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Executive Moves, Book
Deals and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (JULY 2002)
People
Heads rolling in and rolling
out: Marco Ausenda, who comes from Touring
Club Italia, will replace Antonio Polito
as the head of Rizzoli US, reporting to Giulio
Lattanzi. . . Jean-Marie Messier’s still
running Vivendi, but of course major changes
at Houghton Mifflin: Teri Kelly succeeds
Wendy Strothman as SVP and head of trade and
reference, leaving open her position as Director of
Sales. Reportedly she will be replaced from within,
and an announcement is imminent. And Hans Gieskes,
most recently of Lexis-Nexis, becomes her boss,
succeeding Nader Darehshori, as President and
CEO. He reports to Agnès Touraine, Chairman and
CEO of Vivendi Universal Publishing.
Neil Ortenberg, Publisher of Thunder’s Mouth
Press, has been promoted to SVP of the Avalon
Publishing Group. . . Bulfinch’s Jill
Cohen has named Karen Murgulo Associate Publisher,
and Kristen Schilo, most recently at Applause
Books, as Lifestyle Editor. Matthew Ballast
has been named Publicity and Subsidiary Rights Director.
. . Frank Fochetta has been named VP Special
Sales at Simon & Schuster. His purview includes
all distribution lines as well. In another sales appointment,
Jack W. Perry joins Sourcebooks as VP
Director of Sales. He was most recently VP Sales for
the Random House Group. . . Allison Devlin
has moved to Little, Brown Children’s as
Publicity Director. She was last at HarperChildren’s,
where Diane Naughton has been named VP Marketing,
taking over for Pam Lutz, who is relocating to
Florida. Naughton was most recently General Manager
of publishing at Sesame Street. Daisy Kline
will report to her under the new title of Executive
Director of Marketing.
Free
Press has hired Liz Stein to be a Senior
Editor, reporting to Dominick Anfuso. She moves
from Holt. . . Brendan Cahill will be
joining Bill Shinker’s imprint at Penguin
Putnam (launching Spring 2003) as an editor. He
was editor at Grove Atlantic, and his new mandate
“will be to acquire his own list concentrating in the
areas of narrative nonfiction, history, memoirs, current
affairs, politics, popular science, sports and fiction.”
And Adrian Zackheim has hired Will Weissel
as Marketing Director for Portfolio, which
now includes Prentice Hall titles. Weissel comes
from Crown. . . Meanwhile, Susan Gilmer joined
Random as Director of Sub Rights. She was previously
at Maria Campbell Associates. And speaking of
RH, Tracy Bernstein has left Ballantine for NAL,
where she will be Executive Editor. She was previously
at Pocket Books. . . Marilyn Moore has
gone to Guideposts as Editor-in-Chief of book
publishing, replacing Brigitte Weeks, who went
to Bookspan. She has represented rights for various
lines, including Guideposts, into the gift book and
religious markets.
Bill
Wolfsthal has left The Overlook Press, where
he was Director of Sales and Marketing. He can be reached
at (212) 505-0492. . . Elsbeth Lindner, previously
MD of London’s The Women’s Press, has become
Editorial Director at David R. Godine in Boston.
. . And Liv Blumer has left the Karpfinger
Agency to start her own agency.
What
They’re Doing Now
Greg Tobin,
former Editor-in-Chief of Ballantine and of BOMC,
has a new novel, Council (Forge Books,
August pub.), with perhaps “the very first fictional
scene set on Sept. 11,” in which a Newark archbishop
ferries to lower Manhattan after the attack. Having
declined previous opportunities to return to publishing
full-time, Tobin does not rule out the possibility of
returning to the, er, fold.
Promotions
Lots of people getting good news from their bosses
this month: Julie Grau and Cindy Spiegel
were simultaneously named Vice Presidents of Riverhead
Books. . . David Kelly was named Director of
Marketing at McGraw-Hill Children’s Publishing,
replacing Jeanne Finestone, who left in the spring.
He had been Marketing Manager. . . Scholastic
Library Publishing named Larry Tinker VP National
Sales, reporting to SLP President Neal Goff.
He has been with the company for 24 years. . . Trena
Keating announced the promotion of Gary Brozek
to Senior Editor for Plume. . . At HarperCollins,
Carrie Kania has been named VP Associate Publisher
of HarperAudio, Ecco, and Fourth Estate
US. Diana Gill has meanwhile been promoted to
Senior Editor of Morrow/Avon. She has been at the company
since 1998. Kelli Martin has been promoted to
editor at Amistad. She had also started at Morrow
in 1998. And Tara Brown has been promoted to
Assistant Director of Publicity. . . Daniel Rembert
has been named Art Director for Random. He has been
in the Random House Group since 1987.
Duly
Noted
A few weeks ago, the highest religious authority
in Sunni Islam, Sheikh Ibrahim Atta Allah, issued
a fatwa against copyright piracy from his base
in Cairo. “Piracy is the worst type of theft and is
prohibited by Islam,” he declared, according to Susan
Postlewaite writing in IP Worldwide. She
reports that piracy has been cut from 85% in 1999 to
56%.
•
The Booklovers’ Olympics, sponsored by Blenheim
Hill Books and Bibliobarn, took place on
June 22 at Bibliobarn —“conveniently located in a cow
pasture near you (or not)” — in South Kortright, NY.
Our local correspondents, Michele Slung and Bob
Wyatt, tell us there were about a hundred people
assembled to witness the Reader’s Digest Book
Toss (Slung hurled a condensed book that included Boys
From Brazil), the How Many Emily Dickinson
Poems Can One Sing to “The Yellow Rose of Texas” sing-off,
and the James Joyce Ulysses Speed Reading
Contest (though the decision to read a Molly Bloom passage
was reconsidered when young children came to compete),
and to hear live music, and picnic in the pasture.
• An interesting letter from Jeff Bezos,
(or jeffb@amazon.com,
as his email reads) arrived the other day. Many of you
may have received this one, which patiently explains
— as though asking the reader’s indulgence — that Amazon.com
will be offering “a long-term test,” in which orders
over $49 (rather than only those over $99) get free
shipping. What we liked, though, is the part where Jeff
tells us: “At the conclusion of the test, we’ll let
you know whether or not we’ll be able to make the new
$49 hurdle permanent. In the meantime, for the next
3-6 months or so, please enjoy Free Super Saver Shipping
on orders over $49.” So basically, if you don’t buy,
I’m gonna have to charge you shipping. What are you
waiting for???
• A moment to contemplate some amazing numbers:
According to Nan Talese, Atonement now
has 232,000 in print. Amsterdam — which handily
outsold all his other books combined — netted 82 thousand
copies. . . The Nanny Diaries has 675,000 in
print. . . Six thousand copies of Confessions of
a Sociopathic Social Climber by Adele Lang
were imported from the UK, and after Kelly Ripa
touted it on Regis & Kelly, it has over 200,000
in print, as does Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel
and Dimed.
•
Publishers Weekly moves to 360 Park
Avenue South, NY, NY, 10010. The main number is (646)
746-6400, but with the same four-digit extension for
staffers.
•
Infelicitous phrasing in last month’s PT
created the impression that Exley had practically
closed down its US operation. In fact, they are alive
and kicking in their Massachusetts office — and their
warehouse continues to be in New Jersey. However, their
midtown NY office space is available for sublet. Address
all inquiries to Richard Exley at richard.exley@exleypublications.co.uk.
Mazel
Tov
Happy birthday to HarperCollins’ Larry
Ashmead, who will hit seven decades on July 4th.
In
Memoriam
We note sadly the passing of our good friend, staunch
ally — and first client — Paul Gottlieb. He believed
in Market Partners from the outset and cheered
us along as we racked up year after year. In 1996 he
was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres along
with a group of other distinguished American publishers,
authors, and movie stars, and our correspondent at the
time, Jean Loup Chiflet, noted: “Le plus drôle
était quand le ministre (de la Culture, M. Douste- Blazy),
qui est petit, a voulu embrasser ou plûtot ‘donner l’accolade’
à Paul Gottlieb, qui est grand, et qu’il a été obligé
de lui marcher sur les pieds!” (PT, 4/96).
We will miss him enormously.
©2002
Publishing Trends
