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May 22 – May 29, 2011 Edition Former Time Warner CEO Heads Amazon Publishing
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/ May 23, 2011Larry Kirshbaum, former Time Warner Book Group CEO and current agent, has been named v-p of publishing for Amazon Publishings New York office, according to Publishers Weekly. Kirshbaum will come on board July 5, though the appointment is immediately effective. Amazon has been conducting an extensive search for a new publishing veteran to head the New York office.
Amazon Publishing head Jeff Belle, Kirshbaum said in a memo to PW that Kirshbaum will build out Amazons New York publishing team, launching new imprints under the Amazon Publishing umbrella, with a focus on acquiring the highest quality books in literary and commercial fiction, business and general non-fiction.
Kirshbaum retired from TWBG at the end of 2005, the year he was named PW Person of the Year for overseeing a record year for the company. Since leaving TWBG he has been head of LJK Literary Management. During his career at TWBG Kirshbaum was regarded as an innovator and a top marketer, particularly of genre fiction. He launched one of the industrys first digital publishing divisions, iPublish, but closed the group after it failed to gain traction in a marketplace very different from today’s digital market.
