Book View
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MARCH 2005)
PEOPLE
Karen
Holt has been named Deputy Editor at PW,
reporting to Sara Nelson, for whom
she had worked at Simba. Holt came
from The Book Standard and she starts March
14. Michael Coffey will become Executive
Managing Editor. Meanwhile, erstwhile PW Editor Nora
Rawlinson has joined Time Warner Book
Group in the new position of VP Library Services,
reporting to Maureen Egen.
Comings and
goings at Random include: Publishing
Director of the Modern Library David Ebershoff
is stepping down to become Editor-at-Large, while Penguin'sJane
von Mehren will become publisher of trade paperbacks
for Little Random, reporting to Gina
Centrello. Jennifer Hershey
starts at Random House on March 14,
as Editorial Director, reporting to Jonathan
Karp. She spent the past three years at Putnam.
Susan Mercandetti, Senior Acquisitions
Editor for MiramaxBooks, joins Random
on April 4 as Senior Editor. Lee Boudreaux,
who left Random House in late January,
has gone to Ecco/HarperCollins as Executive
Editor.
Speaking of
Harper, Executive Editor Mark Bryant
is leaving, and Olga Vezeris has left
Harper Audio. She is now available for freelance editorial,
reading, book doctoring etc., and may be reached at
212 744 8842, ovezeris@aol.com.
Jacqueline Murphy was named Executive
Editor, Harper Audio, earlier in the year. . . . And
Susan Friedland retired from Harper
at the end of February and left her forwarding address:
susan.friedland@gmail.com.
Chris
Mckenney , who had been EVP/COO, resigned from
his position with PGW, effective February
18th.
Herman
Graf has gone to Hylas Publishing
as a general business consultant, overseeing trade sales
and working with NBN. He will also
oversee the catalogers and co-op operations as well
as develop a school and library market base. Marketing
Manager Joyce Stein has left the company.
Mary
Hogan Wilcox joins Houghton Mifflin
Children's Books in the new position of Director
of franchise publishing. She will "oversee the
editorial direction and execution of Houghton Mifflin
and Clarion franchise publishing initiatives" and
work on "brand extension publishing opportunities"
within the company's backlist. Wilcox was Editorial
Director at HarperFestival.
Christopher
Reggio , who was the Associate Publisher and
Director of Adult Trade Publishing at Readers
Digest is leaving to become Publisher of books
at TFHPublications, the pet book publisher
based in New Jersey.
Pat
Eisemann has been named Assistant Director
of Community Affairs and Media Relations at the New
York Times, reporting to VP Marketing, Alyse
Myers. Most recently she was the Director of
Publicity at Scribner.
S&S
Children's Publishing is establishing a new Merchandise
Division as part of a plan to enter the coloring and
activity marketplace. Steve Weitzen
has joined the company as SVP and Publisher, Merchandise
Division. Weitzen comes to S&S from Big
Tent Entertainment LLC. He was at Golden
prior to that. And at Spotlight Entertainment, Jennifer
Suitor has been made Director of Publicity
, reporting to SSE VP and Publisher Jen Bergstrom.
Suitor held the same position at ReganBooks.
Dave
Griscom has moved to Klutz
as a National Accounts Manager (handling B&N, Borders
& Wholesalers). He had been at Clocktower
Press and previously, at Random House.
Bookspan
moves to 15 East 26th Street as of March 14. The general
phone number will be 212-651-7400 and there will not
be any individual phone extensions. Meanwhile, in what
looks like the beginning of a major absorption of editorial
under the marketing umbrella at Bookspan (see story,
page 1), Brigitte Weeks' position as
Editor in Chief has been eliminated; Patty Gift
has left Bookspan for Sterling, where
she will report to Steve Magnuson.
More positions in editorial and marketing are to be
eliminated, according to industry tea leaf readers.
Christopher
Sweet has left Abrams for
Vendome. Susan Enochs
has been named Director of Marketing for Abrams. She
was Director of Sales and Marketing for Monacelli
Press. . . . Phil Friedman, most recently
at OUP has gone to HarperInformation
to take the job vacated by Steve Hanselman
at the end of last year.
As widely reported,
Carole Baron has decided to step down
from her role as President of Putnam
and Dutton after six years. Brian
Tart, previously Dutton Publisher's, will now
also be named President of the imprint. Susan
Peterson Kennedy assumes responsibility for
Putnam. . . . Meanwhile, Mark Chait
joins NAL as Senior Editor, focusing on military fiction
and nonfiction, as well as pop culture and general nonfiction
for men. He was at Hyperion. The company
has laid off a number of back-office and sales positions.
No exact number as yet, but the cuts reportedly come
at Viking and Putnam in the U.S. as
well as other divisions at Penguin
U.K.
Ed
Monagle , former SVP of Finance for Scholastic,
has left the company and may be reached at 732 259-2027.
Betsy
Lerner has become a partner in the newly formed
agency Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.
Lerner had been at The Gernert Company, The beginning
of a new year seems to have prompted some early spring
cleaning, with an unusual number of moves around the
industry. Elisa Petrini joined Vigliano
Associates as a VP and Literary Agent. Petrini will
be based in the agency's new Manhattan offices at 405
Park Avenue.
Susan
Bain has joined Sourcebooks
as National Accounts Manager, Trade Group. She was previously
Field Sales and Marketing Manager for Kensington
Publishing. And Jennifer Downey has
been appointed National Accounts Manager, Independent
and Educational Bookstores.
Pam
Morlett has been named Publisher of Thunder
Bay Press and Director of adult proprietary
publishing for AMS. She was category
buyer for AMS and replaces Ann Ghublikian
who may be reached at 413 698 8007.
PROMOTIONS
Carl
Raymond has been appointed Publishing Director,
Adult Books for DK Publishing, reporting
to Bill Barry. Raymond joined DK in
March of last year as Director of Marketing from ReganBooks
where he had held the same title.
Meanwhile,
Christopher Davis has announced his
plans to retire from the company.
Anthony
Chirico was named President, Knopf
Publishing Group. He was previously EVP, COO. . . .
Scott Matthews was promoted to the
post of SVP and Publisher of Random House Audio and
Large Print, reporting to David Naggar,
adding responsibility for the children's audio lines
Listening Library and Imagination studio.
At HarperCollins,
Tom Ward has been promoted to the newly
created position of VP, Director of Business Affairs
and Associate General Counsel, reporting to Chris Goff
.
Lisa
Gallagher has been named Publisher of the William
Morrow, HarperEntertainment and Eos
imprints. She reports to Michael Morrison, President
and Group Publisher HarperMorrow. She was Associate
Publisher.
FEBRUARY
EVENTS
NYU'S
Third Management Forum for Independent Publishers
will be held on April 15-16. Among the speakers in this
useful, nuts and bolts program are Nielsen Bookscan's
Jim King, Bookspan's
Larry Shapiro, Perseus's
David Steinberger, and Ingram's
Phil Ollila. The price is $950 or $855
before March 18. Call 212 992 3236 or www.scps.nyu.edu/indy
March is Small
Press Month at the Small Press Center and on
Wednesday, March 16 at 6 pm The Women's National Book
Association presents University & Academic Presses
- New Challenges, New Directions, a panel discussion.
Tickets are $10; $5 for students and Small Press Center
members; free for WNBA members. For information call
212-208-4629. For information on others Small Press
Month events email info@smallpress.org, or go to http://www.smallpress.org/.
DULY
NOTED
At the Books
for a Better Life Awards on February 28, WHAT TO EXPECT
co-author Heidi Murkoff and former
CEO of Bantam, Oscar Dystel
were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Speaking of Dystel,
Bantam President (and one time assistant to Dystel)
Irwyn Applebaum described his genius:
"while Oscar had the soul of a reader, he had the
brain and drive of a businessman."
©2005
Publishing Trends
