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Executive
Moves, Book Deals, and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (FEBRUARY 2004)
People
Following the doldrums
of December, January brought some major moves,
including Michael Jacobs’ sortie from Scholastic,
and David Steinberger’s installation as the President
and CEO of the Perseus Books Group.
Movement is everywhere: Random House has combined
its two separate retail sales forces into a single unit,
resulting in the departure of at least ten people, including
Tom Lovett, Jay Cosgrove (heyjaycjayc@netscape.net),
and Alan Trask. Paul Kozlowski will direct
the combined force as VP Director of Retail Field Sales.
Chris Waters remains VP Deputy Director of Retail
Field Sales, and Ruth Liebmann continues as Director
Independent Bookselling; both report to Kozlowski. In
other Random news, Candice Chaplin has moved
from Random National Accounts to Hyperion, where
she assumes the title Director of Sales from recently
departed Michael Burkin. Sid Albert, who
retired from Random, is now Sales Director of Other
Press, replacing Paul Harrington, who has
been named powerHouse’s new Sales Director.
Finally, the ex-Randomites Kathleen Spinelli (kspinelli@
brandstobooks.com) and Robert Allen (rallen@
brandstobooks.com) have founded Brands to Books
Inc. Literary Agency. They will specialize in creating
books from recognized or developing brands and will
also advise on brand extension.
Eric
Kettunen has been named Director of Marketing
at PGW, replacing Michele Crim, who left
PGW for NBN, taking the position held by the
late Miriam Bass. He was most recently at SF-based
graphic novel publisher Viz.
Carol
Roeder has left Intervisual, where she was
EVP Global Concept Publishing. Previously she was at
S&S Children’s. She may be reached at cr21@earthlink.net
or by phone at (914) 428-9580. . . . Laurie Bernstein
has left Rodale, where she had been Editor-at-
Large. She may be reached at (917) 648-7007. . . . Wiley
Senior Editor/Culinary, Susan Wyler has left
the company to reopen her writing/packaging/editing
operation, King Hill Productions. She may be
reached at (570) 727-3939.
Penguin
has also had a busy month: HarperCollins’ Megan
Newman has moved to Penguin in the newly created
position of Publisher of Penguin Reference, with responsibility
to oversee a reference-oriented program, including Avery
Books and Viking Studio. Kate Stark has
been named Associate Publisher. Lots of promotions,
too: Barbara O’Shea has been promoted to the
position of President, Non-Trade Sales and New Business
Development at Penguin. Joel Fotinos was promoted
to VP of Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. (Tarcher/Penguin).
Susan Allison has been named VP, Editorial Director
of the Berkley Publishing Group. Finally, Laureen
Rowland announced that her imprint will be called
Hudson Street Press and publish its first titles
in Winter 2005.
Meanwhile, Tracy Tang has left her position as
President and Publisher of Puffin Books “to pursue
other interests.”
Barron’s has hired Mike Campbell as Sales
Manager, reporting to ex-Penguinite Alex Holtz.
. . . Ed Lenk has left Modern Publishing after
25 years. He may be reached at (201) 947-4710 or FLNJ@aol.com.
. . . Erstwhile editor Bob Levine is returning
to publishing via a relationship with John Cerullo’s
Amadeus Press, where he will package several
lines of books and CD/DVDs aimed at educating and entertaining
the classical music loving public. Levine may be reached
at operafella@aol.com
or (212) 535-3346.
Where are they now? Gerry Helferich, Publisher
of Wiley’s general books, and his wife, Teresa
Nicholas, Production Director at Crown, left
their jobs in 2002 and moved to Mexico to write. Now
Helferich’s book Humboldt’s Cosmos, about naturalist
and adventurer Alexander von Humboldt, will be
published by Gotham this spring. . . . David
Kirkpatrick, the last admitted NYT book beat
reporter, is now covering the conservative beat. . .
. Michael Lynton, one time CEO of Penguin
and recently named Chairman of Sony Pictures,
was spotted schmoozing with the stars at the Golden
Globe Awards.
February
Events
“Many of these books
are simply insane,” says Nancy Balbirer, co-creator
of Cause Celeb in a recent NYT article.
She’s referring to the weekly Monday night “highly-theatrical
autobiography reading series” at the Noho club, Fez.
Each week centers around a different theme, with February
2 devoted to Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll. “A rotating
roster of performers will read the juiciest passages
from stories by Marianne Faithfull, Bebe Buell,
David Cassidy, Pamela Des Barres, and
many more.” February 9 stars Michael Musto, Carl
Andress, and Larry Bullock as Cupid. Audience
members are invited to pick from his grab bag of over-the-top
autobiographies, which the cast will then read, with
feeling. Call (212) 533-7000 for tickets and times.
•
On February 4 BISG and VISTA host
a conference on “Making Information Pay.” The focus
of the half-day conference is how publishers, distributors,
and
retailers are reinventing traditional industry practices
to improve channel performance. Speakers include Michael
Cairns, President of R.R. Bowker, Jonathan
Nowell, EVP, Nielsen BookData; Dominique
Raccah, President and Publisher, Sourcebooks;
Mike Shatzkin, CEO The Idea Logical Company;
and Jean Srnecz, SVP of Merchandising, Baker
& Taylor. Ted Hill will moderate. For
information, go to http://bisg.org.
•
The 2004 National Book Foundation Gold Medal
Tour kicks off on Wednesday, February 18 at 6:30 p.m.
with “An Evening With the Winners” at The Celeste Bartos
Forum of The New York Public Library. The Winners
of the 2003 National Book Award — Carlos Eire, Waiting
for Snow in Havana; Shirley Hazzard, The Great
Fire; Polly Horvath, The Canning Season; and
C.K. Williams, The Singing: Poems — will give a
talk on their “writing lives” and answer audience questions.
The event will be followed by a reception.
•
Meredith Vieira hosts the Eighth Annual “Books
for a Better Life Awards” ceremony on Monday, February
23rd at the Millennium Broadway Hotel from 6-8 p.m.
For information or tickets, go to www.msnyc.org
or call (212) 463-7787.
•
The Small Press Center hosts a panel on “Getting
Published: What Literary Agents and Editors Are Looking
for in 2004.” The panel includes agent James Fitzgerald,
Kim Goldstein from the Susan Golomb Literary
Agency, PJ Dempsey, Senior Editor at M. Evans
and Company, and Caroline White, Senior Editor
at Viking Penguin. Lloyd J. Jassin, a
media lawyer, will moderate. The event takes place at
the Small Press Center, 20 West 44 St., on Thursday,
January 15th, 2004, 6:30 to 9:15 p.m. For more information,
go to www.smallpress.org.
And in March
The annual Poets &
Writers Gala Benefit Dinner takes place March 2
at Tribeca Rooftop. Judy Blume, Oakley
Hall, and Sharon Olds will be honored. For
more information go to www.pw.org.
Duly Noted
According to the AAP,
net trade sales in 2002 were responsible for $6.93 billion
(roughly $12 billion at retail), and 2003 looked pretty
flat. Which makes a recent article in USA Today even
more impressive — or distressing, depending on your
point of view. According to the article, DVD retail
sales for 2003 hit $17.5 billion, with another $5.4
billion in rentals, representing an average of 17 DVDs
per owner. While the article contrasts these figures
to the lackluster revenues from the box office, music
sales, and TV, books are barely mentioned.
The
Wall Street Journal takes up where USA Today
leaves off, showing in a recent article that everything
is relative: consumers spend an average of 2 hours per
week reading, versus just over 1 hour per week watching
videocassettes and DVDs. So how are they spending the
rest of their leisure time? TV watching is up to 20
hours per week.
©2004
Publishing Trends
