Book View
Executive Moves, Book Deals, and More Industry
News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MAY 2004)
People
April is the cruelest month for some;
but for others, it’s been a banner one. And for the
industry as a whole, there’s been a whirlwind of activity,
with enough moves, consolidations, entries and exits
to rival a Feydeau or Frayn farce.
Sara
Nelson, Glamour’s Senior Contributing
Editor, Books, and columnist for The New York Observer,
is moving to the NY Post as the books
columnist, starting May 18. She continues her Monday
morning stint on Air America, the new liberal
radio network.
Steve
Parr, CEO and President of Harry Abrams,
is leaving to become President of Primedia’s
Performance Automotive Group. His new employer knew
of him from his previous stint as President of EMAP
USA, which was acquired by Primedia.
Mel
Parker has announced the formation of Mel Parker
Books, LLC, “an innovative book packaging firm.” He
was most recently in SVP Editorial Director at Bookspan,
and before that at Warner Books. Parker may be
reached at mel@melparkerbooks.com, or by cell, (917) 696-6105.
Walter
L. Weintz has started his new job as Chief Operating
Officer at Workman Publishing. He was VP Deputy
Publisher at S&S. In other S&S news Claire
Israel moved to S&S as Director of Electronic
Publishing, reporting to Kate Tentler. She was
most recently at Nuvomedia/Gemstar. Rosemary
Ahern, who left Washington Square Press in 2002,
has joined Other Press, to run its fiction imprint,
Handsel Books.
Karen
Kreiger has become COO of Amber-Allen Publishing
in Marin County. She was previously VP Custom Publishing
at Creative Publishing in Minneapolis.
Chris Murphy has left Scholastic to go to
Little Brown as VP, Director, Juvenile Sales.
And coincidentally, Mary Gruetzke has moved from
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers to Cartwheel
Books at Scholastic, as a Senior Editor. Erin McHugh,
Creative Director for Scholastic trade, has left
the company and may be reached at emchughnyc@aol.com.
Katy
Barrett, who was VP Publicity at Vintage
and is currently Executive Publicist at Large for Knopf
is leaving after 15 years, but will maintain a consulting
relationship with the company. She may be reached through
RH or at katybarrett@optonline.net.
... Leslie Sepuka is coming to Vintage and Anchor
as Publicity Manager. She was at WGBH-TV. Meanwhile
Vintage has hired a new Associate Editor, Lexy Bloom,
who was most recently at Viking and Granta.
... In other Random Inc. news, Tim Jarrell
has been named VP Publisher of Fodor’s. He was
previously at Sports Illustrated for Kids and
Sesame Street. ... Doug Pepper has resigned
as Editor in Chief of Crown, to return to Canada
as President and Publishers of McClelland & Stewart.
... And, as reported earlier, Amy Hertz is going
to her own imprint at Doubleday from Riverhead
West Coast.
Viz,
the West Coast publisher of Japanese anime and manga,
has just hired a new VP of Sales, Joe Morici.
He was previously the SVP Sales of Metro3D, a
video game developer and publisher. Viz recently announced
it would move distribution to S&S from PGW.
Ingram
Book Group has hired Phil Ollila as VP, Publisher
Services. Ollila was previously at Borders. ... John
Phillips has left Baker & Taylor, where
its Distribution Solutions Group is on hold. Phillips
had come to B&T from PubEasy/Vista.
Nancy Grubb, Publisher and Group Manager, Art Books
at Princeton University Press will be leaving
in June. She may be reached at ngrubb@nyc.rr.com.
Greg
Brandenburgh has left ThorsonsElement U.S.
and may be reached at Ggeorgesam@aol.com.
Steve Fischer has been promoted to VP in the
US office, reporting to Belinda Budge in the
UK, and continues to oversee sales. Chris Ahern,
who worked with Fischer at Tuttle, becomes Director
of Marketing and Publicity, a new position.
As previously reported, Perseus’ reorganization
includes the departures of Holly Hodder, VP
Publisher of Westview, and Counterpoint’s
Dawn Sefarian ... In an unrelated announcement,
Amanda Cook has moved from Basic Books to Houghton
Mifflin as a Senior Editor in the Boston office
of the adult trade department.
Following the resignation of Neil Ortenberg,
Avalon announced the acquisition of FourWalls
Eight Windows and the ascension of its Publisher
John Oakes as VP of the Avalon Group and Publisher
of Thunder’s Mouth, and Nation Books. ... With the sale
of 4 Walls 8 Windows to Avalon, longtime Senior Editor
Kathryn Belden is leaving the company. She may
be reached at kabeldn@aol.com.
Sheila
Oakes, Executive Editor at Perigee/Putnam,
is leaving to join St. Martin’s with the same
title, while Sally Kim of Thomas Dunne and Julia
Pastore of St. Martin’s Press have moved to Shaye
Areheart’s imprint at Harmony/Crown. Airie Stuart
has been named Editorial Director and head of trade
in the scholarly and reference division at Palgrave
Macmillan. She will be based in St. Martin’s offices.
She was previously at Wiley.
Distributor
CDS has added a few employees to its new CDS
Books publishing line. Meg Parsont has been named
Director of Marketing and Publicity, while Donna
Ellis has been appointed Managing Editor. Parsont
had been Publicity Director at Mitchell Beazley.
Ellis was most recently Senior Production Editor at
Hyperion.
DK
US announced that Chuck Lang, SVP Publishing,
has left the company.
May
Events
May is gala month in publishing, with two
of the industry’s biggest charity events: On May 3,
Literacy Partners hosts its annual Gala at Lincoln
Center. As usual, it features Liz Smith as MC,
joined by Hillary Clinton, Simon Winchester,
and Tom Wolfe, and honoring Tim Russert and
Tom Brokaw. On May 11, the UJA honors
Jack Romanos. Al Roker is the host (NBC
has obviously cornered the May gala sweeps), and
Frank McCourt will present the award. For information,
contact Marcy Frank at
(212) 836-1448.
• The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
(CLMP) is celebrating it’s 37th birthday with
a “Big Party for Small Publishers” on May 10 at the
Mercantile Library. For information, to RSVP, or to
make a tax-deductible contribution, contact tdidato@clmp.org.
•
The 16th Annual Triangle Awards, honoring
the best lesbian and gay fiction,
non-fiction, and poetry published in 2003, will be presented
on May 12 at
the Tishman Auditorium of the New School for Social
Research (66 West 12th
Street) at 7 p.m. Sponsored by HX Magazine
& HarperCollins, it is free and open to the
public, with a reception following.
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York
Times talks with Arthur Gelb, former Managing
Editor of The New York Times and author of City
Room (Marian Wood/Putnam). The interview will
be at 6 p.m. on May 20 at the Small Press Center,
20 West 44th. Call (212) 840-1840 or go to www.smallpress.org.
Duly
Noted
Atria’s Judith Curr, Morrow’s Lisa
Gallagher and St Martin’s John Cunningham
made for a tremendous marketing force at PAMA’s
monthly luncheon where they laid out 3 cardinal rules
for big book (or any book) marketing:
1. The book’s “gotta deliver” and word of mouth reigns
supreme. (Curr’s dictum: “If it’s difficult to get the
packaging right then the book’s message is obviously
not clear.”)
2. Timing is everything — and “when the momentum is
going, drop everything and get out of the way.” (Cunningham)
3. Do nothing in a vacuum — particularly spend money
on ads. Successful marketing depends on the successful
interaction of all component parts of the plan. (Gallagher)
P.S. Use the Web every chance you get ...
Mazel
Tov
Congratulations to Otto Penzler and Lisa Atkinson
on their nuptials. The wedding party includes groomsmen
of high media merit — Larry Kirshbaum, Sir
Howard Stringer, Anthony Cheetham, and Nat
Sobel, with Thomas Cook as the best man and
Michael Malone as an usher.
©2004
Publishing Trends
