Book View
FROM PUBLISHING TRENDS
(JUNE 2004)
People
May
was another busy month for publishers’ human resource
directors: Michael Jacobs has gone to Abrams
as CEO. He was most recently SVP of Scholastic’s
trade division. In addition, Ron Longe has been
named Director of Publicity for STC, also part
of the Martinière Group. He was most recently
at Routledge.
Michael Kazan, who recently left Spier NY,
has joined Bennett Book Advertising as Managing
Director. . . . Dave Nelson has gone to Zagat
as General Manager, Trade Sales. He was most recently
at Harcourt. ... Lynn Grady has been named
Director of Marketing at ReganBooks, replacing
Carl Raymond, who went to DK. She was
most recently at Kensington. . . . Dan Verdick
has become Trade Sales Director at Motorbooks.
He was previously Sales & Marketing Director at
ABDO. . . . Marian Lizzi is leaving St.
Martin’s after 14 years, to go to Perigee
as Senior Editor. She replaces Sheila Curry Oakes,
who recently left for — St. Martin’s.
As widely noted, Brian Murray is returning
from Australia to become Group President of HarperCollins.
He will officially begin on July 6. And US General Books
President and Publisher, Cathy Hemming, has left
the company.
In a move that had been anticipated, EVP Mark Ouimet
has left PGW and his position is being filled
by his long-time associate, Karen Cross. Also
leaving is Phyllis Henrici, who worked for PGW’s
parent company, AMS, as Director of Bargain Sales &
Purchasing. Tracy Fortini has been hired as Senior
Marketing Director. She was most recently at Discovery
Channel Stores.
Carol
Roeder, who left Intervisual earlier this
year, has been named Director of Licensing for ShoPro
Entertainment, a division of Japan’s Shogakukan
Publishers. She and her husband Dudley Jahnke,
who has resigned as Director of Sales for M.E. Sharpe,
have relocated to the West Coast.
Larry
Stone, Founder and Publisher of Rutledge Hill
Press, which he sold to Thomas Nelson in 1999,
is retiring. Pamela Clements, VP Publicity, has
immediately been named Associate Publisher, and will
be named Publisher at a future date.
John
Griffin has been named to succeed Stephen Lacy
(who will become President and COO of Meredith Corp.
on July 1) as head of the publishing group, which includes
the company’s book unit and the magazine division, which
he has run since June 2003.
Elke
Villa has joined S&S as Director of Children’s
Marketing. Ryan Harbage has joined Simon Spotlight
as Editor. Nancy Hancock is joining Touchstone
Fireside as Senior Editor. She was previously an
Executive Editor at McGraw-Hill. S&S Director
of Publicity Aileen Boyle and National Accounts
Director Deb Darrock will both be promoted to
Associate Publisher following the departure of Associate
Publisher Melissa Possick, who has left for Taunton
Press. Also joining Taunton is Pam Hoenig, who
will be starting a cookbook program. She left Harvard
Common Press, where she was Executive Editor.
Vivian
Antonangeli has been named COO of Brighter Child
Interactive in Columbus, Ohio, where she will launch
a publishing venture. . . . Formerly at Wiley,
Jeff Golick has joined BBC Audiobooks
America as Acquisitions Editor. Wendy Strothman,
who was EVP of Houghton Mifflin’s trade and reference
group until June 2002 and now runs a literary agency,
has brought in Dan O’Connell as Senior Publicity
Director, working with clients on the early positioning
of their books. He worked with Strothman at HM and Beacon.
Former Yale University Press Director John
Ryden is an affiliate agent in the agency.
Promotions
Scholastic’s Ellie Berger is being promoted
to the position of SVP, Trade, where she will be coordinating
the daily activities of the Trade Division. Berger will
also be responsible for demand planning and operations
and will continue in her role as Publisher of Licensed
Properties. She reports to Barbara Marcus. .
. . Dan Menaker, SVP of Random House
Group, was appointed to the newly created position of
Executive Editor-in-Chief, reporting to President and
Publisher Gina Centrello. Menaker will now oversee
the editorial activities of the Group’s Ballantine
imprints as well. Jon Karp, has been promoted
to SVP, Editor-in-Chief, reporting to Menaker. He will
now oversee the editorial departments of Random House,
Villard, Modern Library, and Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Nancy
Miller continues as SVP, Editor-in-Chief of the
Ballantine imprints, and adds the title of Executive
Editor, Random House Publishing Group, also reporting
to Menaker. . . . At HarperCollins Deputy Publisher
of Avon/Harper Torch Darlene Delillo
has been promoted to SVP. . . . S&S’s Robb Pearlman
has been promoted to Associate Director, Licensing &
Brand Management. Tricia Boczkowski has been
promoted to Executive Editor of Simon Spotlight. . .
. Kathleen Keene, CFO and Acting Director of
Johns Hopkins U. Press since December, when Jim
Jordan left for Columbia U. Press, has been
named Director.
Duly
Noted
The
May/June issue of Booktech Magazine lists the
top-30 book manufacturers. Quebecor, for whom
book manufacturing is 11% of its total revenue, comes
in first, followed by Donnelley (14%), Von
Hoffman (100%), Banta (20%) and Arvato/Bertelsmann
( 91%). Only four on the list have revenues in excess
of a billion dollars, and another six have revenues
exceeding one hundred million dollars. Although not
up at press time, the list will be posted on www.booktechmag.com.
•
R.R. Bowker released its analysis of books in print,
based on its database of titles and publishers. There
were 175,000 new titles and editions published in 2003,
which includes 3,773 titles reported to Books In Print
by the three “subsidy publishers,” including Xlibris,
iUniverse and AuthorHouse, according to
Andrew Grabois, Senior Director of publisher
relations and content development. The number of new
titles released by the 12 largest trade houses increased
2.4%, to 22,914, while total output for the top-55 university
presses declined 2.2%, to 12,003. Since 1994, new titles
have increased 50.8% for all U.S. publishers, 24.4%
for the largest trade houses, and 14.4% for university
presses. General adult fiction was one of only three
categories to show a decline in 2003, dipping 1.6% to
17,021 new titles and editions. This was the first year
since 1991 that fiction did not register an increase,
declining 1.6% to 17,021. Output of new juvenile titles
continued its upward trend, increasing 45.3% to 16,283.
Biography, history and religion also recorded double-digit
increases.
Parties
Elaine’s was the venue both for Carroll & Graf
and Grove Press, where the exceedingly
charming ambassador Joe Wilson and veteran writer
Jim Harrison were feted by their publishers.
Wilson’s turnout included Dan Rather, Lewis
Lapham, and WNYC’s Brian Lehrer. Morgan
Entrekin’s party for Harrison drew authors Tony
Bourdain, Phil Caputo, Joe Kanon,
and Jay McInerney, among others, and their
newsguy was Tom Brokaw. Also present, former
Mass guv Bill Weld gave 3-to-2 odds that Bush
would win.
•
HarperCollins, in conjunction with The New School,
held a party for the publication of Truth and Beauty,
Ann Patchett’s tribute to Lucy Grealy.
Nestled among the HC crew were Knopf’s Vicky
Wilson, agents Fred Hill and Ira Silverberg,
the NY Post’s Sara Nelson, Penguin’s
Rick Kot, and Dial Publisher Susan Kamil.
CEO Jane Friedman and the New School’s Robert
Polito delivered touching tributes to both Patchett
and Grealy.
In Memoriam
Roger W. Straus Jr. died on May 25 at the age of
87. The Farrar, Straus & Giroux founder is
survived by his wife and son, Roger Straus III, a photographer
and erstwhile publisher at HC and FSG.
©2004
Publishing Trends
