Books

From this month all new eBooks from the publishing houses of the Mondadori Group– Mondadori, Rizzoli, Einaudi, Piemme, Sperling & Kupfer e Mondadori Electa – will be published in the new ePub3 format.

The Mondadori Group is the first Italian publisher to adopt the most recent international standard for all new digital publications, confirming its commitment to the development of digital publishing and the innovations demanded by the market.

The updating project was completed after a detailed analysis of the new format aimed at further improving the reading experience to make it more inclusive. In fact, the technical specifications of ePub3 make it possible to produce eBook with improved accessibility and graphics.

The new format facilitates the publication of digital text with a higher level of accessibility thanks to more precise metadata, content marking and image description, giving the visually impaired a much wider range of books that can be used with adaptive technologies, such as special keyboards and voice-overs.

This is a continuation of the Mondadori Group’s commitment to extend access to reading for people with sight impairments, to which the company has always paid special attention, also through collaboration with institutions such as the Fondazione LIA and the Fondazione Paideia on ambitious inclusion projects, such as the catalogue of accessible Italian books (https://catalogo.fondazionelia.org) and the digital books in AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication ) project ILIBRIPERTUTTI (https://www.ilibripertutti.it).

Entirely retro-compatible with all reading devices and apps, the ePub3 format will also make it possible to more easily produce books with complex graphics and augmented features, such as multi-media, interactivity and animations.

The Mondadori Group is the market leader in trade books with a total market share of 25.7%. Since 2010 Group has published the majority of its editorial products also as eBooks, with a catalogue of around 20,000 titles.

This year again we will attend the Frankfurt Book Fair, at its 71st edition from 16 to 20 October with our publishing houses and imprints.

It is the most prestigious European event in the field of book publishing.

Mondadori, Rizzoli, Einaudi, Sperling&Kupfer, Mondadori Electa and Piemme will be in Hall 5.0, stand C56.

Segrate, 20 May 2019 – From today, Igor Pagani will taking over editorial responsibility for nonfiction at the Mondadori publishing house, reporting to the editorial director Francesco Anzelmo. Born in Como in 1979, Igor Pagani has a degree in the History of Contemporary Philosophy from the University of Milan, with a dissertation on the Italian editions of the works of Nietzsche. After a Masters promoted by the Mondadori Foundation, he joined the publishing house in 2007 in the Classics department. He completed his training in the Foreign Fiction department  and in 2010 he moved to the Oscar paperbacks department, as editor of nonfiction series. In 2012 he moved again to the Nonfiction Department, first as editor for Italian titles and then, in 2016, also for foreign titles . As well as the Nonfiction Department the other areas  reporting to Francesco Anzelmo are  Italian and Foreign Fiction, Miscellaneous Books, Young Adult Fiction, Paperbacks and Classics.

The Mondadori publishing house is reinforcing the editorial team for foreign fiction led by editorial director Donatella Minuto with the addition of Chiara Scaglioni and Edoardo Brugnatelli.

Chiara Scaglioni, born in Milan in 1972, graduated in Modern Literature from the Catholic University of Milan. She joined the Mondadori publishing house in 2000, where she worked firstly in communications before moving to publishing (miscellaneous books), going on to become Senior Editor of Foreign Fiction. She returns to Mondadori after 5 years at HarperCollins, where she was in charge of foreign fiction and non-fiction.

Edoardo Brugnatelli, born in Milan in 1956, graduated in the History of Philosophy from the University of Pavia and joined Mondadori in 1990. After working on the Comunità editions and foreign non-fiction, in 1998 he created and ran the Strade Blu series, where he published, among others, Michael Moore, Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palaniuk and David Sedaris. Over the last five years Brugnatelli has worked on the social reading platform Anobii.

The foreign fiction department, like Italian fiction, non-fiction, miscellaneous and young adult books, paperbacks and the classics, reports to Francesco Anzelmo, editorial director of the Mondadori publishing house.

June 1929 saw the publication of the first four detective thrillers with a brand new yellow cover design and signalled the beginning of one of the longest-lasting series in international publishing. Since then, in Italy, the only country in the world that uses the term “gialli” (yellow), to describe an entire literary genre, precisely because of the colour of the original covers that not only marked an era, but that continues to the present day.

As Camilleri himself puts it: “The mystery genre is called “giallo” only in Italy. But iit is yellow not for the colour in itself but as a symbol, reflected in the colour of the book covers.”  

The first authors to be published in 1929 were: S.S. Van Dine with La strana morte del signor Benson, E. Wallace with L’uomo dai due corpi, R.L. Stevenson with Il club dei suicidi, and A.K. Green with Il mistero delle due cugine.

And they were an immediate success, with sales of over 50,000 copies in the first month. Since then, for 90 years “Il Giallo Mondadori” has continued to come out on newsstands and has published some 3,200 instalments in the regular series, plus an additional 1,400 Classics and another thousand Special editions and extra issues. An authentic world record, that now other regular series has ever matched. After 90 years “Il Giallo Mondadori” still publishes 40 title per year in five active series, with sales of around 150,000 copies.

Among the great names èublished in Italy thanks to the “Gialli Mondadori” are some of the pillars of this literary genre, including: Agatha Christie with Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple; Ellery Queen with the investigator of the same name; Rex Stout with Nero Wolfe; Erle Stanley Gardner with Perry Mason; S.S. Van Dine with Philo Vance; Ed McBain with the 87^th Precinct; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, as well as Dashiell Hammett, the creator of Sam Spade, Raymond Chandler, Ruth Rendell, James Hadley Chase and Mike Spillane. Meanwhile, Italian authors include Ezio D’Errico and Giorgio Scerbanenco, Carlo Lucarelli and Loriano Macchiavelli, Danila Comastri Montanari, Sandrone Dazieri and many more.

Now, to celebrate this anniversary, a number of new titles by well-known Italian authors of “gialli” will appear in bookstores, first of all by Anrea Camilleri and followed by, among others, Francesco Caringella, Gianrico Carofiglio, Pietro Colaprico, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Marcello Simoni, Valerio Varesi, alongside reprints of some of the “classics” of the series.

The first will appear on 26 Marzo and is an unpublished novel by Andrea Camilleri entitled Km 123 and as reprints, in a new format and with a new design, by Fruttero&Lucentini – La donna della domenica, Renato Olivieri – Il caso Kodra, Edgar Wallace – I quattro giusti, S.S. Van Dine – La strana morte del signor Benson. Other new titles and reprints will follow later in the year.

Km 123 by Andrea Camilleri

It all begins with a switched off mobile phone. The caller is Ester, the non-responder is Giulio, who has ended up in hospital after a bad crash on the Via Aurelia.

The phone is turned on again by Giuditta, Giulio’s wife, who, obviously, knows nothing about Ester. It could be the beginning of a romantic story, but the tone of this story is decidedly different: in fact, a witness claims that Guilio’s crash wasn’t an accident at all, but a murder attempt, and the investigation passes from the insurance company to the police department…

Andrea Camilleri, the undisputed Italian master of the genre, gives us a mix up that is full of both humour and mystery, in which all of the characters – and we as readers too –  are convinced that they have guessed the truth.

Marta Treves from today will take over editorial responsibility for miscellaneous books and Rizzoli Lizard at the Rizzoli publishing house, reporting to the director Massimo Turchetta.

Born in Milan in 1976, after a Master’s degree in Scientific Communication and a traineeship in journalism, she joined Mondadori in 2005 as copy editor for foreign fiction and miscellaneous books. She went on to become editor of Mondadori’s children’s books and then also miscellaneous books, and after a brief spell with Rizzoli as editor of foreign fiction, she returned to Mondadori, where, since 2015 she has been editorial director of foreign fiction and young adult fiction.

Donatella Minuto is the new head of foreign fiction at Mondadori.

At the same time, Alberto Gelsumini, already editorial director of miscellaneous books, will also head up Young  Adult fiction; both reporting to Francesco Anzelmo, the editorial director of the publishing house.

Donatella Minuto was born in Milan in 1971 and has a degree in modern literature from the University of Milan. Her publishing experience began at  Fazi, Bur and Il Saggiatore, and from 2010 to 2017 she worked at Giunti Editore, where she became head of Italian and foreign fiction. She joined Mondadori at the end of 2017 as senior editor of foreign fiction.

Alberto Gelsumini was born in Prato in 1978 and has a degree in the science of communication from the University of Bologna. Having begun his career in journalism and television, he joined Mondadori in 2003 as an editor. Since 2015 he has been the editorial director of miscellaneous books.

Oxford University Press and Rizzoli Education have signed a new exclusive agreement for the distribution in Italy of books for the teaching of English published by the historic British publisher.

The new five-year contract will allow the two players in the educational publishing sector to renew a strong partnership that has been consolidated over many years.

Together, Oxford University Press and Rizzoli Education have been the protagonists of many successes, thanks to which they continue to look to the future and its challenges with clear objectives, great vitality and a reinforced spirit of collaboration.

Through this partnership Oxford University Press celebrates more than forty years of activity in Italy. The first exclusive distribution agreement dates from 1978 with La Nuova Italia Editrice, the historic publishing house, that today is a Rizzoli Education brand.

Since then Oxford University Press has reached the top of the Italian market, where it is the leader in both primary and secondary schools, with high quality books that are adopted by thousands of English teachers.

A key factor in this success has been the commitment to producing books specifically developed for Italian schools and brought to market thanks to the partnership with Rizzoli Education.

This close partnership has given to schools a number of successful titles. in addition to TreeTops, High Five and Horizons, best sellers with sales of well over two million copies, as well as the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (published in 1948 and now in its ninth edition) used by hundreds of millions of students around the world, and Headway, the international course, also distributed in Italy by Rizzoli Education, which, since its publication in 1986, has been used by millions of students around the world to study English.

Oxford University Press is a department of the prestigious University of Oxford. For more than 500 years it has shared innovative ideas and thought through the publication of books that promote the university’s mission to pursue excellence in knowledge, research and education.  

Rizzoli Education operates in the educational publishing sector at all levels, from primary to secondary schools, with printed and digital products and technology and services for both teachers and students.

Fiammetta Giorgi has been appointed the new Head of Rights for Mondadori.

After completing a degree in Classics, she has always worked in publishing and joined Mondadori in 2002. She held the position of Editor-in-Chief for Children’s Books from 2005 to 2014. After having worked as a translator and editor of Young Adult Fiction Books for Giunti and Rizzoli, she is back in Mondadori to lead the foreign rights team. She reports to the General Manager, Giorgio Cavagnino.

Claudia Scheu, who’s held the Foreign Rights office for over 30 years, will be acting as a consultant for the publisher.

Giovanni Francesio will today take over editorial responsibility for Italian Fiction at the Mondadori publishing house, reporting directly to the editorial director Francesco Anzelmo.

In addition to Italian fiction, the other areas that report to Anzelmo are Foreign Fiction and Young Adults, Non Fiction, Miscellaneous, Paperbacks and Classics.

Born in Mantua in 1970, Giovanni Francesio graduated from the University of Bologna with a dissertation on Leopardi and Tasso.
He began his publishing career at Piemme in 2004 as editorial director, subsequently covering other roles in the company, including general manager.
From 2012 to 2014 he was editorial director of Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer, while, from 2015 to 2018 Francesio has been editorial director of Frassinelli, a position that will be given ad interim to Stefano Peccatori, general manager of Sperling & Kupfer, Piemme and Mondadori Electa.