PEOPLE
Reader’s Digest announces that Harold Clarke, most recently President of Random’s Children’s Publishing Division, has been named VP Publisher New Market Development, for RD’s Global Books and Home Entertainment Division, reporting to SVP and President John Bohane. Speaking of exurban, Janet Harris has left Workman, where she has overseen all sales, to become Associate Publisher of Storey Communications in Vermont. And even farther afield, Mike Winton, COO of Publishers Group West for 21 years, has decided to leave the company.
HarperCollins’ Michael Morrison has been named Publisher, Morrow/Avon, but will continue in his role as EVP of the General Books Group. He has also joined the Executive Committee. Craig Herman has left HC to become VP, Marketing Director of Pocket Books. He was previously VP of Marketing for the Adult Trade Group.
Roger Cooper, formerly at BookSpan (née Doubleday Direct/Book-of-the-Month Club) is consulting on editorial, strategic alliances for iPublish, the new epublishing division of Time Warner Trade. And congrats to BOMC vet Alice van Straalen, newly named Editor at Anchor Books. Another erstwhile BOMCer on the move: Tracy Brown moves to Ballantine on June 5 as Senior Editor. He was formerly at Owl/Holt, and before that, Editor in Chief of BOMC. . . Finally, Karen Daly, formerly at Doubleday Direct, now heads up BoardRoom’s book publishing efforts.
Little, Brown’s Bill Phillips has resigned effective July 1. Meanwhile Deborah Baker, formerly of Kodansha, has been named Senior Editor at LB, replacing Jennifer Josephy, who went to Broadway. . . David Gale has been promoted to Editorial Director of S&S Books for Young Readers. He was Executive Editor. S&S has “redeployed” its academic marketing department to the web, with four lay-offs, including VP Director of Academic Marketing Dino Battista, and Academic Marketing Manager. Lyda Shuster. As it happens, Vintage just hired Keith Goldsmith from Library of America to be its new Director of Academic Marketing.
Meanwhile Marcia Burch, who left Penguin Putnam after having spent her entire career there, has become VP, Director of Publicity at S&S Trade Paperbacks. Celia O’Connell has resigned from the Center for Literary Presses to pursue a joint MBA/PhD degree in cultural studies. Candidates are lining up for the Executive Director position, with frontrunner reported to be Elizabeth Bogner, formerly of S&S. . . Will Lippincott has resigned as Publisher of the New Republic and is talking to book publishers about a position. . . Debby Tobias, who spent many years at Warner and other publishers, has gone to Zagat to oversee their sales. Ruth Pomerance, formerly head of AMG’s NYC office, has moved to USA Films as EVP Development and Production (phone: 212 358-4775).
VIRTUAL PEOPLE
Lucinda Karter, Foreign Rights Dir. at Norton, defected to rightscenter.com. . . Contentville wins the award for the biggest publishing outpost, with 5 (to date) émigrés: Annik LaFarge (ex-S&S); John Conti (formerly Ballantine); Paul Schnee (Pocket); Kasumi Parker from Time Warner’s rights department; and a young assistant from Riverhead, Hanya Yanagihara. Susan Dalsimer (formerly Miramax), who was working on a freelance basis, left when the project was completed.
DEALS
Sarah Ban Breathnach has signed her first deal at Scribner for her new imprint, Simple Abundance Press: Barry Dolnick’s Instructions for Your Discontent, from Emma Sweeney at Ober. It’s about dealing with life’s bumps through karma and power. (Dolnick used to publish with Crown.) The advance was not disclosed.
Two literary agents sold their own books (through agents) last week: Craig Nelson, to Viking, via Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, and Henry Dunow, to Broadway Books. The latter’s, titled Which Way to First?, uses Dunow’s experience coaching his son’s Upper West Side Little League team to explore his Jewish roots and relationships, and was sold by Betsy Lerner. . . Tod Shuster in the Zachary Shuster Agency’s New York office sold The Last Good Time, by Jonathan VanMeter, to Doug Pepper at Crown for a “very substantial six figures.” It is “Sopranos-esque” and tells the story of Skinny D’Amato and the 500 Club, a casino/cabaret where Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin got their starts. It darkens when Skinny’s son commits a series of brutal murders.
DULY NOTED
George Plimpton, Robert Coover, Gene DeRose (Jupiter Communications) and a well-connected Board of Directors announce the Electronic Literature Organization (eliterature.org), “to promote and facilitate the writing, reading and publishing of literature in electronic media.” It will partner with the ALA, Academy of American Poets and others.
In a long-anticipated move, BN.com unveiled “Barnes & Noble University,” a collection of free courses for which users can sign up on a first-come, first-serve basis, developed with notHarvard.com. The list, which includes “Choosing the Right Diet,” as well as “The Interactive Wedding Planner,” doesn’t offer many synergistic opportunities to sell books through Textbooks.com, which the Riggio family owns, but perhaps those courses are in the works. . . And Suzanne Somers, inducted into the Books for a Better Life Hall of Fame this very year, has been named Response Magazine’s Marketer of the Year. In a 10-page paean, the article manages to refer to the actress’s complete oeuvre of titles, including publisher and date of publication. Watch those sales soar.
PARTIES
Scholastic’s Dick Robinson was honored at the UJA’s annual black-tie dinner on May 24, and Peter Mayer presented the Scholastic CEO with his award. Katie Couric was the MC. On the same night Harper’s threw a party in Grand Central for its 150th anniversary, which lured those industry folk who felt like a party but couldn’t pony up the $600-per-seat charge that the UJA was asking. Then there was the downtown crowd who popped into Three Lives Bookstore to see author Marty Asher read from his new novel, Boomer. Afterwards friends and Knopf/Vintage colleagues (the latter being his publisher and the former, his employer) hosted a dinner for Asher and the book’s designer, Chip Kidd.
Dave Eggers was perhaps the closest thing to a publishing exec at the pre-BEA party for rightscenter.com, held May 25 at the Angel Orensanz Foundation. The converted synagogue on the Lower East Side was filled with new media types and beautiful people, including Chloe Sevigny and Parker Posey, who came out to listen to indie-rock god Steve Malkmus perform (sans his band, Pavement).
