Jason Rekulak has been promoted to publisher of Quirk Books. In addition, Brett Cohen has been promoted to president at Quirk Books and David Borgenicht will take the role of Quirk Productions CEO.

Rekulak acquired and edited many of the house’s bestsellers including the mash-up title Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the young adult novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

A number of other publishing organizations have also announced promotions this week…

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Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently, we spoke with award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Betsy Snyder.

In the past, Snyder (pictured, via) has published two picture books that feature haikus, Haiku Baby and I Haiku You. She has been celebrating poetry by tweeting one haiku a day all month long. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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Deb Futter has been named publisher of Grand Central Publishing’s Twelve imprint. Futter will continue to serve as EIC of Grand Central Publishing. Current publisher Cary Goldstein will depart.

Other publishers made changes as well this week. Maha Kahlil jumps from Hyperion, where she served as director of sales, to her new role as marketing director for the Crown Publishing Group’s Clarkson Potter, Potter Style, Potter Craft, Watson-Guptill, and Amphoto imprints.

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The European Commission has approved the merger of Penguin and Random.

The Commission ruled that they were not concerned with unfair competition, “because the merged entity will continue to face several strong competitors.” This was one of the major hurdles facing the merger of the publishing companies owned by Bertelsmann and Pearson. Here’s more from the release: 

The Commission assessed the impact of the transaction on the upstream markets for the acquisition of authors’ rights for English language books in the European Economic Area (EEA) and worldwide, and on the downstream markets for the sale of English language books to dealers in the EEA, in particular in the UK and Ireland. The Commission found that on both types of markets the new entity Penguin Random House will continue to face competition from several large and numerous small and medium sized publishers. As regards the sale of English language books, the merged entity will furthermore face a concentrated retail base, such as supermarkets for print books and large online retailers for e-books, like Amazon. In addition, the Commission’s investigation revealed no evidence that the transaction would lead to risks of coordination among publishers in relation to the acquisition of authors’ rights and the sale of English language books to dealers.

Westeros is coming to you! “Game of Thrones: The Exhibition” opens today in New York City. The video embedded above offers a sneak peek of this special exhibit.

New Yorkers have until April 3rd to drop by and check out this traveling exhibit. After this, it will go on to make stops in Sao Paolo, Amsterdam and Belfast. The Gothamist reported that visitors will encounter “Daenerys Targaryen‘s dragon eggs, the Stark family’s Winterfell costumes, and assorted weapons.”

Here’s more about the exhibit: “Presented by HBO and international partners, the exhibition is free to the public and focuses on key characters from five of the noble houses: Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon and Greyjoy. It will showcase a trove of more than 70 original artifacts from Seasons 1 and 2, plus select pieces from this year’s new season.”

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The Department of Justice has closed its investigation into the merger of Penguin and Random House, removing a major roadblock in the merger process. The publishers hope to close the deal by the second half of the year.

Parent companies Pearson and Bertelsmann revealed the news in a statement, noting that the DOJ ended the investigation “without conditions.” Nevertheless, the merger still faces scrutiny from other groups. Here’s more from the release:

The proposed merger is currently under review by the European Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau and various other antitrust authorities around the world. Pearson and Bertelsmann continue to expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2013, after all necessary approvals have been received. Following completion, Bertelsmann will own 53% and Pearson 47% of Penguin Random House. It will encompass all of Random House and Penguin Group’s publishing units in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, as well as Penguin’s operations in China and Random House’s publishers in Spain and Latin America.

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.

 

The Crown Publishing Group at Random House has acquired a new book about Hillary Rodham Clinton written by political reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. The book will look at Clinton’s recent career as Secretary of State.

Here is more from the press release: “Tentatively titled HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, Allen’s and Parnes’s book will take readers behind the scenes during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State and shed new light on the inner workings of the Clinton Machine in the run-up to the 2016 election. The book will be released simultaneously as a hardcover, eBook, and Random House Audiobook.”

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor has written a memoir titled My Beloved World. Random House’s Knopf imprint will release the book on January 15, 2013.

President Barack Obama appointed Sotomayor in 2009. Following her confirmation, she became the third female and first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.

Here’s more from The Washington Post: “Sotomayor mentioned the title and the release date Friday after speaking to law students…Sotomayor told students stories about her days in law school, as a prosecutor and now as a justice. She said that many more stories about her life could be found in the book.”

Bertelsmann, the corporate parent of Random House, has purchased a 100 percent stake Random House Mondadori. Random House created the publishing house for Spain and Latin America in 2001, splitting the shares 50/50 with the Spanish publisher.

Spanish antitrust authorities still need to approve the acquisition, and the name will be changed “in the near future.” The move came one week after Random House decided to merge with Penguin next year, creating Penguin Random House.

Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe had this comment: “Bertelsmann believes in the creative and commercial potential of the book business and, by maximizing its holding in Random House Mondadori, is embracing an opportunity to significantly improve both its position in the Spanish book market and its access to the growing Spanish-language markets of Latin America.”