E.L. James Named PW's Publishing Person of the Year

Nov 30, 2012 - PW

photo: Celia Topping

E.L. James, the author of the Fifty Shades trilogy, has been named Publishers Weekly's Publishing Person of the Year for 2012. James, the pen name of Erika Leonard, became the author of the fastest-selling adult series of all time after her erotic trilogy, initially posted online as Twilight fan fiction, became a massive viral hit. The series was acquired by Random House's Vintage unit in March and the books--Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed--have sold over 35 million copies in the U.S. alone (combined print and digital), bringing in more than $200 million in revenue to the publisher. Because the success of the series continues to reverberate throughout the industry in a number of ways--among other things, the money it's brought in helped boost print sales in bookstores and turned erotic fiction into a hot category--we have selected James as the most notable player on the publishing stage this year.

PublishersLunch

United Agents Completes Acquisition of AP Watt

The week's second exhibit in literary agency consolidation: In the UK, United Agents has finalized their acquisition of venerable AP Watt, the Bookseller confirms, after first reporting on the talks in September. Only five members of AP Watt's staff are joining United Agents in the transition, however, starting next week: Natasha Fairweather will join United Agents' Robert Kirby as joint head of the literary department, and Linda Shaughnessy will serve as joint head of foreign rights. AP Watt executives Caradoc King and Derek Johns will also join United Agents as partners, and agent Jon Elek is staying with the group as well. The Bookseller says three employees are "taking up jobs elsewhere" without adding specifics. (The other AP Watt book agents are Juliet Pickering, Elinor Cooper, Louise Lamont, and Donald Winchester.)

People, Etc.

Midas Public Relations CEO Jacks Thomas will join Reed Exhibitions UK in January as senior exhibition director for the London Book Fair. LBF has been a Midas client for 10 years, and will remain so in the future.

Kelly Welsh will join Putnam and Amy Einhorn Books as senior publicity manager on December 3. Previously she was publicity manager at Simon & Schuster's trade imprint.

Author and motivational speaker Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar, 86, died on Wednesday. Best known for his 1975 book SEE YOU AT THE TOP, the WSJ noteshe "preached in the tradition of American self-help that stretched back through Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale." Seth Godin tells the paper, "All of us do this professionally standing on the shoulders of Zig Ziglar."

Kevin Powers wonthe Guardian First Book Award for THE YELLOW BIRDS.

Every bestseller list has its own rules and quirks; the closely-watched FOUR-HOUR CHEF by Tim Ferriss can now claim one No. 1 slot, topping the WSJ's ebook nonfiction list (helped by the promotional ebook launch price of $4.99), and ranking No. 3 on their combined print and ebook nonfiction list.

An Essential Nonfiction Reading List for High School and Beyond

by Emily Temple. Posted on Flavorpill - Thursday Nov 29, 2012

Recently, we took in a fascinating article entitled “What Should Children Read?” over at the Times‘ Opinionator. In it, Sara Mosle briefly outlines elements of the new Common Core State Standards, contentious national curriculum guidelines which will begin to be implemented in public schools in 2014, and takes a look at some of the arguments over the new standards, suggesting that part of the problem is that high school English curriculums are often lacking in good narrative nonfiction that appeals to teenagers. Inspired by this question of what high school kids should be reading, we’ve put together an essential reading list of narrative nonfiction and memoir, from the canonic to the contemporary, that we think would benefit anyone under (and let’s face it, over) the age of 18. Click through to see our picks, and since every high schooler, past or present, should read way more than ten nonfiction books in their lives, be sure to add your own favorites to our list in the comments.

Maus I & II, Art Spiegelman
You can keep your Anne Franks and your Nights — while those are excellent and canonical Holocaust texts, nothing brought the horror to life for us as teenagers better than Spiegelman’s postmodern graphic novel, which was, rather appropriately, the first graphic novel ever to win a Pulitzer prize. Part of the story’s power is that it isn’t limited to Nazi aggression and World War II, but focuses on the way families relate, Spiegelman’s relationship with his father in particular, showing trauma on both a minor and maximalist scale.

More at Flavorpill

GIVEAWAY from Audrey Eclectic

I'm so happy to introduce you to my Mystery Guest today:  "Audrey Eclectic" folk-artist and fellow blogger, Heather Sleightholm.  She has partnered with me for my December Giveaway (more about that in a minute).

Let's hear it for social networking!
Through someone's Scandinavian Pinterest Board, I discovered Heather's beautiful artwork and, eventually, her thoughtful, meandering blog and lovely Etsy shop, both named Audrey Eclectic (after her young daughter, Audrey).

Audrey Eclectic, "God Jul Sisters"

After several conversations on Facebook and visiting each other's blogs, we gleefully discovered that we share many similar interests - Russia, iconography, all things Swedish (especially Tomte and St. Lucia), and books (especially those by Tasha Tudor and Jane Austen), to name a few.

Audrey Eclectic, "St. Lucia"

Before I tell you about our Giveaway, I thought I'd ask Heather some questions...

source

What were some of your favorite children's books, growing up; and what are a couple of your daughter's favorites now? 
Growing up I really loved books about ‘old timey days.’ The American Girl Dolls books were favorites of mine (I had Kirsten, which is probably where my love of Sweden comes from!) and I also loved the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My daughter is a book lover as well, and I can’t wait for her to start reading on her own! Right now her taste in books is really wide-ranging—she loves books by Lane Smith (John, Paul, George and Ben and Grandpa Green) as well as fairytales like Cinderella and she also likes the book The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren.

[Note to my readers, Lane Smith's books and illustrations are great - visit his website here.  Not to be missed: Princess Hyacinth, The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated]

When did you realize that you loved to draw/paint? Why folk art?
Drawing and painting has always been a part of me. I can’t remember not doing it! I drew all over furniture as a child, painted rocks as ‘paper weights’ to sell in my mom’s garage sales, and took art classes all through school and college. To me, making art is my ‘happy place.’ It’s almost like a source of meditation. My mind becomes quiet and calm when I’m painting or drawing. My focus on folk art came about gradually as I tried different types of painting. When I first started selling pieces here and there as an adult, they were actually watercolor paintings. Then I started getting more into collage and mixed media, so I moved more into acrylic paints. As mixed media became more prevalent though, I decided I wanted to move onto something that was more unique to me, and decided to move toward acrylic painting without the collage element, and the style that came most natural to me was a more folksy, naïve art style. I really enjoy Americana and European folk art, specifically Scandinavian folk art, so that is another draw to Sweden for me! So it’s been a bit of an evolution, and I hope that I keep trying new things and improving, although I think what I’m doing now (folk art) suits my personality and skills the best!

Audrey Eclectic "God Jul Tomtes"

Are you Swedish?
As far as I know I am NOT Swedish. Can you believe that!? Well, surely there’s some Swede in there somewhere—I’ve done a lot of research on ancestry.com and haven’t been able to find the actual point in which a family member got on a boat and came to America--- seems we’ve been here since about the beginning! My maiden name was Van Winkle, which is Dutch in origin. There’s also a healthy strain of English and a bit of German in my background. My married name is Sleightholm--- which comes out of North Yorkshire, UK (there’s a Sleightholme Moor there). However, some of my family research into that side of the family leads me to believe that “Sleightholm” (which sounds Scandinavian, doesn’t it?) might have been a name created by Viking settlers in Britain. So perhaps…in a very round about way hundreds of years ago….there’s a dash of Scandinavian in my background!

So - on to the Giveaway.  Heather will send a lucky someone this beautiful set of 6 (six) "God Jul" postcards and envelopes.  

All you need to do to enter the Giveaway is to leave a comment here, or "like" or comment on the link to this post on my Good Books Facebook Page.  
My December Giveaway ends tomorrow, December 1st, at 11:00 a.m. (PST).  Winner will be chosen randomly and announced at noon (PST), Saturday, December 1, 2012. Giveaway over 12/1/12
And remember: you can visit the Audrey Eclectic Etsy Shop to see more of Heather's art - including her unique prints, calendars, and dolls.  Isn't her artwork stunning??  What's your favorite?

How To Submit Your Work To Random House’s New Digital Imprints

By Jason Boog on Galley Cat, November 29, 2012 

Random House has released writer guidelines for four digital imprints, seeking submissions from romance, new adult, mystery, thriller, science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.
Follow these individual imprint links to submit your manuscript: Loveswept (romance & women’s fiction), Alibi (mystery & suspense), Hydra (sci-fi, fantasy & horror), Flirt (new adult). There is no official word count, but the editors are looking for both shorter submissions that range between 15,000 and 30,000 words and longer works that range between 40,000 and 60,000 words. Here’s more from the publisher:

You may present any manuscript in which you control exclusive copyright. We are open to previously-published manuscripts as long as the submitting author now controls all electronic and print publishing rights. Please submit the entire query form at the link below. If we are interested in considering your full manuscript, you will be contacted with further submission instructions. We make every effort to respond to submission inquiries within 2-4 weeks after submission of the submission query form; please do not resubmit previously submitted queries, as this may create delays.