BTW News Briefs

Here’s what’s happening this week in the book industry:

After the National Museum of Brazil lost most of its 20 million-artifact collection in a fire last September, upwards of 50 member publishers of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) are working to donate books to the institution. Members from North America, the West Indies, Europe, and Australia are replacing in-print books based on the museum library catalog and many have also pledged to donate additional titles that weren’t already part of the museum library’s 500,000-book collection.

Mystery publisher and bookseller Otto Penzler and Pegasus Books are partnering to create Scarlet, a new psychological suspense publishing company. Starting in winter 2020, Scarlet will release six to eight novels its first year and will publish titles “with primarily female readers in mind.” Scarlet will be distributed by Norton, which already distributes both Penzler Publishing and Pegasus Books.

David Zwirner Books has launched a partnership with Simon & Schuster, which will make them the first art gallery to have mainstream distribution for its books in North America. Founded in 2014, David Zwirner Books has locations in New York, London, and Hong Kong and previously distributed its offerings through Artbook/D.A.P.

NetGalley has launched NetGalley Advanced, a “premier level of service” intended to help publishers track and analyze NetGalley trends across divisions. Every existing feature on the platform will continue to be available, but all future development of NetGalley will happen in NetGalley Advanced.

Maya Baran has joined the Viking/Penguin publicity department as publicity manager. Prior to this position she most recently assisted Broadside PR and The Countryman Press/Norton.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it has “realigned” its sales team, promoting Ed Spade to vice president of national accounts, trade sales and strategy. Spade will co-lead the sales team with Colleen Murphy, vice president of special markets, mass market, and product development. As a result, Maire Gorman, senior vice president of trade sales, has left the company. In addition, Christine Sikule has joined the company in the newly created role of director of sales analytics.

The hedge fund company Man Group has announced that it will no longer be sponsoring The Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most important literary award. Man Group has sponsored the Booker prize since 2002 and the Man Booker international prize since it began in 2005. The Booker Prize Foundation is currently searching for a new sponsor, but officials say the prizes will be given out as normal this year.

The PBS NewsHour-New York Times Now Read This Book Club has chosen The Wife by Meg Wolitzer (Scribner) as its February pick.

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