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Executive
Moves, Book Deals and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (OCTOBER 2001)
People
Phyllis Grann’s
imminent departure from Penguin Putnam took almost
everyone aback, and unnerved more than a few long time
Putnam folks. In other PP news, Sean Moore has
left DK US, where he was VP Publisher of the
Adult division. He may be reached at 914 591-3220.
David Ford came to New York over the summer and
found himself plunging into interviews moments after
his plane landed (he has been living on St. Simon’s
Island since leaving Candlewick). He starts in
November as VP Publisher of Little, Brown Children’s,
succeeding John Keller, who will leave in the
summer of 2002. Houghton Mifflin is still searching
for a publisher, as Anita Silvey has announced
plans to retire. Speaking of children’s publishing,
David Krishock is succeeding David Yun,
who is retiring as President of Scholastic Book
Fairs. And Rosanna Hansen is leaving Weekly
Reader, where she was SVP Publisher and Editor-in-Chief,
to pursue her career as an author (she’s written 12
children’s books) and consultant. She can be reached
at rhansen149@netzero.net.
Peter Bergen, President and CEO of Weekly Reader,
left several months earlier.
Linda
Howey, most recently Publisher of NetLibrary,
has been named VP Director of Sales for National
Geographic books, which is distributed by Simon
& Schuster. Meanwhile S&S announced that
Cam Cloeter, previously VP of The Source
Information Management Co., has been named VP Distributor
Sales and Retail Marketing for S&S. He replaces
Steve Kaiser, who left to join Hearst.
Leslie
Meredith has been named Senior Editor and VP of
Free Press, reporting to Dominick Anfuso.
She was previously at Ballantine . . . . With
Brill’s Contentville shutting
its doors and its fifteen employees laid off, Kori
Anderson will move to Inside.com, reporting
to Executive Editor Sara Nelson. . . . Jane
Rosenman was named Executive Editor of St. Martin’s.
She was previously Executive Editor of Scribner .
. . . John Silbersack, previously SVP and Publishing
Director of Harper Entertainment, joined Robert
Gottlieb’s Trident Media as SVP in charge
of business development. . . . Word has it that Doreen
Carvajal is leaving the NY Times to work
for Bertelsmann in Paris. . . . David Chalfant,
SVP at Siegelgale, has left the company as a
result of its most recent round of layoffs. He may be
reached at 212 581-9821.
Columbia U. Press has a new CFO, Rebecca Schrader.
She started in August, and comes from Island Press,
and before that, U. of Michigan Press. . . .
Colin and Pam Webb, formerly of Pavilion
Books, will launch Palazzo Editions at Frankfurt
(8.0, F 911) with 20 projects, including the reissue
of Alistair Cooke’s America.
As noted elsewhere, Hungry Minds’ top honchos,
including John Kilcullen, Bill Barry (previously
at Doubleday), John Ball, and John
Harris, have left the company, following its sale
to Wiley. And rightsworld has discontinued
its publishing rights marketplace as of September 2001.
Eric Miller was the CEO, out of Dallas, and Nick
Bogarty, the President, in New York.
Duly
Noted
Thomas Middelhoff
held his now-annual state-of-Bertelsmann speech
on October 1 at Ford’s Theater, and declared that, with
the exception of BMG’s sorry performance, the
company is well positioned for its forthcoming IPO.
In a Q&A, he asked the audience, “Did we all like
our PC-for-all?”, and told of an email addressed to
“uncle Thomas,” which suggested that for next year’s
company present, the Audi 16 was a “fine automobile.”
• HarperCollins Publishers announced that it will
launch the Fourth Estate imprint in the US with
the publication of Carol Shields’ Unless. The
book will be published simultaneously by Fourth Estate
in the UK, which has published all of Shields’ novels
in Britain. Christopher Potter, Publisher and
Managing Director of Fourth Estate, and Dan Halpern,
Vice President, Editorial Director of Ecco and
Executive Editor of the HarperCollins General Books
Group, will be co-publishers of Fourth Estate US. Clive
Priddle will serve as Publishing Director for Fourth
Estate in the US. Courtney Hodell, who recently
joined HarperCollins UK from Random US, will
be Publishing Director, Fourth Estate in the UK. In
addition, Nicky Eaton, Fourth Estate Publicity
Director, will take on extra responsibility as Deputy
Managing Director.
•
The board of Consortium Book Distributors
is entertaining offers for the company, and though both
the board and senior management would prefer that the
buyer be local, “we will be exploring all viable sources,”
according to Bill Hammond, who will handle inquiries.
Contact him at Publishing Strategy International,
612 349-2714 or pubstrat1@aol.com.
•
Michael Cader announces the launching of Publishers
Marketplace, “an electronic place to help publishing
professionals of all sorts find each other, and find
important information.” The basic search is free, but
there will be (eventually) a $15 monthly fee for access
to the new deal database, and posting privileges. Go
to www.Publishers
Marketplace.com.
•
Jennifer McCord, our correspondent at the Pacific
Northwest Booksellers Association’s meeting
on Sept. 14-16 in Portland, Oregon, reports that show
numbers were close to last year, even though several
participants cancelled, unable to find transportation
to the Northwest. As for sales, “the show was steady,”
according to Gary Lothian of Ingram, while
Luis Borella of Redsides, an independent
rep group, added that “it was initially slow, but gained
momentum.” Portland’s own Chuck Palahniuk even
popped in on very short notice.
October
Dates
The “Frankfurt Big Questions Conference” is scheduled
for Monday, Oct. 8 in Frankfurt. Peter Olson
and a bevy of speakers from the US and Europe will address,
well, the big questions confronting publishers. Go to
www. frankfurt-book-fair.com.
•
Small Press Center has publishing workshops every
Tuesday evening starting on October 2nd and running
through Nov. 12th, at its offices at 20 W. 44th Street.
Email info@smallpress.org
for details.
•
Book Industry Study Group hosts “Beyond The Hype:
The Realities of Digital Publishing,” on October 24
from 2:00 – 5:00 pm at The McGraw Hill Auditorium, 1221
Ave. of the Americas. Three panels will focus on “The
Logic of Digital Publishing,” “Delivering e-Content,”
and “Inter-Operability: Putting the Pieces Together.”
The conference will be co-chaired by Frank Daly,
Executive Director of BISG, and Charles Benante
(Pearson Technology), Chair of BISG. It’s $150
per person (BISG members $50). Email Bill@bookinfo.org
for details.
Parties
Many parties and events were cancelled over the
past few weeks, but a handful took place as scheduled,
albeit with a certain somberness.
•
On September 21, the Association of Authors’
Representatives celebrated its 10th anniversary
at a gala event at the W Hotel in Union Square, with
300 attendees. Jane Gelfman, Owen Laster,
Don Congdon, Deborah Schneider, Jamie
Raab, Michael Carlisle, Maria Carvanis,
Molly Stern, as well as numerous “great young
editors and agents” attended, according to our correspondent.
There was a “festive feeling, good bags of books and
audio tapes. . . . People seemed so glad to commune
with one another.”
•
The same could be said for Ecco Press’s 30th
anniversary, celebrated at the Century Club on September
24th. Authors (including Fran Liebowitz and Francine
Prose), HarperCollins colleagues, agents, and friends
of Dan Halpern toasted the publisher and remarked
on how glad they were to have the chance to take their
minds off recent events — even as they compared notes
on what they had experienced over the prior two weeks.
•
On September 25 Tom Dunne, Barbara Lowenstein,
Madeleine Morel, and 50 volunteers from St.
Martin’s hosted a fundraiser for various 9/11 charities,
and raised over $100K. The same night, Publishers
Publicity Association had its annual “mixer” at
the Time-Life auditorium, and got a good crowd,
presumably some of whom proceeded downtown thereafter.
Mazeltov
To Curious George, who turns 60 this fall,
and to Moby Dick, which turns 150.
©2001
Publishing Trends
