Amazon Publishing to Open European Division

By Alex Mutter

Jeff Belle, Vice President of Amazon Publishing, has announced that Amazon will begin building a European publishing division in 2013.

The division will focus on publishing titles in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, with its homebase in Luxembourg; Vicky Griffith, currently the head of Amazon’s West Coast Group, will transfer there in January and begin hiring editors and other team members.

The news came today via a letter sent by Belle to literary agents, in which he also announced some minor restructuring of Amazon Publishing’s US operations that will take place in the wake of Griffith’s departure to Europe. Larry Kirshbaum, currently of the East Coast Group, will also oversee Amazon’s Seattle-based imprints and Amazon’s children’s publishing division, with Daphne Durham becoming editor-in-chief of all of Amazon’s adult imprints.

“We have much work to do,” wrote Belle in the letter he sent to agents, “and many challenges ahead of us, and we remain relentlessly focused on providing the best possible publishing experience for your authors.”

Via The Bookseller