Succession

Ingram Content Group has named Steph Opitz director of publishing services at Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, where she will take the reins from longtime president Julie Schaper, who is retiring in June after more than three decades with the company. Macmillan has found its first chief technology officer in Darryll Colthrust, currently co-CEO of a Holtzbrinck-backed tech firm developing AI-driven services for publishers. Seven Seas Entertainment, one of the largest independent English-language manga publishers, is being acquired by Japan’s Media Do in an $80 million deal. In a threat to the freedom to read nationwide, a new bill in the House of Representatives aims to deny funding to public schools across the country that make “sexually oriented material” available to students. The star-studded cast for the upcoming film adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s novel Three Incestuous Sisters, featuring a script cowritten by Ottessa Moshfegh, has been announced by Deadline. The New York Times’ Amanda Hess considers the ramifications of “smut” taking over our bookshelves and screens, from Heated Rivalry to Wuthering Heights. Meanwhile, Lily Meyers at the Atlantic argues that while the romance genre embraces its “spicy” side, realist novels are largely eschewing depictions of sex. And sci-fi and horror author Dan Simmons has died at 77.