Short news items from the world of book publishing:
12/23/2024
Denis Kitchen Wins New Boston Comic Arts Foundation Underground Visionary Award
The foundation has debuted an annual lifetime achievement prize, to be awarded each year at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo. Kitchen, the longtime comics publisher and agent, is its inaugural winner.12/20/2024
IPG Adds Five Publishers to Sales, Distro Programs
Momentum Press and Zophorus Books are among five new publishers to ink deals with Independent Publishers Group.12/20/2024
Audio Publishers Association Issues Guidance for AI-Narrated Audiobooks
The Audio Publishers Association and the UK Publishers Association's Audio Publishers Group have issued best-practice guidances for publishers, distributors, and others for how to label AI-narrated products.12/20/2024
Hollan, Castle Point Merge to Form Spot Gloss Media
Hollan Publishing founder and CEO Holly Schmidt and Castle Point Publishing CEO Bruce Lubin have merged their two companies under the banner of Spot Gloss Media, a new book packager and publisher.12/17/2024
Abrams Announces Sales Promotions, Changes
Monica Shah (l.) has been appointed VP of sales and sales operations and Liz Frew has been named director of mass merch retail and children's sales strategy, among a series of other changes to the department's top brass.12/16/2024
Total Printing Systems Acquires Perfection Press
The Newton, Ill.–based printer has acquired the Logan, Iowa–based book manufacturer. Book printing and binding operations of Perfection Press will be consolidated into TPS’s facilities.12/13/2024
Erin Reilly Promoted to VP of Mass Merch, Distributor Sales at PRH
Reilly succeeds the retiring Tom Cox on February 1. In her new role, she will oversee all of Penguin Random House's adult mass merchandise classes of trade, along with its four national distributor accounts.12/13/2024
Hawthornden Foundation Partners with 'Lapham's Quarterly'
The literary nonprofit, founded by former 'Paris Review' publisher and Ecco cofounder Drue Heinz, has offered a lifeline to the journal, which was put on hiatus last year due to financial woes, by taking over the lease for the 'Lapham's' office space.12/12/2024
Black List Unveils Inaugural Book-to-Screen Adaptation Survey
As part of its foray into fiction, the Black List surveyed 84 book editors and literary agents about the novels they would most like to see adapted into film and television, releasing a 61-title list of the books that garnered multiple mentions.12/11/2024
James Patterson, Bill Clinton Announce Third Cowritten Thriller
Knopf and Little, Brown are teaming once again to copublish 'The First Gentleman,' the latest novel by James Patterson and President Bill Clinton, on June 2.12/11/2024
Batch for Books Partners with Arcadia, Blackstone, and Microcosm
The digital platform for independent bookstores has partnered with Arcadia Press, Blackstone Publishing, and Microcosm Publishing in what Batch for Books U.S. program manager Nathan Halter called "an exciting milestone."12/11/2024
Brandon Kilbourne Wins 2025 Cave Canem Prize
Kilbourne's poetry collection 'Natural History,' which was selected by judge Natasha Trethewey, will be published by Graywolf Press in fall 2025.12/10/2024
Vivendi Spinoff Completed
Vivendi shareholders gave their overwhelming support to the plan by the French conglomerate to break the company up into discrete parts that include the Louise Hachette Group, which will house Vivendi’s book publishing holdings.12/10/2024
Todd Doughty Promoted to Deputy Publisher at KDPG
The SVP of publicity and communications at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group has added deputy publisher to his title.12/10/2024
IPG to Host Open House for NBN Distribution Clients
On January 15, Independent Publishers Group will host an informational open house for publishers currently distributed by National Book Network, which is set to close next year.12/10/2024
Rebind Expands Library of Experts
The AI-powered enhanced e-book company focused on classic literature has added four new titles with commentaries from Roxane Gay, Bill McKibben, Deb Olin Unferth, and Sadie Stein.12/10/2024
Chronicle Expands Its Sales Leadership Team
Chronicle announced that Jenny Goodman Abrami will be its executive editor of global sales and Amanda Weirich will take on a position as director of international sales and subsidiary rights.12/10/2024
Whiting Foundation Announces 2024 Creative Nonfiction Grantees
Each of the 10 recipients will receive $40,000 to complete a book-in-progress.12/10/2024
Susanna Einstein Joins Dunow, Carlson & Lerner
Einstein, who has run her own, eponymous shingle since 2015, and fellow literary agent Susan Graham will join DCL on January 1.12/09/2024
Francesca Young, James Mitchem Up at DK Children's
Young (l.) has been appointed publishing director, while Mitchem has been promoted to publisher, along with other promotions among the DK Children's U.K.–based leadership team.12/09/2024
City Tech Science Fiction Symposium Set for December 10
The 9th annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium, hosted by CUNY's New York City College of Technology, will have a special focus on artificial intelligence. The event is free and open to the public.12/09/2024
PEN America Hit with Hoax Alleging Support for BDS Movement
The organization clarified that a December 9 press release purporting to be from the free speech nonprofit stating that PEN endorsed “the academic and cultural boycott of Israel” known as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement was a hoax.12/09/2024
Ruoxi Chen Joins Putnam as Executive Editor
At Putnam, two-time Hugo Award–winning editor and 2022 PW Star Watch superstar Ruoxi Chen will serve as executive editor, with a focus on acquiring crossover fantasy, romantasy, and sci-fi.12/06/2024
Foot Traffic Up at B&N, BAM in November
Customer traffic at Barnes & Noble rose 13% in November over November 2023 and increased 5.7% at Books-A-Million.
12/06/2024
HBG Launches ‘Raising Readers’ Initiative
The brainchild of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers president and publisher Megan Tingley, the initiative will add a page in the back of Hachette's adult titles talking about the value of fostering a lifelong habit of reading.12/05/2024
Marion Garner Named Publisher at Penguin Canada
Garner starts on January 6, succeeding Nicole Winstanley, who left to lead Simon & Schuster Canada in April.12/05/2024
Lerner to Distribute Beetle Books
Lerner Publisher Services will soon be the exclusive distributor of Beetle Books, an imprint of the U.K.-based publisher Hungry Tomato, in the U.S. and Canada. Beetle Books joins the rest of Hungry Tomato's imprints already distributed by Lerner.12/05/2024
CrimeFest to End After 16 Years
The U.K.-based crime fiction convention, held annually in Bristol, will cease after 2025. The final iteration will take place May 15–18.12/04/2024
Libro.fm Announces Inaugural Bookseller Choice Award Winners
The digital audiobook platform, which partners with independent bookstores, has named the four winning audiobook titles chosen by booksellers around the world.12/02/2024
Human Kinetics Acquires Lotus Publishing
The Champaign, Ill.–based trade and academic publisher focused on physical activity and health will absorb Lotus's roughly 50-title backlist under a new imprint, Lotus Books.12/02/2024
2024 Authors for Voices of Color Auction Kicks Off
The annual auction, to be held December 2–10 and benefiting We Need Diverse Books, includes such prizes as a Zoom book club visit from ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ author Bonnie Garmus and more.12/02/2024
Greenleaf Launches Family Business Press
Greenleaf Book Group, the Austin, Tex.–based hybrid publisher, has partnered with ‘Family Business’ magazine on a new imprint, Family Business Press.11/27/2024
Kate Beaton Wins 2024 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature
Beaton's graphic novel 'Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands' is the winner of the Swiss literary prize for exceptional works of fiction or nonfiction published in any language.11/27/2024
Microcosm to Distribute Thornapple
Microcosm Publishing will become the new worldwide distributor, excluding Canada, for Victoria, B.C–based publisher Thornapple Press, effective April 1, 2025.11/27/2024
London Book Fair 2025 Announces Featured Authors
Monica Ali, Claudia Piñeiro, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and Jamie Smart have been named Authors of the Fair for 2025.11/26/2024
YA Author Launches Auction to Support Trans Charities
Ali Hazelwood, TJ Alexander, Parnassus Books, Romance Con, and more have donated items to Brian D. Kennedy's auction, which will benefit three trans nonprofits and run December 2 through 5.11/26/2024
Toni Kirkpatrick Named Board Chair of Latinx in Publishing
Kirkpatrick, who has served as board secretary since 2022, has been appointed the organization’s new board chair, succeeding Saraciea J. Fennell.11/25/2024
CALIBA Releases List of Golden Poppy Finalists
The California Independent Booksellers Alliance has announced its 2024 Golden Poppy Book Awards shortlist, with finalists in 14 categories.11/25/2024
Portland’s Literary Arts Schedules Ribbon-Cutting for New HQ
Portland, Ore.–based nonprofit Literary Arts will open the Susan Hammer Center on December 7. The new headquarters includes a bookstore, event spaces, a podcast studio, and staff offices.11/25/2024
James S.A. Corey, 'Expanse' Creative Team Launch Production Company
The team behind 'The Expanse,' the television adaptation of the sci-fi novel series of the same name by James S.A. Corey, has launched Expanding Universe, a "multiplatform media company." Its first project is a series adaptation of Corey's new trilogy.11/22/2024
Spotify Now Offers Bloomsbury Audiobooks
Bloomsbury is making its audiobook catalog—including titles by Sarah J. Maas—available through Spotify's Premium subscription service in six English-language markets.11/21/2024
Ingram’s David Taylor to Retire in 2025
Taylor, SVP of international content acquisition for the Ingram Content Group, will retire in June 2025, after a career that started as a bookseller at Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford, England, in 1983.11/20/2024
Hachette UK's Russell Evans, James Linney Add HBG US Distro to Purview
Russell Evans (l.) has been named director of business development for Hachette Book Group US Distribution and Hachette UK Distribution, and James Linney will take on the new role of CFO of distribution for HBG and Hachette UK.11/20/2024
Joseph Mercola Launches Joy House Publishing
Dr. Joseph Mercola has launched Joy House Publishing, a new small press that aims to "make cutting-edge health information accessible to an ever-growing global audience." The press, distributed by Simon & Schuster, plans to publish 12 books a year.11/19/2024
Holtzbrinck Names Claudia Häußermann New CEO
Holtzbrinck Buchverlage announced that Häußermann will succeed interim CEO Carel Halff, who has been in the role for two years, effective December 31.11/19/2024
Mariner to Publish White House Photography of Kamala Harris
'Kamala Harris: Selections from the Official White House Photography,' to be published by the HarperCollins imprint on December 10, will include more than 200 photographs of Harris as vice president of the United States and during her bid for president.11/19/2024
S&S Audio, Lemonada Team on New Podcast
'Your Next Listen,' from Simon & Schuster Audio and Lemonada Media, is a weekly podcast series that features full-chapter excerpts of S&S audiobooks. Earlier this year, Lemonada launched its own publishing imprint at S&S.11/19/2024
IBPA to Hold Membership Vote on Proposed Merger with PubWest
The boards of directors at the Independent Book Publishers Association and Publishers Association of the West have voted to approve the merger of the two organizations. Special elections will be held on Nov. 13 and 19 at PubWest and IBPA, respectively.11/18/2024
Ilana Gold Joins Authors Equity as Head of Publicity
Gold joins the hybrid publishing startup, launched earlier this year, from Workman Publishing, where she was director of publicity and marketing.11/18/2024
HarperCollins Inks AI Licensing Deal for Nonfiction Books
A new licensing agreement between HarperCollins and an undisclosed AI company will “allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models to improve model quality and performance,” per a company statement.News Brief Archive
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