BTW News Briefs

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie Next Read for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0

On December 4, the Oprah Winfrey Network and O, The Oprah Magazine announced the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis (Knopf), saying: “In her extraordinary debut, Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one indomitable heroine (Hattie) and her unforgettable family. The novel has earned starred pre-publication reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist.”

“The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away,” said OWN CEO Oprah Winfrey. “I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me in quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison.”

Special Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 digital editions of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie include exclusive content such as a reader’s guide and Winfrey’s personal notes on her favorite passages.

Mystery Writers of America Announces 2013 Award Recipients

Ken Follett and Margaret Maron have been chosen as this year’s Grand Masters by Mystery Writers of America (MWA). The award, created to recognize the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing, acknowledges important contributions to the genre, as well as a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. The awards will be presented at the Edgar Awards Banquet, to be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Thursday, May 2, 2013.

2013 Raven Awards, recognizing outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing, will be presented to Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, in San Diego and Redondo Beach, California, and Oline Cogdill, mystery columnist for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The 2013 Ellery Queen Award will be given to Johnny Temple, founder and editor of Akashic Books. The Ellery Queen award is given to editors or publishers who have distinguished themselves by their generous and wide-ranging support of the genre.

Regnery Names Mark Bloomfield Director of Sales

This week, Regnery Publishing named Mark Bloomfield as the company’s new director of sales.
 
Bloomfield spent the last eight years as associate publisher of the Harvard Business School Press. Prior to that, he was a divisional vice president at Random House, where he worked for 20 years.

Bloomfield will oversee the sales operations for Regnery and Regnery History, as well as the children’s imprints Regnery Kids and Little Patriot Press.

Open Road Partners With Ingram for Digital Distribution Service

Open Road Integrated Media has announced the formation of a new full-service digital distribution service that will offer published authors, agents, and independent publishers the ability to digitize their entire catalogues of published books, produce e-books, and distribute them through a broad distribution platform. The new service will be powered by Ingram Content Group and will launch in January 2013. 

Open Road Distribution is targeting independent published authors who want to manage the distribution of their e-books; literary agencies and independent agents with large catalogs of backlist books, who want to offer a distribution service for all of their authors; and independent publishers who want to digitize, format, and distribute their content. Print-on-demand services will also be available for all titles.