PEOPLE
Vivian Antonangeli, formerly President of Reader’s Digest Children’s Publishing, goes to Grosset and Dunlap as President and Publisher, while Jane O’Connor becomes editor-at-large, working on a part-time basis. . . Ivan Held is leaving Viking, where he is VP Marketing Director, to go to Random House, reporting to Ann Godoff. Word is he will take a publishing role . . . Ed Walters, formerly VP Associate Publisher of Adams Media, has become Publishing Director of Tuttle Publishing. . . It looks like Walter Weintz is moving to S&S, but no announcement as yet. He was most recently at OneBigTable.com with Molly O’Neill and Arthur Samuelson . . . Victor Navasky, whose The Nation is launching Nation Books this fall, has hired Dan Weaver as editor. Most recently at Faber & Faber in Boston, Weaver also did stints at Penguin and McGraw-Hill. The new list will be distributed by PGW under a business arrangement with their Avalon Publishing division. . . Susy Bolotin, recently of Good Housekeeping, but formerly a book editor, has joined Workman as Editor in Chief. Inside.com referred to Workman as a “benign mini-cult,” to which Michael Cader responds in publisherslunch.com, “I know Workman Publishing; I worked at Workman Publishing; it is many colorful things, but it is not a benign mini-cult.”. . . Glenda Howard has left St. Martin’s for Black Entertainment Television’s book division. . . Gordon Hardy has been appointed Divisional VP and Executive Editor for General Reference in Houghton Mifflin’s Trade and Reference group. This is a new position. . . Ginee Seo has left HarperCollins Childrens for S&S as VP, Associate Publisher of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, replacing Jonathan Lanman. . . Also widely reported is the move of Random supereditor Jon Karp to Scott Rudin Productions, and Rob McQuilkin to Boston-based Palmer & Dodge agency.
DEALS
UK publisher Pavilion’s Colin Webb sold The Book of Rock, a hefty tome written by former Virgin Publisher Philip Dodd to Thunder’s Mouth in the US, Glenat in France, and deals to be confirmed in weeks to come from Germany, Spain, Scandinavia (four languages), Portugal, and Brazil. Rough estimates of printing numbers could take the global co-edition to 125,000–150,000 copies. The book is designed by David Costa, whose firm, Wherefore Art, is probably best known today for the megabestseller, The Beatles Anthology. Webb says that part of the enormous co-edition success was that they produced a fully bound proof copy to show publishers — 350 full color, 150 b&w pics, in all their glory.
The option on Joe Kanon’s first novel, Los Alamos, has been renewed, and London-based Renaissance will produce and sell the film, which will be directed by Nick Hytner.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Basic Books is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a discussion at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel on “The Future of the Public Intellectual,” on November 2nd at 6:30. Basic Publisher John Donatich will moderate. Call Morse Partners (212 734-5134) for details.
•The Washington Post’s Michael Dirda, who in 1993 received the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, has been writing the often highly personal Book World column, “Readings,” one Sunday a month for nearly eight years. Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments, a collection of his selected columns, has just been published by Indiana U. Press. There will be a wining and signing at The Madison Avenue Bookshop on Wednesday, November 29th, 5:30-7:30.
• Publisherslunch.com is hosting its third luncheon, on Wednesday, November 29, from 12:30 to 2:30 on “Making Money Through Free Media.” Speakers will be Seth Godin, Mike Shatzkin, and horror writer Douglas Clegg, all of whom have experience and expertise on the subject. The price is $100, and the venue, tba.
•PAMA (Publishers Advertising & Marketing Association) is hosting a luncheon on “ePublishing: Why You Can’t Ignore It” on November 16 at the Hotel Intercontinental. Speakers include Roger Cooper, consultant for iPublish, John Feldcamp of Xlibris, and Annik La Farge from Contentville. Market Partners International’s Constance Sayre will moderate. Members’ price is $60, and nonmembers, $75. Email pama_ny@hotmail.com.
INQUIRING MINDS
Notwithstanding media coverage and a Frankfurt party to celebrate, there has been no announcement from Grove/Atlantic about purchasing Edinburgh publisher Canongate, according to Morgan Entriken himself. And no one seems to be able to determine whether this is an acquisition or a merger, as Canongate’s Jamie Byng describes it. Meanwhile Jack McKeown was one of the blowout party’s co-hosts, but whether he’s otherwise involved is unclear, though he did say in an email that “The [Perseus] Group is giving serious consideration to developing a publishing presence in the UK market.” He was more forthcoming on the subject of the Saturday night event, which was “fantastic, although Jamie was prevented from demonstrating his DJ wizardry because the promised turntables never made it to the event. But even the preponderance of European pop music could not keep the crowd from rocking.” Estimates of attendance at the Alte Oper, an ornate building which is still used for concerts (and where the Microsoft eBook Awards were presented), range from 400–800. Given that the party started at 11 pm on Saturday night, when many people had fled the fair, that says something about publishers as partygoers, or the venue or, perhaps, the reputation of the hosts as entertainers.
•When Barnes & Noble originally spun off BN.com, it looked as though the idea was to build another Amazon.com, a virtual bookstore whose stock would climb unencumbered by the demands of — not to mention the taxes levied on — bricks and mortar. But now that B&N stores are actively promoting BN.com and vice versa, instead of looking like Amazon, the Riggios’ book emporia begin to resemble that other rival, Borders, which has been touting its integrated re- and e-tail strategy. The final question to be answered is: Given Bertelsmann’s investment, will a new CEO of BOL expect to play a role in BN.com, as was rumored to be likely? And will BN.com ever hire another CEO, ten months after the last one, Jonathan Bulkeley, resigned?
•Blab Media has announced a strategic partnership with Random House Inc., to create and distribute greeting cards online. The cards will be based on selected RH titles (though so far Anne Rice seems to be the only author represented). Blab offers cards with greetings available in 14 languages, including Arabic, Polish, and Hindi.
DULY NOTED
The winners of Poets & Writers’ annual Writers Exchange competition for the best poet and prose writers from a chosen state (this year’s was Florida) were poet Rhonda J. Nelson and fiction writer Jeanne Leiby. Each received an all-expenses-paid trip to NYC in October to give readings and meet with publishing types that included Norton’s Carol Smith, Ginger Barber, the NYT’s Harvey Shapiro, and judges David Mura and Sapphire. This was one of the most successful competitions P&W has staged, with submissions — at 176 for poetry, and 182 for fiction — 75% higher than in other years. Past winners have included the fiction writers Fae Myenne Ng, Mona Simpson, and Susan Straight, and poets Mike Chitwood and Roger Fanning. Scott Manning tells us that four years ago, the winner of the fiction writing award was Sue Monk Kidd. She read her short story, “The Secret Life of Bees” — and agent Virginia Barber told her that the characters had the potential to be developed for a full-length novel. The unfinished novel of the same name arrived on the agent’s desk this year and she promptly sold it to Viking.
•The Meadowlands Racetrack celebrated the 4th annual running of the Matt Scudder stakes on October 28. Yes, the President of the track is a Lawrence Block fan. Morrow has just released a non-Matt Scudder book, Hit List.
