Book
View
Executive
Moves, Book Deals and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MARCH 2003)
People
John Kilcullen,
previously CEO of Hungry Minds, has been named
President of VNU’s Music and Literary Group and
Publisher of Billboard. He will also oversee
Bookseller and Kirkus Reviews, Music
& Media, and Airplay Monitor.
As dissected daily in the NYT, Daniel Menaker
was named SVP and Editor-in-Chief of the Random
House editorial imprints. (Some have noted that, given
the NY Observer’s recent piece on Stuart Applebaum’s
alleged influence at Random, it was curious that the
announcement was sent out from Centrello’s email address,
with Carol Schneider listed as the PR contact
— rather than from Applebaum’s office, as would usually
be the case in a high profile personnel announcement.
Meanwhile, word is that some literary titles from the
Ballantine Group may end up on Little Random’s
list.)
Alan
Rutsky has been named CFO of Rizzoli. He
had most recently held that position at Abrams.
. . . Dick McCullough has left Millbrook,
which has just received a new round of investment, perhaps
as a result of Roaring Brook Press’s spanking
new Caldecott Award.
Charlie Winton was feted at one of three farewell
parties on February 26, as he officially “retires” from
PGW to devote his time to Avalon. A search
for his successor is under way. . . . Steve Fischer
has been named Director of Sales & Marketing
for ThorsonsElement — the Boston-based division
of HarperCollinsUK — reporting to Publisher Greg
Brandenburgh. He was most recently at Tuttle.
. . . Randy Charles has been named SVP of Customer
Relationship Marketing for Rodale Inc. He had
most recently been at Times Mirror. And Cathy
Lee Gruhn, previously at S&S, has
been named Director of Publicity for Rodale Books. She
will report to Associate Publisher Cindy Ratzlaff.
Bill Strachan has left Columbia University
Press, where he had been President and Director. Three
other major university press directorships have changed
leadership in the past year, including MIT, Yale,
and California. CFO Rebecca Schrader will
be acting President until a new head is named
. . . . As also noted elsewhere, Gordon Macomber
has been named CEO of Encyclopedia Britannica’s
Merriam-Webster. He was President and CEO of
NYUonline and earlier, President of Macmillan
Reference.
Jessica Craig has left Franklin & Siegal
and is joining Burnes & Clegg as Director
of Foreign Rights. . . . Tammy Johnston has left
Candlewick Press, where she was Associate Publisher
and VP Sales & Marketing.
The Perseus Publishing Group’s reorganization
continues. Perseus Publisher David Goehring,
Associate Publisher Elizabeth Carduff, (elizabethcarduff@aol.com),
and Executive Editor Nicholas Philipson have
been laid off, and now word is that Nancy Maron,
Director of Academic and Library Marketing, has also
been let go.
As reported elsewhere Carl Lennertz, who created
the ABA’s Book Sense program, is leaving the
association to take the position of VP, Marketing for
the HarperCollins imprint. Mark Nichols becomes
Director of Book Sense Marketing, taking over
the bulk of Lennertz’s job.
The rough winter has prompted some relocations: Hilary
Liftin has moved to LA, to break into television
writing. CAA is her agent. Liftin’s book, Candy
& Me: A Love Story, was bought by Leslie
Meredith at Free Press last summer. And Lisa
Kitei, formerly SVP Corporate Communications/Public
Relations at Cahners, has moved to Florida. She
may be reached at lkitei@aol.com.
Promotions
Jane von Mehren has
been named a Vice President of Penguin Books
and will continue as Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher,
overseeing the editorial direction of the Penguin trade
paperback list, while acquiring books for Viking.
March
Dates
March is Small Press Month, and the Small Press
Center has multiple celebrations planned, including
a panel on “Today’s Best Book Promotion Options — Offline”
on March 20. Panelists include PR vet Carol Fass;
Brian Jud, President of Book Marketing Works;
GMA’s Patty Neger; and Donna
Woolfolk Cross. The event takes place from 6 – 8
at the Small Press Center on 20 W. 44th. For information
go to www.smallpress.org.
NYU’s first Management Forum for Independent Publishers
will take place on April 4 – 6. Speakers include Patricia
Bostelman from B&N; Kelley Maier,
SVP Product Management & Marketing at Ingram;
Walker’s George Gibson; and Cindy Cunningham
from Amazon. Early bird registration is available
until March 14. Contact Heidi Johnson at the
NYU Center for Publishing: (212) 790-3236 or heidi.johnson@nyu.edu.
Four top publishing people are panelists on “Powerful
Women in Publishing,” sponsored by the NYC chapter of
Women’s National Book Association on March 11
from 6 – 8 pm: Susan Peterson Kennedy, President,
Penguin Group (USA); Barbara Marcus, President
Children’s Books, Scholastic; Alison M. Lazarus,
President of Sales, Holtzbrinck; and Maddy
Dychtwald, author. Location: Time Life Building,
8th Floor Auditorium, 1271 6th Ave @ 50th. For information
on WNBA-NYC, see www.wnba-nyc.org.
Duly
Noted
comScore
reported total online annual sales, across all categories
including travel, of $73.2 billion in 2002, up 38 percent
versus 2001. Total e-commerce sales, excluding auctions,
were $10.9 billion, up 25 percent versus the year-ago
period. According to comScore, this growth was driven
primarily by online travel sales, “reflecting a continued
shift in travel spending from offline to online channels.”
Non-travel sales have turned in lower growth of 16 percent
year-to-date. Books — which have one of the longest
and most successful online sales histories — were up
a more modest 5%, to $2.285 billion.
•
Two very different books about books by industry
insiders will hit the shelves this year. Overwhelmed
readers will discover what overwhelmed editors have
known forever: that there is an alternative to what
Sara Nelson terms the “Clean Plate Book Club.”
In So Many Books, So Little Time, coming out
this fall (Putnam), she writes that “Allowing
yourself to stop reading a book — at page 25, 50 or
even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end —
is a rite of passage in a reader’s life, the literary
equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion, the moment
at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I
am an adult. I can make my own decisions.” So far Susan
Isaacs and Kurt Andersen have sent in boffo
blurbs. . . . Meanwhile, Jacqueline Deval, Publisher
of Hearst Books and a publicist manqué, has written
Publicize Your Book: An Insider’s Guide to Getting
Your Book the Attention It Deserves, that’s coming
out in April from Perigee. This is her second
book (her first was the novel Reckless Appetites).
•
Michael Cader is debuting a daily column for The
New York Sun. Asked if the material is reconstituted
from Publishers Lunch, Cader tells PT that
“it draws from the basic pool of material,” but is written
for a general audience, and sometimes includes deals
or material somewhat in advance of the weekly deal Lunch.
Guess that means we all have to subscribe?
Parties
& Events
Steve Rosenbaum and
Ava Seave hosted a party on Feb. 28 for Ad
Age columnist and co-host of NPR’s On the
Media, Bob Garfield to celebrate the publication
of And Now a Few Words From Me. The invitation
asked the recipient to “Please join friends and fellow
critics to poke at Bob with pointy sticks, jeer him
and otherwise take liberties with his career, work and
demeanor — After all, it’s what he does [in his column]
to everyone else.”
•
Sterling Lord celebrated 50 years as a literary
agent at a party at NYU’s Silver Center on Feb. 27,
with a lecture based on the forthcoming book about his
career (he’s a year and a half behind schedule). Lord,
Chairman of Sterling Lord Literistic, talked
of once having had an author dedicate his book to him.
When the dedication to Sterling Lord was translated
into Portuguese for the Brazilian market, it came out
as “The Almighty God.”
•
Poets & Writers honored the Barnes & Noble
Writers for Writers Award on March 4 at the Tribeca
Rooftop.
In
Memoriam
George deKay,
the co-founder of M. Evans, and husband of publishing
veteran Miranda, died on February 22nd.
©2003
Publishing Trends
