PEOPLE
Two Random House appointments: Beryl Needham, previously Dir. of Marketing for Little, Brown, has been named VP Dir. of National Accts. Children’s Books. And Adene Corns has been named VP Dir. of clubs and AMS. She was previously at S&S. Corns comes to Random with her full team
. . . After 21 years and over 2000 titles, Jane Leventhal has left Jim Henson Productions, where she was founder, SVP, and Publisher of the publishing division. She may be reached at janelev@aol.com. The rest of her editorial department has also departed, including Susan Kantor, Trisha Boczkowski and Kylie Foxx. Shelley Sanderson, Associate Publisher, says they are turning to a licensing model where publishers will develop and execute the editorial subject to Henson approval
. . . Harold Underdown has left Charlesbridge Publishing to join Byron Preiss’s iPicture books as VP, Editorial. . . Perry Janoski, previously at The Nation, has joined Talk magazine as Accounts Director for Publishing. . . Malka Margolies is leaving BookSpan, where she has been VP Corporate Communications, to have some time off with her young son. No replacement named yet. . . The Board of Directors of the Book Industry Study Group announced that BISG would be hiring a new Executive Director since Sandy Paul, the first person to hold that job, moved to Florida as CEO of Ocean Books, a company that manages libraries aboard ocean liners (really). “I’ll continue in the role of Managing Agent/office until they replace me or 1/31/01, whichever comes first,” says Paul.
VIRTUAL PEOPLE
Peter Costanzo just joined Contentville as Director of Bookseller Marketing and Merchandising. He comes from Random House Audio and replaces John Conti, who left earlier in the Fall. . . OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), a vendor of e-book technology services for publishers, announced the appointment of Pamela Turner as Director of Content for its e-book aggregation, digital rights management, and distribution businesses. She was COO of Undercover Book Service.
MEDIA
Crain’s New York’s Nov. 27 issue looked at “Silicon Alley: Where Are They Now,” and publishing folk dominate the story, as seems to be happening all over the media lately: The NYT’s Nov. 29 Business Day — with articles on Stephen King, Jack Welch’s forthcoming book, and Amazon — looked like it should change its section heading to All Books, All the Time.
But we digress. Interviewed at length by Crain’s were Randi Benton, then (1995) head of Random’s new media department and now a consultant “to companies venturing into e-publishing.” She says she left when Bertelsmann took over because, according to the article, “There was no room for an aggressive new media risk taker.” Are we talking about the same Bertelsmann that has stakes in BN.com, Xlibris, Audible, etc.?
Back to Crain’s, which also profiles Byron Preiss, who founded Byron Preiss Multimedia in 1991 and has reinvented himself with each new iteration of new media. His current focus is ibooks, a publisher of p- and e-books, though he still runs his traditional packaging operation.
Finally, there’s Aleen Stein, ex-wife of Bob, and co-founder of Voyager Co. She’s now Director of International Licensing for Scholastic’s software and Internet group, which is located in the same building that Voyager once occupied in its heyday in the mid-90s.
• “Although the U.S. has never really been a nation of readers, it has always been a nation of writers. Walk into any coffeehouse or community college in the land, and you will find plenty of would-be authors complaining that their masterpieces have failed to grab the attention of some arrogant, dimwitted New York City editor.” Robert S. Boynton writing in Time Digital about the proliferation of vanity publishing online.
• “While the United States leads the world in e-book hype, the European market is starting to challenge America in digital publishing.” So says The Industry Standard’s Steve Zeitchik in an article on global e-book publishing. He looks at what indigenous companies are doing, as well as where American companies like Xlibris are making inroads, and discusses the different emphasis in the rest of the world — a more sophisticated mobile network.
EVENTS
PublishersLunch.com’s Michael Cader hosted his third subscriber luncheon on Nov. 29, at the Century Club. The topic, “Making Money Through Free Media,” drew a cross-section of publishing folk, including traditional publishers, (Bob Miller, Barbara Marcus, Steve Ross, etc.), e-companies (Lightning’s Susan Peterson, Xlibris’ Emily Heckman, etc.) and an impressive smattering of agents (Michael Carlisle and Emma Parry, Brian DeFiore, Kathy Paton, et al), and featured speakers Seth Godin, Mike Shatzkin, and horror writer Douglas Clegg, all three of whom have experience, expertise, and much to say on the subject. Godin offered to host a publishing seminar at his Westchester office, for those interested. Email sethgodin@yahoo.com if you want to know more.
• LiveReads, a new e-publisher founded by a group of publishing veterans, has just published a newly discovered novella by Jack Kerouac, Orpheus Emerged, that is “enriched by interactive elements that bring Jack and the Beat world to life,” according to Neal Bascomb, CEO and co-founder.
INQUIRING MINDS
More stories from the e-book frontier: In the endless debate over BN.com’s demand for a 55% discount for e-books, BN.com’s Tom Turvey and St. Martin’s Steve Cohen came to an amicable impasse. So the intrepid publisher made the following suggestion: Why not figure out how to view these dilemmas from each other’s perspectives by seeing how the other half lives? The idea was seized upon enthusiastically and Tom will now come and peer over Steve’s shoulder, while Steve will reciprocate till each has got the hang of each others’ M.O., which might lead to some business being transacted. “Besides,” says Turvey, “Steve is such a smart guy, I’m hoping sitting in his chair for two days will pay off in bonus IQ points!”
• Though there has been no announcement from Grove/Atlantic about purchasing Edinburgh publisher Canongate, the books are in PGW’s warehouse, and listed in Grove’s catalog. The deal won’t be official until Feb. 1. Meanwhile Grove/Atlantic Publisher Morgan Entriken is finishing up a month in Japan.
• When Neil Baldwin, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, materialized at the Microsoft e-book Awards in Frankfurt, the obvious question was, National e-book Awards? And the answer is a qualified Yes. Baldwin tells PT that his board, headed by Deborah Wiley, has asked him to come back to them with a plan and a timetable for integrating e-books into the awards in a manner that is “consonant and harmonious with the way we do things.” Baldwin stresses that there will not be a separate e-book category — and in fact there is no intention of adding any categories to the four existing ones: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children’s. But, he says, “the medium is here and we need to accommodate to the medium.” The plan will be delivered by Spring 2001, so that any decision can be reflected in the May guidelines for submissions.
DULY NOTED
For those interested in a mainstream genre selling outside the normal distribution channels, look no further than Guideposts, the organization founded by Norman Vincent Peale, which recently moved into the mystery market. The publishing arm has sold numerous books before, but most were more obviously inspirational. The “Church Choir Mysteries,” a continuity series edited by Michele Slung and marketed primarily by mail, online, and in the pages of Guideposts (which has a circulation of 2.6 million), has titles like The Highly Suspicious Halo, but Jessica Fletcher is clearly the main inspiration (and in fact, her name is invoked on the mailing package). There are currently five titles in print, three more in production, and at least another four planned. The first four shipped a total of 115,000 units, according to Brigitte Weeks, VP Editor-in-Chief of the Books and Inspirational Media Division.
