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Executive Moves, Book
Deals, and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (OCTOBER 2003)
People
Bonnie Ammer
has been named to the newly created position of EVP,
Publisher at Large, Random House Worldwide, reporting
directly to Peter Olson. Her current job as Publisher,
Fodor’s Travel Publications, and President, Random
House Information Group, will be assumed by David
Naggar, who will continue as President, Random House
Audio and Diversified Publishing Group. Last week Scott
Matthews was named Publisher of Random House
Audio and Large Print. He will retain his title of President
of Random’s Books on Tape.
Ruth Pomerance, formerly of USAFilms,
has become EVP Production and Development for IDT
Telecomm-unications, developing animated feature
films and direct-to-dvd projects. She will also be starting
a special division to publish books that are based on
original material in development. She may be reached
at Ruth.Pomerance@
corp.idt.net
or (973) 438-3094. . . Avalon has hired a new
Marketing Director, Sandee Roston, who was most
recently at Bloomsbury. She will be based in
New York.
In other Random news, Steven Pace, previously
Divisional Director, Trade East at Random House,
has been named to the new position of VP Director of
Retail Sales at Baker & Taylor, in its North
Carolina headquarters. Rachel Klayman has gone
to Crown as Senior Editor. She was most recently
at Free Press. And Jon Ackerman, formerly
at Random, has gone to Klutz, managing national
accounts.
No
news on some of the searches taking place in university
presses: Seven months after Bill Strachan left
Columbia U. Press (he is now at Hyperion)
the search for a new Director is “moving forward but
not yet complete,” according to a source involved in
the process. And at Harvard Business School Press
the search for a successor to Director Carol Franco
also continues. Franco will move to the position of
Editor-at-Large for the entire HBS Publishing division
as soon as a new person is named.
In agency news: October 1st marks the day that a new
literary agency, Lippincott McQuilkin & Co,
launched. Started by Will Lippincott (who’s keeping
his job at Booz Allen part-time) and Rob McQuilkin,
the agency is located at 80 Fifth Ave., Suite 1101,
NY, NY 10011. Phone number is (212) 337-2045. . . Bob
Diforio, Marilyn Allen and Coleen O’Shea
are regrouping, with Allen and O’Shea forming the Allen
O’Shea Literary Agency. The D4EO Literary
Agency will continue under Bob Diforio. . . George
Lucas, who recently joined Carlisle &
Company, just sold his first book on behalf of Peter
Robinson at Curtis Brown, London. Entitled
The Rise and Fall of Carthage (by Richard
Miles) it went to Wendy Wolff at Viking,
for $400k+. Meanwhile, Carlisle & Company has moved
its offices to 6 West 18th Street, Twelfth Floor, New
York, NY 10011. Agents Christy Fletcher and Emma
Parry, who left Carlisle to establish their own
agency, Fletcher & Parry, have offices across town,
at 121 East 17th Street. . . Wendy Sherman,
of the eponymous agency, has a new associate in
former Holt colleague Tracy Brown. He
will develop and represent his own list of clients under
the auspices of the agency. He was most recently Senior
Editor at Ballantine. . . And PJ Mark
has left IMG to join Collins McCormick
as an agent. Word is that Mark Reiter is also
leaving IMG, to go to PFD (Peters Fraser &
Dunlop), but no announcement has yet been made. In other
agency news: Jenny Bent, formerly with Harvey
Klinger, Inc., has joined Trident Media Group.
. . Tad Floridis has joined Donadio &
Olson as an agent. Floridis was VP of Development
at Longview Productions and Executive VP at Rightscenter.com.
And Anna Stein, formerly of the Wylie
Agency, has joined Donadio & Olson, as an Associate.
In Boston: Elizabeth Carduff, formerly Associate
Publisher of Perseus, has been named Editorial
Manager of Cook’s Illustrated.
. . Gary Gentel has been named Corporate VP,
Director of Houghton Mifflin’s Sales, Trade &
Reference Division. He had been VP of Trade Sales for
Scholastic. In other HM-related news, Eric
Chinski, most recently Executive Editor at Houghton,
has joined Farrar, Straus, also in an Exec. Ed.
role.
As reported elsewhere, Mel Parker has left Bookspan,
where he was SVP Editorial Director, to pursue publishing
opportunities. He may be reached at melpark211@aol.com.
Brigitte Weeks has been named SVP and Editor-in-Chief.
In children’s, Elizabeth Law moves to S&S
as VP, Associate Publisher of the Books For Young Readers
imprint. She had been Associate Publisher at Viking
Children’s Books. There are promotions at Knopf &
Crown Books For Young Readers imprints, including
Nancy Hinkel, who moves from Senior Editor to
Publishing Director, Nancy Siscoe, who has been
promoted from Executive Editor to Associate Publishing
Director, and Michelle Frey, who has been promoted
to Senior Editor from Editor. Alix Reid has been
promoted to VP Editorial Director and Director of Foreign
Acquisitions, of HarperCollins Children’s. And
at Penguin’s Philomel Books, Michael
Green has been promoted to Associate Publisher,
Editorial Director as Pat Gauch steps down from
the role of Publisher to become Editor-at-Large. Finally,
Gray Peterson has been named VP Sales, Mass Market
for Scholastic. He was VP of Sales at AMS’s
Dalmatian Press.
October
Events
The 2003 National
Book Festival takes place on Oct. 4, on the National
Mall in Washington, D.C. between 7th and 14th Streets
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (rain or shine). The third annual
Festival is organized and sponsored by the Library
of Congress and hosted by Laura Bush and
is expected to attract “more than 60,000” people.
George
Plimpton, whose obituary found its way into the
unlikeliest publications last week, was looking forward
to the Paris Review’s 50th anniversary celebrations,
centered around a gala fundraising event at Cipriani
in New York on October 14th. The event — hosted by Garrison
Keillor — will proceed as planned, and now will
be held in Plimpton’s honor. Tickets to the benefit
are still available, and, according to the PR’s
editors, “supporters of the Review and admirers
of George Plimpton are encouraged to attend.” All proceeds
will benefit The Paris Review Foundation. Contact the
Paris Review editorial office for more information:
(212) 861-0016.
New
York is Cookbook Country takes place from
Wednesday, October 15 through Saturday, October 18.
The kickoff is a Food Writers Panel at Borders
Park Avenue, with Jeffrey Steingarten, Ruth
Reichl, and others on Oct. 15. On Oct. 16 a chef’s
panel, moderated by Judith Jones, takes place
at the NY Public Library. Oct. 17 and 18 are
the Guest Chef Dinners around the city, along with cookbook
signings. Go to www.
nyisbookcountry.org
for details.
The Small Press Center presents “An Interview
with Jane Friedman” on October 23 from 6
to 7:30 at 20 W. 44. The NYT’s Christopher
Lehmann-Haupt will interview the HarperCollins
CEO. For details go to www.smallpress.org.
Small Press Center and The General Society of Mechanics
(where the Small Press Center is located) host a
lecture series entitled “Wit’s End on West 44th Street,”
beginning October 15. Each lecture costs $15, and the
series of 5 costs $60. For details go to www.generalsociety.org.
On October 29-30 WRG, in association with the
International Intellectual Property Group, presents
“Creating New Markets for Entertainment Copyrights:
Generating Revenue with New Forms of Digital Distribution
in the Face of Piracy.” It takes place at the Flatotel
on West 52nd St. Numerous speakers from music, movies,
television, and publishing are represented on panels
during the two-day conference. Go to www.worldrg.com/fw306/request.asp
for details.
In
Memoriam
A memorial service for
Peter Schwed, the longtime S&S executive who
died earlier in the summer, will be held October 17
at 4 pm at the Century Club.
Donations in memory of Pat Sado, longtime book
buyer at Coliseum who died September 19, to the
Nathalie Sado Educational Fund, c/o Barbara Passy, East
Hampton Business Service, 20 Park Place, East Hampton,
N.Y. 11937.
Donations in memory of Miriam Bass, who spent
more than 30 years in bookselling — the last ten at
NBN — may be made to the National Kidney Foundation
at 30 East 33rd St., Suite 1100, New York, New York
10016.
©2003
Publishing Trends
