Random House India has made two appointments, with Meru Gokhale joining from Penguin Books India as editorial director, Vintage India, and Milee Ashwarya promoted to editorial director, Ebury India.
Add a Comment
Random House Book Publishers has acquired the multi-language rights to publish a memoir by Salman Rushdie in each of its territories across the world.
Markus Dohle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Random House Book Publishers worldwide, announced the acquisition of hardcover, paperback, audio, and e-book rights for English- German- and Spanish-language editions of the work-in-progress from Andrew Wylie, President of The Wylie Agency, the author’s agent.
Rushdie expects to complete his manuscript by the end of next year for publication by Random House in 2012.
Dohle brought together the book publishing and editorial leadership from each of the company’s international divisions for this acquisition, which is unprecedented in scope for the world’s largest trade book publisher.
Random House is planning a simultaneous publication of the memoir in each of its territories in physical, digital and audio formats.
‘This extraordinary work merits an extraordinary publishing effort on our part,’ said Mr Dohle.
‘It offers Random House, on behalf of one of the world’s great writers, the opportunity to harness our tremendous international creative and logistic capabilities, which will support the focused, customized publishing campaigns each of our publishers will execute locally.’
Random House will publish the memoir in India, the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, in English; Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, in German; and Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay, in Spanish.
The Random House and Knopf Canada imprints are the respective US and Canadian publishers.
In the UK, the book will be published by the Random House UK imprint Jonathan Cape; in Germany, by the Verlagsgruppe Random House imprint C Bertelsmann; and in Spain and Latin America, by Random House Mondadori’s Literatura Mondadori.
Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s most revered and honoured writers.
His memoir will be an evocation of his public and personal life: his outsider’s experience at British public school and Cambridge; his evolution as a writer; his relationships as a husband and a father; and his years in hiding following the fatwah issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988.
Rushdie currently is working on the film version of his classic novel Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981.
Chiki Sarkar, editor-in-chief of Random House India, said, ‘I and the entire team at Random House India are delighted to be self-publishing Salman Rushdie’s memoirs and welcoming him to Random House India. We believe it will be a truly important book of a pivotal moment, and one of the great books on the act of writing.’
Rushdie observed, ‘I’m absolutely delighted that Random House, my longtime book publishers, has agreed to publish my memoir in the English-language world, as well as in Spanish, and for the first time in German. I couldn’t wish for a better home for my work. I have waited a long time to write this memoir, until I felt I was ready to do it. I’m ready now.’
Rushdie’s latest work of fiction, Luka and the Fire of Life, has just been released in India on October 15th. Dohle added, ‘It is a privilege for Random House to publish a book of this remarkable memoir by Salman Rushdie, whose courage and commitment to freedom of expression is matched only by his uns
Add a Comment
