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Publishing

By Drew Grant 4/15 2:26pm

Publishing

David Zinczenko, fitness guru. (Getty Images)

Why David Zinczenko Deserves That Multimillion Dollar Book Deal With Random House Along With His Own Imprint

David Zinczenko, former Rodale Executive and EIC of Men’s Health, just signed a deal with Random House which the publisher is calling “unprecedented in scope.”

Not only will Mr. Zinczenko, BFF of Dan Abrams and author of the hugely succesful series Eat This, Not That, be penning new titles for a Random House imprint under his new contract, but will be getting his own, separate imprint as well, along with a publishing partnership for his new company’s titles, and, oh yeah, a swoonworthy amount of cash. And guess what? He’s totally worth it. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 2/08 1:26pm

Publishing

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Macmillan Settles With the Department of Justice on E-Book Pricing

Macmillan, the last publishing house holdout, announced today that it will settle with the Department of Justice in the e-book pricing case. In the lawsuit, the DOJ accused the major publishers and Apple of conspiring to set e-book prices.

“We settled because the potential penalties became too high to risk even the possibility of an unfavorable outcome,” CEO John Sargent said in an email announcement that went out this morning to the publishing community. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 10/29/12 4:29am

Publishing

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Penguin and Random House to Merge and Become Penguin Random House

Publishing houses Penguin and Random House will combine forces and become Penguin Random House, Penguin announced this morning. The move comes after rumors of merger talks between Penguin’s parent company, Pearson, and Random House’s parent company, Bertlesmann, leaked last week. Pearson then acknowledged that there were ongoing discussions about merging the two publishing houses.

People in the book industry spent the ensuing days speculating about (among other things) whether a combined publishing company would be called “Random Penguin” or “Penguin House.” The combined company will be called “Penguin Random House.” Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 5:12pm

Publishing

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Simon & Schuster Reshuffles, Lays Off Editors at Free Press Imprint

Publisher Simon & Schuster announced a major restructuring plan that will bring together all its imprints into four groups. As part of the new plan, Free Press will be folded into the Simon & Schuster group and editors have been laid off. Free Press publisher Martha Levin and Free Press editor-in-chief Dominick Anfuso are out, as are editors Webster Younce, Emily Loose and Alessandra Bastagli.

“Unfortunately, as result of this reorganization, several positions within the group have been eliminated,” S&S publisher Jonathan Karp wrote in an internal email about the reorganization. “On behalf of everyone who has worked with them, I want to thank our departing colleagues for their efforts on behalf of our authors and contributions to our success.” Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 10/16/12 9:58am

Publishing

Johnny Depp, at Barnes and Noble Union Square (Getty Images)

Johnny Depp to Launch Harper Imprint

Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, has announced its partnership with actor Johnny Depp for a new publishing imprint, the predictably Goth-ishly named Infinitum Nihil. The imprint, Latin for “Hasn’t been edgy since Ed Wood,” is to publish Douglas Brinkley’s Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan. Mr. Brinkley, a noted historian, profiled Mr. Depp for Vanity Fair in 2009. Mr. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/19/12 2:42pm

Publishing

(photo by Martha Kaplan)

Knopf Remembers Longtime Editor Ashbel Green

Last night, legendary Knopf editor Ashbel Green died while at dinner with his wife, Elizabeth Osha, and friends near their Stonington, Conn., home. He was 84.

Mr. Green, who was known as “Ash,” started working at the publishing house in 1964 and went on to edit over 500 books by a stable of well-known authors, political figures and journalists such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Vaclav Havel, George H.W. Bush and Walter Cronkite.

To many in the publishing world, Mr. Green was one of the last of the old-style gentleman editors.

“You could hear his typewriter from anywhere on the floor,” said Paul Bogaards, director of publicity at Knopf. “He was a classic editor with a red pencil.”

“He was an editor’s editor,” said Knopf editor Gary Fisketjon. “Those kind of people are rare in any generation. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 7/03/12 4:45pm

Publishing

Mr. Bowden at Tribeca Film Festival in 2003.

Happy Birthday, America! Mark Bowden Got You a Book About Killing Osama Bin Laden

In a bit of holiday-appropriate news, The Atlantic national correspondent Mark Bowden has sold a book about the death of Osama Bin Laden to Morgan Entrekin at Grove/Atlantic, reports Publishers Marketplace. The book, to be published in October 2012, is “an account of the Bin Laden strike written in Bowden’s signature ‘you are there’ style, going inside the war room as decisions were made and onto the ground as directives were executed.” It’s titled The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden. Read More