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Executive
Moves, Book Deals, and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MAY 2003)
People
Between the Random/Ballantine
merger and the “Voluntary Retirement” package, insiders
say that the total number of exiting employees is cresting
thirty, including Howard Weill (Hweill@optonline.net),
Mike Moran (mmoran123@aol.com),
Ivan Held (IvanHeld@yahoo.com),
Dan Rembert (Drem3ert@earthlink.net),
Kathleen Spinelli (kspinelli@
mac.com), Susan Gilmer (susan@gilmer.com),
Barbara Greenberg, Erica Muncy, and editors
Tracy Brown (Tracy_Brown03@msn.com)
and Dan Smetanka. The over-50 retirement package
still has another few weeks to kick in, so the total
may be higher by the end of May. Clarkson Potter
Editor of Special Projects Roy Finamore has
taken the package, and may be reached at roy@tastycentral.com.
Katy Workman has also left Clarkson Potter to
return to her roots at Workman. And Lauren
Shakely has hired Rosemary Ngo from Barnes
& Noble Publishing to take over responsibility
for the Clarkson Potter branded book list.
Rodale’s Jeremy Katz has hired Laurie
Bernstein to be Editor at Large for the Men’s Health
and Sports Book Group. She was most recently at Simon
& Schuster. . . Phyllis Henrici is relocating
from New York to San Diego to become Director of Bargain
and Remainder Book Sales and Purchasing at Advanced
Marketing Services (AMS). She had previously been
Director of Sales & Marketing at Assouline,
the art and lifestyle book publisher and retailer.
In light of its February purchase of the Grove
online dictionaries, Oxford University Press has
reorganized its own online publishing under Evan
Schnittman, who is now VP Online Publishing and
Business Development. There have been some layoffs in
the realignment. In addition, Laura Dobbins,
who was Advertising & Promotions Manager, Young
Adult, has left the company.
Speaking of UPs, with MIT, University of California,
and Yale squared away, LSU is the most
recent university press to hire a new Director: MaryKatherine
Callaway. Previously she was Marketing Director
for Johns Hopkins UP. Columbia UP is still
looking for a replacement for Bill Strachan,
who left earlier this year. Bert Davis Associates
is conducting the search.
The
Whitney has downsized its book division and its
Director of Publications & New Media, Garrett
White, will be leaving, along with five others
in the department. . . George Rubich, VP Finance
and Administration for Henry Holt, has
left the company. He may be reached at (914) 945-7146.
. . Hugh Shiebler has left Barron’s Educational
Series, where he was Nat’l Sales Manager.
Jon Anderson, currently Publisher of the Dream
Works and Price Stern Sloan imprints at Penguin,
is leaving the company, as the Dream Works program will
be moving to Scholastic beginning in July. Meanwhile,
Eloise Flood will join Penguin Young Readers
Group as SVP and Publisher of a new, as yet unnamed
imprint. Flood was most recently Publisher of paperback
books at S&S’s Children’s Publishing division.
In a reorganization that divides some special sales
functions into adult and children’s, Stacey Ashton
and Andrea Rosen have joined HarperCollins
as Senior Director of Special Sales, General Books and
Senior Director of Special Sales, Children’s Books respectively.
Ashton, who reports to Josh Marwell, was at the
AOL Time Warner Book Group, and Rosen was Imprint
Sales Director for the Crown Publishing Group
and the Random House Information Group. She reports
to Andrea Pappenheimer. Ken Berger has
also joined the company as Senior Account Executive
for General Books in the Premium and Corporate Sales
Group, after working for Random House for the last 13
years. He will be based in San Francisco and reporting
to Marie Hergenroeder. Megan Mayo joined
HC in the newly created position of Associate Director,
New Business Development Special Sales, reporting to
Ashton and Rosen. She was formerly at Watson Guptill.
Mark Landau will now report to Ashton and Rosen
as will David Sweeney.
Promotions
Variety reports
that Jim Wiatt will soon take executive control
of the William Morris Agency and longtime CEO
Walt Zifkin will scale back his duties to become
CEO emeritus. . . Houghton Mifflin has promoted
Eamon Dolan to Editorial Director. He had been
Executive Editor.
May
Dates
BEA and Variety
are hosting two media panels: “From Books to Blockbusters,”
moderated by Peter Bart, on Friday, May 30 at
10 am; and “Inside the Realm of Hollywood’s Independent
Book Agents,” moderated by Jonathan Bing, on
Thursday, May 29 at 1 pm. (For a complete list of Hollywood
agents and their contact info, click
here.)
•
The Small Press Center hosts “An Interview
with Carole Baron, President of Putnam”
on May 6. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt will conduct
the interview, which takes place at 20 West 44 St. at
6 pm. Email info@smallpress.org.
•
The J. Anthony Lukas Prize and the Mark
Lynton History Prize will be awarded on May 8 at
the Columbia U. School of Journalism. Winners
are Samantha Power and Suzannah Lessard (Lukas)
and Robert Harms (Lynton). Incoming J-School
Dean Nicholas Lemann will moderate a talk on
“The Writer as a Moral Force.” Email ics9@
columbia.edu or call (212) 854-8653.
•
May 31 is the deadline for the newly announced James
Madison Book Award, a cash prize of $10,000, that
“recognizes excellence in bringing knowledge and understanding
of American history to readers ages five to fourteen.”
It was created and initially funded by Lynne Cheney,
and will be presented July 1. Call Elisabeth Irwin
at (202) 277-2034.
•
The Publishing Division of the UJA toasts
Borders Chairman, President & CEO Greg Josefowicz
at its annual black tie dinner on May 12. Tickets
are $600. Contact Marcy Frank at (212) 836-1448 or email
frankm@ujafedny.org
for details.
Duly
Noted
Words without
Borders: The Online Magazine for International
Literature is looking for submissions. It is preparing
a “soft launch” of the site by Memorial Day, and a “hard
launch” on September 23, 2003. The editors are seeking
“short works or excerpts of longer works previously
unpublished in English for which we might commission
translation.” The main themes include literature from
Iran, Iraq, and N. Korea; pairings of translations of
contemporary and classic short works or excerpts that
are “strongly rooted in description of the same place”;
“Landscape, Travel, and Criticism”; and “Suitcase of
Books,” titles in English or translation that one should
read if traveling in a particular place. “Exceptional
foreign children’s books and young adult literature
for translation” are also welcome. Email co-editor Samantha
Schnee, schnee@bard.edu,
or mail to Words without Borders, c/o Institute for
International Liberal Education, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson,
NY 12504-5000.
•
Fredi Friedman of the eponymous Fredrica S. Friedman
Agency sold world rights to Beautiful Bones Without
Hormones, by Dr. Leon Root (orthopedic surgeon
and author of Oh My Aching Back) and ex-Morrow
editor Betty Kelly Sargent in a high six figure
pre-empt to Penguin/Gotham’s Bill Shinker.
Sargent first met her soon-to-be publisher at a party
at the Mercantile Library.
In
Memoriam
Publishing Trends
sadly notes the passing of Helen Meyer, a
publishing legend, who led Dell Publishing for
many years, and died at the age of 95 on April 21.
A memorial service for publisher and designer Sam
Antupit, who died April 6, will take place in the
Great Hall at Cooper Union on May 8 at noon. Milton
Glazer said of him, “The graphic arts field is not
known for its literacy, but Sam was an exception.”
Miranda
DeKay held a memorial service for her husband George
on April 17 at the Century Association in the Gallery.
Tim Seldes was the emcee. Ironically, M. Evan’s
biggest author, Dr. Robert Atkins, died the same
day.
©2003
Publishing Trends
