Amazon Beefs Up Its Publishing Division

Once again, the divine Sarah (Weinman, that is, not Bernhardt) is right on top of this development, writing at Publishers Lunch:

Amazon announced to a group of agents Sunday night that Larry Kirshbaum will leave agenting and return to publishing, serving as VP and publisher for Amazon Publishing’s New York office, effective immediately (officially starting July 5). Kirshbaum, who celebrates his birthday on Monday, says, “On my sixty-seventh birthday, I’m reinventing myself.”

Reporting to Amazon’s Jeff Belle, Kirshbaum is charged with building something that will look like a general trade publisher, with “a specific focus on non-fiction, but also literary fiction,” Belle says, since Amazon has already been rolling out other imprints focused on genre fiction. …

Kirshbaum tells us “the aim is not just to produce books that work, but also to innovate. What really excites me about this opportunity is the idea that we can help build electronic publishing and digital distribution as an even bigger force in publishing.” …

A launch date, target title counts and even a name for the new line are among the many details still to be resolved. “We have a lot of work to do,” Belle said. …

Hmm. Do you think Kirshbaum & Co. might be interested in a mystery novel about a senile detective named Al Zymer?