PEOPLE
HarperCollins announced that Harper One president and publisher Judith Curr will retire on May 29, after leading the group for eight years. At Harper 360, affiliate publisher Jean Marie Kelly will retire on May 1 after 24 years at the company. Kelly is succeeded by Emily Gerbner, who is promoted to affiliate publisher. In other HarperCollins news, Roxanne Finkelstein takes on the newly created role of director, publishing operations, managing editorial. Harlequin brings on Jess Verdi as senior editor for Afterglow and Carina. She was previously at Alcove Press/Crooked Lane Books.
At Basic Books Group, longtime president and publisher Lara Heimert will retire from her position on June 5. Heimert joined Basic Books in 2005 as executive editor and became publisher in 2012. Associate publisher Brian Distelberg will take over as president and publisher. Grand Central brings on Hannah Lopez as a marketing associate. She was previously at Riverhead.
At Chronicle Books, Melanie Roth has joined as senior manager, trade sales, independent trade and school & library and Katie Campbell has joined as publicist.
At Sourcebooks, Gwen Morton has joined as associate director, managing and production editorial, children’s. Haneen Oriqat has joined as managing editor, children’s. Laurie Swanson has joined as accounts payable coordinator. Mikaela Bender has joined as marketing & publicity associate, kids. Emily Rowin has joined as regional indie sales manager, Southeast. Samantha Smith joins as VP, associate publishing director of Poisoned Pen Press. She was previously VP, publisher for James Patterson at Little, Brown.
At The American Library Association, Tamika Barnes, associate dean at Perimeter College Library Services, Georgia State University was voted ALA President. Danielle Jones Youth Development Manager, Multnomah County Library, was elected Vice President/President-Elect of the reunified ALSC and YALSA.
Penguin Random House Publisher Services brings on Sam Kiemele as reprint production manager on the Kodansha team, reporting to Angela Silver. She was previously logistics and operations manager at Compendium. At Crown Publishing, Talia Baiocchi has rejoined as VP, executive editor, Ten Speed Press, and associate director of business development, Crown Illustrated. Heather Faulls has joined as senior marketing manager.
Phaidon Kids has announced Emilie Robert Wong has joined as a project editor.
Flatiron has Jesse Shuman joining as senior editor, acquiring commercial and upmarket fiction. He was previously at Ballantine Books.
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In Agency News…
At The Future of Agency, Michelle Forde joins as campaign manager for book marketing services on contract.
KF Literary Scouting has begun scouting for dramatic audio rights for Pocket.fm.
Kin & Co. Literary Scouting is scouting for adult fiction and nonfiction for Verlagsgruppe HarperCollins Germany.
Ashleigh Heaton has launched Enchantress Marketing, a full-service book marketing agency specializing in genre fiction and open to traditional, indie, and hybrid authors.
At Mansion Street Literary Management, Katie Ferriello joins as literary agent, focusing on romance and children’s literature.
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PROMOTIONS
Penguin Press promotes Ginny Smith Younce to vice president and editor-in-chief. At Crown, Allyson Coy has been promoted to marketing associate. Josie McRoberts and Lindsay Cook have been promoted to associate publicist. At Knopf, promotions include Min Goto to senior designer, Sara Hayet to senior publicist, Doubleday, Kelly Shi to publicity manager, and Elka Roderick to publicist.
Flatiron promotes Marlena Bittner to SVP, executive director of marketing & publicity. Celadon promotes Emily Radell to associate publicist.
At Simon and Schuster, Jonathan Evans has been promoted to director, production editorial. Emily Kelly has been promoted to associate production editor for Aladdin and Simon Pulse. She was most recently a managing editorial assistant. Within Simon and Schuster Children’s, Alma Gomez Martinez has been promoted to assistant editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Xenia Weakly has been promoted to assistant editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Andrenae Jones has been promoted to assistant editor at Margaret K. McElderry Books.
At Harper Collins, Samantha Lubash has been promoted to senior marketing manager. Gina Macdonald has been promoted to associate director, Taryn Ortolan has been promoted to assistant manager, and Erin Pinksen has been promoted to assistant manager within production editorial.
Knopf promotes Morgan Hamilton to associate editor.
Chronicle Books promotes William Stone to subsidiary rights coordinator. Liz Anderson has been promoted to director of marketing, adult trade. Britt Mitchell has been promoted to director, children’s marketing & publicity and Caitlin Ek has been promoted to senior publicist, children’s.
At Norton, Caroline Adams has been promoted to editor.
Sourcebooks promotes Anna Michels to senior editorial director of Sourcebooks Nonfiction, focusing exclusively on that program and stepping down from her leadership of Poisoned Pen Press.
Holiday House, Peachtree, and Candlewick Press promote Miriam Miller to senior director of subsidiary rights. Kate Fletcher has been promoted to executive editorial director, Andrea Tompa has been promoted to editorial director, Kaylan Adair has been promoted to editorial director, fiction, and Juan Botero has been promoted to associate editor.
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DULY NOTED
Veteran publisher, most recently at Little, Brown, Hachette, Bruce Nichols’ new book The Emerson Circle:The Concord Radicals who Reinvented the World, will be published by Avid Reader, S&S on April 28.
PEN is launching an Author Safety Program in partnership with Hachette, Macmillan, and Penguin Random House. This program will be rolled out this coming summer with safety consultations starting in the fall. PEN stated “Through this new program, the literary and publishing community is stepping up together because writers should not be forced to choose between their safety and their voice. For years PEN America has helped journalists cope with online harassment, and we have fought for the freedom to write, read, and learn. Now, we are bringing all that experience together to meet the moment. Every writer silenced by intimidation is a loss for readers and for our democracy.”
Publishers Lunch reports that longtime CEO of Hachette-owned Grasset, Olivier Nora was fired on Tuesday by the parent company’s controlling owner Vincent Bolloré. Nora had been president of Grasset since 2000, after leading Calmann-Levy before that. He was replaced by Jean-Christophe Thiery, deputy ceo of Hachette Livre and chair and ceo of the Louis Hachette Group holding company.
Bolloré confirmed that Nora was fired due to a dispute over the publication date for author Bouale Sansal’s account of his imprisonment in an Algerian jail, which will be released on June 6. “The head of Grasset had wanted to release it at the end of the year—a move contrary to the wishes of Hachette’s management, the true owner of Grasset,” Bolloré wrote in a column in Le Journal du Dimanche, a publication he owns.
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Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.


