Brenda Bowen moderating. Included in the lineup were Ellie Berger, President of Scholastic Trade Publishing; Megan Tingley, Publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Don Weisberg, President of Penguin’s Young [...]
PEOPLE ROUNDUP Seven people have been laid off from Kaplan, including Director of National Accounts, Bill Huelster (who may be reached at bhuelster [at] gmail.com) and Yulia Borodyanskaya, International Sales and Subsidiary Rights (yborodyanskaya [at] yahoo.com). Kaplan is moving the selling responsibility to its distributor, Simon & Schuster, and Mary Dolan, Executive Director of Sales, [...]
Laura Hazard Owen | April 2009
Despite its sale by the Bertelsmann Group to Najafi Companies last year, Bookspan’s 21 book clubs (including Book-of-the-Month Club, Doubleday Book Club, Quality Paperback Club, and Literary Guild) still exist. Given the company’s tumultuous past few years, how has it held up? (For news on other book clubs, click here.) Numbers don’t mean everything, but [...]
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Lorraine Shanley | March 2009
Book publishers–and agents–are scarce at SXSW’s Interactive Festival, and when they do show up, they’re not always treated with love and respect (see Booksquare’s “New Think? Not So Much”), but at worst it’s a love-hate relationship between the digital crowd and the page turners. At best–and there is a bright side–it’s because this crowd (about [...]