Penguin

Farrar, Straus and Giroux online marketing manager Ryan Chapman will serve as the new marketing director at Penguin Press.

He starts on April 23rd. Chapman blogged about the new position:

Penguin Press has a great list of authors (*cough* Zadie Smith Clay Shirky Nate Silver Thomas Pynchon *cough*) and a truly impressive roster of editors and publicists. I’m looking forward to painting with a bigger brush, as it were, and launching some nonfiction-driven pilot projects. If you see me at happy hour in the next few weeks, I apologize in advance for my nerdy enthusiasm. (And be sure to keep an eye out for some big Penguin Press news in the next month or two.) (Via Sarah Weinman)

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Penguin Books associate publisher Stephen Morrison will serve as the new publisher at Macmillan’s Picador Books. He starts on April 30th.

Henry Holt publisher Stephen Rubin and FSG publisher Jonathan Galassi welcomed the new editor in a memo: “Stephen brings exactly the right combination of enthusiasm, fortitude, resourcefulness and experience to grow Picador into a dynamic division committed to publishing a wide range of paperback reprints, paperback originals , hardcover works of fiction and nonfiction and digital-only publications.  Stephen’s mandate is to make Picador one of the industry’s most undaunted, aggressive marketing machines, culling books from all of Macmillan’s divisions, including St. Martins, FSG and Holt.”

Picador publisher Frances Coady departed last month in a company restructuring. Previously, Morrison served as executive editor at Bloomsbury, a senior editor at Penguin and a senior scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates.

After leaving in 2010 to work as editorial director at Penguin’s Putnam imprint, Marysue Rucci has returned to Simon & Schuster. She will now serve as editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster’s adult trade imprint.

Rucci spent 13 years at the publisher before heading to Penguin. Some of the titles on her list include Little Bee by Chris Cleave, The Spellman Files series by Lisa Lutz and The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper.

In other revolving door news, Marisa Russell will join Penguin Young Readers Group as publicity manager.

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Penguin Group (USA) has relaunched Dutton Guilt-Edged Mysteries as a digital imprint. Dutton editor-in-chief Ben Sevier will oversee the imprint.

Dutton Guilt-Edged Mysteries will publish original crime short stories and novellas as Penguin eSpecials. Every year, the imprint will publish “at least one writer” from Book Country‘s online fiction workshop community.

Two projects in the works include Murder in Mumbai, a debut novella by NPR news editor Krishnadev Calamur and an original Dismas Hardy story by prolific crime novelist John Lescroart. Follow this link for more details on submission guidelines.

Here’s more from the press release: “From 1947 to 1956, Dutton Guilt-Edged Mysteries was a pulp noir publisher that specialized in hardboiled detective fiction, including the work of noir icon Mickey Spillane, whose first seven Mike Hammer novels were published under the Guilt-Edged logo. The new program will be dedicated to publishing original crime short stories and novellas as Penguin eSpecials. The imprint will launch in Summer 2012 to coincide with the 65^th anniversary of the Guilt-Edged publication of Spillane’s first Mike Hammer novel, I, the Jury.”

Marie Lu‘s debut novel, Legend, hits the shelves tomorrow. We caught up with Lu (pictured, via) to learn more about how authors can utilize social networking tools, the writing process for the book and her views on being an Asian-American author. The highlights follow below…

Q: How did you land your book deal?
A: My agent, Kristin Nelson, first took me on for a novel that we ultimately didn’t sell. While we waited for feedback on that one, I began writing Legend. After two intense rounds of edits with Kristin, we submitted Legend to publishers in the summer of 2010, and I recall shrieking in my apartment when Kristin told me it was going to auction with six interested publishers. Legend sold to Penguin a couple of weeks later!

Q: You drew inspiration for Legend from watching a musical production of Les Miserables. During the writing process, did you consult with Victor Hugo‘s Les Miserables?
A: It’s odd–Les Miserables triggered the first flash of inspiration for Legend (a criminal versus a detective-like character), but after that, I never referred to it again. I think the story just started going in a completely different direction. I did consult Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow a few times for inspiration on how to write from the point of view of a child prodigy.

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Pippa Middleton, younger sister to the Duchess of Cambridge, has reportedly signed a £400,000 ($620,360.00) book deal with Penguin UK imprint, Michael Joseph.

According to The Telegraph, Middleton will be writing a nonfiction tome on how to host the perfect party. The not-yet-titled book will contain party ideas, stories and recipes. Middleton’s resume includes a past job in events management at Table Talk, a London-based party planning company. She currently works as an editor for an online party magazine called Party Times.

Here’s more from the article: “Ms Middleton will wait for the launch of her first book until after the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations next summer so that she is not seen to be cashing in on her royal connections. She is keen for the book to be released next year but is determined that she is not seen to be making money from her closeness to the royal family. Therefore the book is likely to be launched late next autumn, after the summer celebrations around the Queen’s Jubilee but in time for the Christmas market.”

It was only a few weeks ago that we reported that Penguin’s Molly Barton was promoted to vice president, digital publishing, business development and strategy at Penguin Group. Now we hear that the 32-year old will replace Dan Ruffino, as the group’s Global Digital Director.

Digital Book World has more: “Book Country president Molly Barton has been promoted to global digital director at Penguin Group where she will be responsible for all of the major book publisher’s digital products and will liaise with parent company Pearson on digital strategy. She starts in her new position on December 1.”

Since she began working with Penguin in May 2005, Barton has spearheaded a number of digital publishing initiatives. This includes launching Book Country, Penguin’s online community for aspiring writers which announced a new self-publishing feature today.

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In January 2012, Penguin Group’s Berkley and New American Library (NAL) divisions will launch the InterMix eBook imprint. The list will feature titles from a wide variety of genres including women’s fiction, romance, mystery and thriller and science fiction/fantasy.

The initial list includes eleven titles from Kindle Million Club member Nora Roberts. InterMix will publish eBook editions of The Cordina’s Royal Family series, The Donovan Legacy series and “several novels featuring fan favorites the O’Hurleys”–all previously unavailable as eBooks.

Here’s more from the release: “In February, InterMix will revive the renowned Signet Regency line with the release of six popular romance titles that have never before been published as eBooks. Signet Regency, a popular line of Regency-era romances, began in the mid-1970s and became the leading publisher of Regency romances.  Three additional Regency-set romances will be released each following month throughout 2012.  And later in the year, InterMix will bring back four novels in the classic Guinevere Jones seriesfrom bestselling writer Jayne Ann Krentz, writing as Jayne Castle, that have long been out of print and have never been available as eBooks.”

Penguin Group (USA) is honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a new promotion called Read Pink.

For the promotion, Penguin has selected eight novels for a special edition print run. The new books include a special “Read Pink” on the cover and additional information about breast cancer inside the book.

The novels for this year include titles by Nora Roberts, Catherine Anderson, Christina Dodd, Jillian Hunter, Lynn Kurland, Amanda Quick, Bertrice Small and Lauren Willig. Follow this link to check out Read Pink books.

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Charlaine Harris has landed a book deal with Penguin Group (USA)’s Ace Books imprint for her new graphic novel trilogy, Cemetery Girl. The first book will be released in 2013.

Comic artist Don Kramer will illustrate. As we previously noted, this project is a collaboration between Harris and writer Christopher Golden

Harris had this statement in the release: “I’d had the bones of the plot for Cemetery Girl in my head for a year when Chris suggested I re-imagine it as a graphic novel. Suddenly, the project made a lot more sense. Since Chris has more experience in the graphic novel field than I do, we agreed to team up for my first-ever collaboration. This is an exciting venture for both of us.”

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