Book View
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (JULY 2004)
People
June
was a relatively quiet month, though that doesn’t guarantee
a quiet summer, judging from the increase of job listings
on industry job boards and murmurings around town:
Harold
Augenbraum is leaving The Mercantile Library
to become Executive Director of the National
Book Foundation, effective July 12. A search committee
has been formed to find a new Director for the Library.
Fred Ciporen has confirmed the rumor that Reed
Business Information has pulled the plug on his
Reed Business Press imprint after less
than 18 months. Seven people are being laid off, including
Editorial Director, Beau Friedlander. Ciporen
expects the 20 plus titles to find homes elsewhere.
Jay
Cosgrove has gone to Yale U. Press as Sales
Director. He was Wholesale Trade Sales Director of Random
Adult Trade.
Rick
Horgan, most recently VP, Executive Editor, at Warner
Books, is moving to Crown, with the same
title. Doug Pepper left recently to return to
Canada, but this is not a direct replacement. Becky
Cabaza, Editorial Director of Three Rivers Press,
has hired Katie McHugh as Associate Editor. She
worked most recently at Perigee Books. More hires
to come, we hear.
Don
Laventhall has joined Harold Ober Associates
Inc. as a literary agent and the Director of Film Rights.
Laventhall was a producer on “The Pelican Brief” and
“The Devil’s Own.”
Lisa
Benenson has joined Rebus, the medical packager
and publisher, as VP Editorial Director. She was formerly
the Editor-in-Chief for both Working Mother and
Working Woman magazines, and served as Editorial
Director and VP for the magazines’ parent company, Working
Woman Network.
Liza
Baker has gone to Little, Brown for Young
Readers as Executive Editor and Director of Special
Projects. This is a new position. And speaking of Time
Warner’s Book Group, Andrew Malkin, has become
VP International at Ingram, reporting to Peter
Clifton. He was most recently Brand Manager at TWBG.
At
S&S, Scribner Director of Publicity
Pat Eisemann is leaving the company. Eisemann
has worked for the imprint for 10 years and on and off
for S&S since 1984.
S&S Children’s Publishing has hired Suzanne Harper
as Senior VP Publisher for hardcover. Harper, who was
Editor-in-Chief of Disney Adventures magazine since
1997, succeeds Brenda Bowen, who left S&S
earlier this year to join Hyperion Books for Children.
Ariane
Fink is leaving Sanford Greenberger to set
up her own scouting agency. And May Wuthrich
has announced that, as of July 31st, Gotham Scouting
Partners will be closing its doors. Wuthrich may be
reached at 646-734-8200. Her associate, DW Gibson
may be reached at 917-319-6452 or DWMgibson@yahoo.com.
Clients Piper, Bzztôh and Owl’s Agency
in Japan will announce their respective plans shortly.
Webster
Younce will join Houghton Mifflin as a Senior
Editor, as of July 12. He was at Random House. Meanwhile,
four years out of college, Hyperion’s Ben
Loehnen has moved to Little Random to oversee what
the house calls “a new business program.”
Carie Freimuth and John Hughes announced
they’re leaving their respective jobs at HarperCollins
and Perseus, and New York. Hughes explains: “This
has been a tough choice for me, as it means turning
away from my loved and respected colleagues (including
Matty Goldberg, Liz Maguire, and Jamie
Brickhouse) and the uniquely worthy lists we’ve
published, at just the time when Perseus is emerging
as an even better place to work. Carie says: “There’s
much I’m excited about in relocating to Denver — it’s
my hometown, and much of my family lives there. ...
And it’s a big adventure at the beginning of our married
lives. I've loved the 19 years I've worked in publishing
here. I've been blessed to work with many outstanding
books, remarkable authors and wonderful colleagues over
that time. Here’s hoping our friends and colleagues
who might be visiting in the West will look us up!”
In another re-org at what used to be Grolier,
31 positions have been eliminated in the continuity
division of Scholastic’s Danbury, Conn., office,
representing 20% of the work force. Earlier in June,
Greg Worrell was named President of the Scholastic
Library Publishing division, also in Danbury. Worrell
was recently SVP of Sales and Marketing for Scholastic
Education. He reports to Margery Mayer, EVP,
Scholastic and President of Scholastic Education.
Promotions
Brian Murray — in his first official announcement
as Group President of HarperCollins — announced that
Dan Halpern has been named Publisher of the Ecco
imprint. He had been SVP, Co-Publisher of Fourth Estate
and Editorial Director of Ecco.
Duly Noted
Random
threw a party to launch its new distributed line, Real
U, which publishes magazine-like books to help recent
graduates of high school and college handle money, buy
a car, find a job etc. (Real U CEO Steve Schultz
astonished the audience by claiming to have only read
“four or five” books over the years, but perhaps that
was exhibiting solidarity with his prospective customers.)
At the moment the books are selling only in Wal-Mart,
but that will change, John Groton, Director of
Distributed Client Services, tells PT, and by
August the books will be available at bookstores and
other outlets. Priced at $6.95, the books are written
by experts such as Peter Greenberg (Travel Editor
for The Today Show) and Frank Abagnale, of Catch
Me If You Can fame.
•
Ebooks Corp. announced the launch of its ebook-lending
platform, EBL at the ALA. According to the company,
the platform is targeted at academic and research libraries
and aims to help them better meet fluctuations in full-text
demand. Academic publishers that have signed on include
Taylor & Francis, Oxford University Press,
Cambridge University Press, and Kluwer.
EBL allows publishers to provide their content through
a number of lending models, including multiple concurrent
use, unlimited access and short-term circulation, as
well as allowing individual ebook chapters to be set
aside for reserve lending or inclusion within course
packs.
Parties
Overlook’s publication party for Charles McCarry’s
Old Boys — the 10th novel by a master of the suspense
genre, continues Peter Mayer’s resuscitation
of almost forgotten talent — Robert Littell was
the last writer to see a career resurgence at his hands.
Guests included Carole Baron, Bruce Harris,
Alan Kahn and Bob Wietrak, who happily
whispered B&N’s first two weeks sales figures
to a smiling author and also commented that never in
his career had he seen a publisher do as good a job
as Knopf/RH was doing with Bill Clinton’s
tome…praise indeed.
•
Dell alum got together on June 29 at Ruby Foo’s
on the UWS for an irregularly scheduled (last time was
fifteen years ago) reunion. Included in the group —
who all remember the pre-BDD days (forget pre-Bertelsmann)
with fondness — were Random’s Reed Boyd,
Reader’s Digest’s Harold Clarke, Holtzbrinck’s
Alison Lazarus, agent George Nicholson,
Barbara Parrott, a sales veep at Essence,
and Ava Seave, a principal with Quantum Media,
a consulting group. Others have left the hothouse of
New York publishing for serener pastures. Sue Bynum
is now VP of Episcopal Church Pension Fund (though it
does have the Church Publishing Group) and Lorraine
Perrin Clarke once in sales, is now an elementary
school teacher.
Mazel
Tov
To
Ballantine’s Charlotte Herscher, and Joshua
Rappaport, proud parents of Benjamin, born on June 8,
2004.
In Memoriam
Elizabeth Cater, who died May 28 at the age of 70.
Her career included positions at Bobbs Merrill,
the Paul Reynolds Agency, Praeger, Putnam,
and the Macmillan Book Clubs. Her last position
was as SVP and Publisher of Newbridge Educational
Publishing.
©2004
Publishing Trends
