Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 2/6-2/10

­Red Number 5Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

What about writing remains exclusive to humans?

Is the contraction of the traditional publishing industry inevitable?

How are book removals in Florida schools affecting students?

Are Russia’s wartime book restrictions working as intended?

In the world of BookTok, do aesthetics undermine content?

People Round-Up, Early February 2023

PEOPLE

Madeline McIntosh is stepping down as CEO of Penguin Random House US. At Random House Group, Angelin Adams, Editorial Director, Design & Culture, adds the title of Editorial Director, Potter Gift. She succeeds the recently-retired Lindley Boegehold. At Knopf, Quynh Do joins as Senior Editor. Most recently she was Senior Editor at Zando. Jessica Kastner Keene, formerly Publicist at Rowman & Littlefield, joins WaterBrook Multnomah as Publicity Manager. At Penguin Press, Jamie Lescht joins as Senior Publicist; she was previously Publicist at William Morrow.

Lyssa Keusch joins Grand Central as VP, Executive Editor. Previously she was Executive Editor at William Morrow.

At Ingram Library Services, Carolyn Morris returns as VP, succeeding Pamela Smith. Most recently she was Director of Content Solutions at SirsiDynix. William Daniel, formerly Chief Technology Officer at Intersoft Data Labs, joins Ingram Content Group as VP of Application Services.

Barbara Cohen joins International Literary Properties as VP, Legal and Business Affairs, North America. Most recently she was VP and General Counsel at Oxford University Press.

The board of directors for Coffee House Press have chosen consultant Linda Ewing as Interim Executive Director and will now begin a search for a permanent executive director and publisher.

Sarah Falter joins Morrow Group as Director of Publicity. She was previously Director of Publicity at HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Lindsey Kennedy, lately Assistant Director of Publicity at Random House, joins as Associate Director of Publicity. And Lara Baez, previously Communications Manager at Twitter, joins as Marketing and Publicity Manager.

At Scholastic, Rachel Schwartz has been named Director of Cross Channel Marketing. She was previously Director of Program and Product Marketing at Scholastic Book Fairs.

Lia Brown joins Kappa Publishing as Editorial Director; formerly she was Senior Executive Editor of the children’s division at Callisto Media.

At Tuttle Publishing, Laura J. Ferguson joins as Sales and Marketing Director. Previously she was Director of Special Sales at Abrams.

Sarah McEachern joins Deep Vellum and Dalkey Archive Press as Rights Director. Formerly she was Senior Foreign Agent at Trident Media Group.

Kristen Luby, formerly Senior Marketing Manager, School & Library at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, joins Abrams as Associate Director, School & Library Marketing.

In agency news…Madeline Shellhouse, formerly International Rights Agent at Folio Literary Management, joins Ultra Literary as Foreign Rights Director. John Ash, lately of London’s PEW Literary, joins Creative Artists Agency as Literary Agent. At Curtis Brown, Alexandra Franklin joins as Associate Agent, Dramatic Rights; she was previously Associate Agent at Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. At KT Literary, Hannah Fergesen rejoins as Foreign Rights Manager. At the CAT Agency, Aliza R. Hoover joins as Associate Agent; she was previously Art Coordinator Associate at Candlewick Press. And in scouting news, Georgia Panitch joins KF Literary Scouting as International Literary Scout. She was previously International Scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associates.

James Melia will join Gallery as Executive Editor on March 6. Previously he was Executive Editor at Holt. Alison Hinchcliffe, lately Publicity Manager at William Morrow, joins Atria as Senior Publicity Manager.

Richard Narramore, previously Executive Editor at Wiley, joins Stanford University Press as Executive Editor.

At Zando, Sarah Ried, formerly Editor at HarperCollins, joins as Senior Editor.

At ReaderLink Distribution Services, Mary McGee, previously Lead Operations Specialist at Cepheid, joins as Senior Inventory Manager. Cyndee Pietrus joins as Manager of Supply Planning. Eduardo Munoz joins as Sales Support Coordinator. Amelia Meyer joins as Merchandise Presentation Specialist. And Arielle Amante joins as Assistant Product Manager.

Benny Sisson, lately Marketing Coordinator at HarperCollins Children’s, joins the University of Washington Press as Marketing Manager.

At Melville House, Yezanira Venecia joins as Editor. She was previously Assistant Editor at Soho Press.

Allison Hunter Hill, formerly Editor at Starry Forest Books, joins Nosy Crow‘s US team as Editor, based in Boston.

At Graywolf, Caelan Ernest Nardone joins as Publicist. Most recently they were Director of Publicity at Nightboat Books.

Yun Shen joins Open Road Integrated Media as Business and Growth Analyst.

At Holt, Micaela Carr joins as Associate Editor.

At Northwest Review, Meakin Armstrong joins as Editor-at-Large, acquiring two to four novellas a year. In the past he served as Senior Fiction Editor for Guernica Magazine.

 

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Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 1/30-2/3

­Red Number 5Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

Which changes have kept Barnes & Noble afloat?

How can literary spaces and libraries welcome neurodivergent audiences?

What do we hope to learn from books written by the dying?

How has Book Twitter facilitated industry connections?

Amazon saw its first unprofitable year since 2014.

International Bestsellers, January 2023

Every month, Publishing Trends runs fiction international bestsellers lists from four territories–France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This month, our four regular territories are joined by two more: South Africa and Sweden. Those books that have been published in English are listed with their official English-language title. All others are translated as literally as possible from the original. Where applicable, the US publisher is listed after the local publisher, separated by a “/”. The lists are taken from major newspapers or national retailers, which are noted at the bottom of each list.

Download the full list as a PDF here.

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 1/23-1/27

­Red Number 5Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

Will TikTok inevitably decline?

How does a rise in YA paperback price negatively impact YA readers?

What is the industry doing to platform Native voices?

Have book bans strengthened the resolve of activist bookstores?

Why have we spent so long trying to “disrupt” the book?

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 1/16-1/20

­Red Number 5Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

Who shapes the future of AI translation?

Why does the HarperCollins strike matter for the entire industry?

How are queer authors responding to increasing book bans?

What percentage of science editors publish their own work?

Are AI engines actually ready to write publishable articles?

Bonus: read PT‘s Lorraine Shanley‘s report from Digital Book World.

DBW Redux

Digital Book World is back in NYC after an absence of six years. Since Bradley Metrock bought the program and moved it to Nashville, it has evolved into a great place for publishers and vendors to see how technology is changing – and will change – the industry. From AI-narrated audiobooks to the melding of podcasts with audiobooks and the rise of ChatGPT and blockchain, the conference attempted to cover it all. While many of the presentations were thinly disguised pitches, the quality of most of the products was high enough to warrant a listen. Among those presenters and products that Publishing Trends found particularly alluring were:

  • Taylan Kamis and DeepZen, a purveyor of AI-based audiobook narrations in multiple languages. Because narrators’ voices, along with purely digitized voices, can be used, the stigma of robotic speech no longer applies.
  • Adam Fritz of Canada-based Pozotron, another evangelist focused on audiobook production using AI.
  • Javier Celaya, CEO, of Dosdoce, who talked about podcasts and how they could be easily turned into books. They can also be used to introduce a younger generation to audiobooks; only 20% of 18-to-35 year-old podcast listeners also listen to audiobooks.
  • BISG Rights Committee chair Kris Kliemann, who assembled a panel of subrights experts to discuss how, especially in a world where content is available in multiple formats and languages (not to mention fonts), selling and tracking rights is critical. As Clare Hodder from RightsZone explained it, “If you’re in publishing, you’re in rights.”

There were few traditional publishers on the panels, or even in the audience. One of those who made it was Mary McAveney, newly appointed CEO of Abrams, who talked with Bradley Metrock about what the future may bring for publishers. Coming from OpenRoad, she is focused on learning who Abrams’ readers are and how best to reach them “on a one-to-one level.” When asked what she thought of ChatGPT, her response was, “How can we harness it?” In the next breath she suggested that “catalog copy is the perfect job” for the chatbot.

PageMajik’s Ashok Giri took the challenge even further in his talk “Trends in Content Creation Using AI and Smart Technology.” Using it, he said, “we become lazy, or we can become more productive.” He noted that ChatGPT provides shortcuts that free the user up to do other things, and insights that the writer might not have reached without it. The company blog for January 18th, which discusses the ways in which it will be a useful tool was – of course — written by ChatGPT.

Book.io co-founder Joshua Stone provided the audience with the most sweeping opportunities brought on by the use of blockchain technologies. “IP,” said Stone, “will have a significantly higher value; this is the golden age of publishing.”

In this golden age, books can be created, published, sold and tracked through multiple owners, which means authors and publishers can be paid over time; Ingram (an investor) has partnered with Book.io on a “mint and print” operation where books and ebooks can be bundled together in ways that make a distinct and original unit. Multiple book covers can be generated, to appeal to a variety of audiences, and – hard to believe in the wake of crypto scandal – fraud and counterfeiting will be eliminated.

Some traditional vendors had innovations to unveil as well. Overdrive, which reaches an astounding 88,000 libraries and schools in 109 countries, has a success story in its EdTech outreach efforts with the student reading app Sora. Creating a new lending model through its on-demand “class sets” has allowed teachers to provide a title in multiple translations to the entire class for a limited time. Capstone Publishing’s CEO, Randi Economou, and CMO, John Costilla, also discussed their innovations in the EdTech space, providing students with multi-format learning experiences through Capstone Connect.

Even though it’s known as the Creator Economy, Jane Friedman’s panel was focused more specifically on newsletters and the difficulties involved with monetizing them. Each platform has a different model which has evolved in order to provide writers with greater support, but writing for a living requires, as publisher of Oldster, Sari Botton, said, “having another job” to pay the bills. Friedman’s HotSheet wasn’t discussed, but it’s both successful and “must” reading (and has a write up of DBW this week).

Other sessions that we didn’t attend have been covered elsewhere (see below), and some sessions were informative but not as newsworthy: Pete McCarthy on Open Road and Wade Lucas on BookBub, explained their respective usefulness to publishers in promoting backlist, for instance. The bulleted companies above, however, broke some new ground that is relevant to the industry.

Meanwhile, we were amused to learn that anyone tempted to go on to ChatGPT to find out what the fuss is about is getting the message: “ChatGPT is at capacity right now: Get notified when we’re back.” So much for the infinite potential of the digital world.

 

​Recent articles on DBW:

Publishers Weekly

Publishing Perspectives

Publishers Lunch (subscription required)

People Round-Up, Mid-January 2023

PEOPLE

Dan Schwartz has been named SVP, CFO for HarperCollins, effective January 23. He was previously CFO at Macmillan.

Gina Centrello, longtime President and Publisher of the Random House Publishing Group, is retiring from her position. She will serve as a strategic advisor to the US board going forward. At Penguin Random House, Vaishali Nayak, previously Senior Marketing Manager at HarperCollins Children’s Books, joins as Assistant Director of Brand Marketing. Sara Bershtel, previously SVP, Publisher at Metropolitan Books, joins Penguin Press as Editor-at-Large. At Riverhead Books, Han Zhang, staff journalist at The New Yorker, joins in the newly-created position of Editor-at-Large, “with the mission of bringing works from the Chinese language for translation and publication in the United States.” Erika Semprun joins Dutton, Plume, and Tiny Reparations Books as Social Media Manager. Lashanda Anakwah joins Tiny Reparations Press as Editor; she was previously Associate Editor at Simon & Schuster. At Random House Children’s, Jasmine Ferrufino joins as Associate, School & Library Marketing.

At Zondervan, Paul J. Pastor joins as Senior Acquisitions Editor; he was previously Editor at WaterBrook Multnomah.

At Beacon Press, Matt Davis joins as CFO. Previously he was VP, Finance at Cengage Learning.

Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski joins Henry Holt as VP, Executive Director of Publicity. Previously she was Director of Publicity at Ecco. At Macmillan, Amy Solov, lately Sales Representative, Special Sales at Gibbs Smith, joins as Manager, Gift Sales. Mark Kent joins as Technical Specialist.

Victor Day Hendrickson joins Simon & Schuster as VP, Counsel. Previously he was VP, Associate General Counsel at Penske Media Corporation. At Atria, Kate Napolitano, formerly Executive Editor at Dey Street, joins as Executive Editor. Holly Rice joins Atria as Publicist. |Most recently she was Publicist at HarperCollins.

At Oprah Daily, Leigh Newman has joined as Books Director, overseeing Oprah’s Book Club and all book-related content on OprahDaily.com and O Quarterly. Most recently she was Cofounder and Editor-in-Chief at Zibby Books.

At David C Cook, Cathy Herholdt joins as VP of Communications. Most recently she was Senior Communications Director at World Concern.

Joseph D’Onofrio has been named Executive Director and General Manager at Chicago Distribution Center and Client Services. He previously worked as Director, Supply Chain Operations at Henry Schein.

Dale Wilstermann joins Dexterity as Executive Sales Director. Most recently he was Executive Director, Nashville Sales at Hachette.

At Zando, Hayley Wagreich joins as Director of Original Development and will manage the launch of Zando Projects, which will manage the development of original content with company partners. She was previously Head of Content at Realm.

Kevin McLain, formerly Editorial VP at Avalon Travel, joins Timber Press as Editorial Director. At Basic Books, Janice Audet joins as Executive Editor on January 23. She was most recently Executive Editor for Science at Harvard University Press. Gwen Hawkes, lately Associate Editor at St. Martin’s Press, joins Hachette Go as Editor. And at Hachette Book Group, Radhika Parikh joins as Communications Associate; she was previously Publishing Coordinator at Disney Publishing.

At PEN America, Kate Ruane joins as the inaugural Sy Syms Director, U.S. Free Expression Programs. Previously she was Lead Public Policy Specialist for the United States at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Brent Reidy has been named Director of Research Libraries at the New York Public Library.

At Tuttle Publishing, Laura Ferguson joins as Sales and Marketing Director. She was formerly SVP, New Business Development at Open Road Integrated Media.

In agency news…Kristina Sutton Lennon, founder of Focused Artists, joins Context Literary Agency as Director of Media Rights, Translation Rights Agent, and Junior Agent. Ariele Fredman joins UTA as Agent and will work on building the commercial fiction program. Previously she was Deputy Director of Publicity and Marketing at Atria. At Nicole Banholzer PR, Cate Turner joins as Assistant Publicist. John Snyder joins PR by the Book as Assistant Publicist. At Franklin & Siegal, Dorian Randall, lately Literary Associate at Conner Literary, joins as Literary Scout.

Jack Shoemaker, Founding Editor of Counterpoint Press and Cofounder of North Point Press, is retiring and will continue to work on selected projects as Counterpoint’s editor-at-large.

Hugo Award-winning author Navah Wolfe joins DAW Books as Executive Editor.

At Crooked Lane, Marcia Markland, formerly Executive Acquisitions Editor at Thomas Dunne Books, joins as Senior Editor at Large. Stephanie Manova, formerly Foreign Rights Agent at Trident Media Group, joins as Subsidiary Rights Manager.

At Publishers Weekly, Senior Reviews Editor Peter Cannon and Senior News Editor Calvin Reid have retired.

Sigrid Rausing is stepping down as Editor at Granta, and the magazine is hiring a replacement.

Jarrod Annis joins Transit Books as Sales and Marketing Manager at Transit Books. He was formerly Manager at Greenlight Bookstore.

At Macmillan, Amy Solov, lately Sales Representative, Special Sales at Gibbs Smith, joins as Manager, Gift Sales. Mark Kent joins as Technical Specialist.

Curt Kaplan joins Chickman Associates, covering the state of Washington.

 

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Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 1/9-1/13

­Red Number 5Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

Can climate writing be hopeful?

When is self-publishing more effective than traditional publishing?

Is AI a threat to human audiobook narrators?

What does the failed merger mean for the industry?

A record number of library systems surpassed one million digital checkouts on OverDrive last year.

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 1/2-1/6

­Red Number 5Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

Do English-language trends in audiobooks and ebooks translate into Arabic?

What effects are Florida Gov. DeSantis’s “anti-woke” legislation already having in higher education?

How can librarians use TikTok for community outreach?

Is book recommendation by trope helpful or reductive?

OverDrive released 2022 digital book circulation data.