Archer to Succeed Gentel at HMH

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade president Gary Gentel is retiring in 2016 and will be succeeded by Ellen Archer, who was most recently president and publisher of Disney’s Hyperion Books. Archer left Hyperion in 2013, shortly after the sale of the majority of the house’s titles to the Hachette Book Group. She will start at HMH on December 7. Gentel will remain with HMH until spring 2016, helping with the executive transition.

Authors Guild, ABA, B&N Back Apple

A coalition that includes the Authors Guild, the ABA, and Barnes & Noble filed an amicus brief on December 2 that urged the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision finding Apple liable for its role in a 2010 conspiracy to fix e-book prices. In the 37-page filing, the coalition argues that Apple’s entry into the market benefited consumers. The brief states that “absent correction,” the lower court decisions against Apple “threaten to undermine the very objective of antitrust law: to ensure robust competition.”