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Executive Moves, Book
Deals, and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (SEPTEMBER 2003)
People
As summer winds down,
it’s been unusually quiet in publishers’ halls, but
look to an interesting Fall, with new positions being
created, even as more rounds of layoffs are rumored.
Meanwhile:
Holt’s
Maggie Richards has hired Richard Rhorer
as Marketing Director. He was previously Director of
Marketing for the Rayo imprint at HarperCollins.
. . Jay Sherman has been named VP, Operations
for AMS, reporting to Mike Focht, EVP,
Operations. He was with Random House. . . Jim
Cook has been named Manager Specialty Retail for
Running Press (Perseus Publishing), replacing
Rich Kelly, who has left the company. Cook was
Director of Sales & Marketing for Taylor &
Francis.
SparkNotes has appointed Laurie Barnett as
Editorial Director, in charge of all editorial development
for its high school and college print and web product
lines, reporting to Dan Weiss. She was VP and
Editor-in-Chief of the Peterson’s division of
Thomson Learning. And Stephanie Karmol
has been named Sales & Marketing Associate,
reporting to Associate Publisher Robert Riger.
She was previously in the Children’s Marketing Group
at Penguin. Also departing Penguin is Kelly
Notaras, who left Plume to join Hyperion
as a Senior Editor.
Ann Binkley, former Director of Public Relations
for Borders, is settled into her new role as
Executive Director of New York Is Book Country.
She may be reached at ann.binkley.nyibc@c2media.com.
Gary
Todoroff has moved to Lonely Planet USA,
as Director of Sales. His new work email address is
gary.todoroff@lonelyplanet.com.
Kensington
Books, which recently hired former NAL Executive
Editor Audrey LeFehr as Editorial Director and
Lynn Bond, formerly of RH Value,
as Director of Sales and New Business, has laid off
longtime Executive Editor Ann La Farge. She may
be reached at alafarge@aol.com.
Between publishing endeavors, Cathy Fox now has
her real estate license and is associated with Hudson
Affiliates, Inc. in Westchester. She can be reached
at (914) 693-8878 or alafarge@aol.com.
As
previously reported, Tony Lucki, most recently
President of Harcourt, has been named CEO of
Houghton Mifflin. He had worked at HM from 1977
to 1987. Pat Tierney, Global CEO of Reed’s
Harcourt Education Group (which includes the trade division),
will not replace Lucki, but takes on his direct reports.
While PW’s Steve Zeitchik is on sabbatical,
Karen Holt has been pitching in. But what’s happening
at Book Publishing Report, which Holt left earlier
in the year? It’s being run by David Jastrow,
who holds the titles of Managing Editor and Senior
Analyst. He can be reached by email at David_Jastrow@simbanet.com.
Harlequin has named Sharon Hails to the new
post of Director of Sales, Direct Retail. She was most
recently SVP for marketing and merchandising at Sher
Distributing.
Promotions
Rodale has recently
named Dana Bacher to the position of Marketing
Director, reporting to Associate Publisher Cindy
Ratzlaff. Dana has been Associate Rights Director
at Rodale since 2000. Prior to joining Rodale she held
positions at Running Press and Kepler’s
Bookstore in Palo Alto.
Duly
Noted
Walker Publishing
is moving back to its Fifth Avenue roots: On September
11 it takes over some of Abrams’ space, on the
7th floor of 104 Fifth Avenue. The phone number remains
the same: (212) 727-8300.
•
The world of small presses has been chattering about
an increase in submissions of late. One correspondent
notes that “Each has a cover letter in identical format.
The last three lines of each letter are the same or
virtually so. The stories are not coming from students.
The senders all give their backgrounds, including their
degrees and teaching experience and previous publications.”
He wonders, “Might something like this be the culprit?,”
and proceeds to give the URL of Writer’s Relief,
Inc. (www.wrelief.com),
a New Jersey company that streamlines manuscript submissions.
Their site claims that, “If you love to write but hate
the business of writing, we can help. Stop spending
your valuable time researching markets, requesting guidelines,
preparing cover letters, tracking submissions, and doing
the many tasks required to see your work published.
Rejection letters don’t bother us. In fact, we view
them as steps bringing you closer to publication.” The
cost for these services isn’t stipulated on the site,
but the company claims not to take an agent’s cut, just
a fee. And, they say, editors themselves have now become
Writer’s Relief clients.
•
The last word is in on Otto Penzler v. Michael
Viner and vice versa, where Market Partners
served as a publishing expert and Penzler was ably represented
pro bono by Boies, Schiller & Flexner, and
the outcome was a $2.8 million judgment in Penzler’s
favor. According to Penzler, the jury of eight was unanimous
in their verdict, believing both his testimony as well
as the testimony of Harlan Ellison, who took
the stand to corroborate the authors’ point of view.
The truly happy ending is that Larry Kirshbaum
has agreed to issue the rest of the sports mystery series
— at least four more titles — under the Warner
imprint.
•
Last seen on the high seas: one hundred members
of The Young to Publishing Group signed up for
an evening of sailing recently offered by the AAP
— one of numerous activities offered to members of the
group, which is funded by the AAP. Membership in the
YPG is free and open to “entry-level and junior industry
employees (typically with 0-5 years of publishing experience).”
Currently there are 600 members from 40+ companies in
nine states. The group meets for monthly brown bag lunches,
and can sign on to the “Little Big Mouth List” to receive
galleys based on stated reading interests. For more
information, contact Anne Garinger at agaringer@publishers.org.
September
Events
“The Future of Licensing,”
presented by The Licensing Letter, is scheduled
for Sept. 9, 2003 at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. The keynote
will be Andy Mooney, Chairman, Disney Consumer
Products. In addition, Yankelovich will present
research on consumer trends. Topics include Selling
to the Emerging Majorities, Channel Strategies, and
The Global Future (with IMG as the model of a
global licensing company). To register, call (212) 941-0099
and mention Publishing Trends. (Event is open
exclusively to subscribers to The Licensing Letter
and Publishing Trends.) Fee is $995 and includes
lunch.
•
On Sept. 17 New York Is Book Country kicks off the
many events that culminate in the 25th anniversary of
its Fifth Avenue Fair on Sunday, Sept. 21. Included
are a Business Book Day (Sept. 17); a gala evening for
authors and their readers on Sept. 18; NY Is Film Book
Country on the 19th; a day of speakers that include
Steve Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Walter
Isaacson on Sept. 20; and the NYT Literary
Brunch, featuring among others Mitch Albom, E.
Lynn Harris, James Patterson, and Peggy
Noonan, on Sept. 21. Robert Lipsyte will
MC the event. Go to NYisbookcountry.org for details.
The Mercantile Library will host an exhibit of
posters that have been created for Book Country over
25 years, from Sept. 4-19. Call (212) 755-6710 for more
information.
• The Frederick Douglass Creative Arts
Center presents “Celebrating the Black Voice Weekend,”
September 20-21 at the Aaron David Hall. Regina Morris
from William Morris, Marie Brown, Cherise
Grant from S&S, and HarperCollins’
Kelli Martin kick off the weekend with a panel
on “How to Get Your Book Published.” A dialogue with
Derek Wolcott and August Wilson is scheduled
for Sunday afternoon. For more information see www.fdcac.org.
Mazel
Tov
Congratulations to Hearst
Books Publisher Jacqueline Deval, proud mom
of Madeline Emily, born August 4. (Brother Jordan is
now 7.)
©2003
Publishing Trends
