People
April is the cruelest month for some; but for others, it’s been a banner one. And for the industry as a whole, there’s been a whirlwind of activity, with enough moves, consolidations, entries and exits to rival a Feydeau or Frayn farce.
Sara Nelson, Glamour’s Senior Contributing Editor, Books, and columnist for The New York Observer, is moving to the NY Post as the books columnist, starting May 18. She continues her Monday morning stint on Air America, the new liberal radio network.
Steve Parr, CEO and President of Harry Abrams, is leaving to become President of Primedia’s Performance Automotive Group. His new employer knew of him from his previous stint as President of EMAP USA, which was acquired by Primedia.
Mel Parker has announced the formation of Mel Parker Books, LLC, “an innovative book packaging firm.” He was most recently in SVP Editorial Director at Bookspan, and before that at Warner Books. Parker may be reached at mel@melparkerbooks.com, or by cell, (917) 696-6105.
Walter L. Weintz has started his new job as Chief Operating Officer at Workman Publishing. He was VP Deputy Publisher at S&S. In other S&S news Claire Israel moved to S&S as Director of Electronic Publishing, reporting to Kate Tentler. She was most recently at Nuvomedia/Gemstar. Rosemary Ahern, who left Washington Square Press in 2002, has joined Other Press, to run its fiction imprint, Handsel Books.
Karen Kreiger has become COO of Amber-Allen Publishing in Marin County. She was previously VP Custom Publishing at Creative Publishing in Minneapolis.
Chris Murphy has left Scholastic to go to Little Brown as VP, Director, Juvenile Sales. And coincidentally, Mary Gruetzke has moved from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers to Cartwheel Books at Scholastic, as a Senior Editor. Erin McHugh, Creative Director for Scholastic trade, has left the company and may be reached at emchughnyc@aol.com.
Katy Barrett, who was VP Publicity at Vintage and is currently Executive Publicist at Large for Knopf is leaving after 15 years, but will maintain a consulting relationship with the company. She may be reached through RH or at katybarrett@optonline.net. … Leslie Sepuka is coming to Vintage and Anchor as Publicity Manager. She was at WGBH-TV. Meanwhile Vintage has hired a new Associate Editor, Lexy Bloom, who was most recently at Viking and Granta. … In other Random Inc. news, Tim Jarrell has been named VP Publisher of Fodor’s. He was previously at Sports Illustrated for Kids and Sesame Street. … Doug Pepper has resigned as Editor in Chief of Crown, to return to Canada as President and Publishers of McClelland & Stewart. … And, as reported earlier, Amy Hertz is going to her own imprint at Doubleday from Riverhead West Coast.
Viz, the West Coast publisher of Japanese anime and manga, has just hired a new VP of Sales, Joe Morici. He was previously the SVP Sales of Metro3D, a video game developer and publisher. Viz recently announced it would move distribution to S&S from PGW.
Ingram Book Group has hired Phil Ollila as VP, Publisher Services. Ollila was previously at Borders. … John Phillips has left Baker & Taylor, where its Distribution Solutions Group is on hold. Phillips had come to B&T from PubEasy/Vista.
Nancy Grubb, Publisher and Group Manager, Art Books at Princeton University Press will be leaving in June. She may be reached at ngrubb@nyc.rr.com.
Greg Brandenburgh has left ThorsonsElement U.S. and may be reached at Ggeorgesam@aol.com. Steve Fischer has been promoted to VP in the US office, reporting to Belinda Budge in the UK, and continues to oversee sales. Chris Ahern, who worked with Fischer at Tuttle, becomes Director of Marketing and Publicity, a new position.
As previously reported, Perseus’ reorganization includes the departures of Holly Hodder, VP Publisher of Westview, and Counterpoint’s Dawn Sefarian … In an unrelated announcement, Amanda Cook has moved from Basic Books to Houghton Mifflin as a Senior Editor in the Boston office of the adult trade department.
Following the resignation of Neil Ortenberg, Avalon announced the acquisition of FourWalls Eight Windows and the ascension of its Publisher John Oakes as VP of the Avalon Group and Publisher of Thunder’s Mouth, and Nation Books. … With the sale of 4 Walls 8 Windows to Avalon, longtime Senior Editor Kathryn Belden is leaving the company. She may be reached at kabeldn@aol.com.
Sheila Oakes, Executive Editor at Perigee/Putnam, is leaving to join St. Martin’s with the same title, while Sally Kim of Thomas Dunne and Julia Pastore of St. Martin’s Press have moved to Shaye Areheart’s imprint at Harmony/Crown. Airie Stuart has been named Editorial Director and head of trade in the scholarly and reference division at Palgrave Macmillan. She will be based in St. Martin’s offices. She was previously at Wiley.
Distributor CDS has added a few employees to its new CDS Books publishing line. Meg Parsont has been named Director of Marketing and Publicity, while Donna Ellis has been appointed Managing Editor. Parsont had been Publicity Director at Mitchell Beazley. Ellis was most recently Senior Production Editor at Hyperion.
DK US announced that Chuck Lang, SVP Publishing, has left the company.
May Events
May is gala month in publishing, with two of the industry’s biggest charity events: On May 3, Literacy Partners hosts its annual Gala at Lincoln Center. As usual, it features Liz Smith as MC, joined by Hillary Clinton, Simon Winchester, and Tom Wolfe, and honoring Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw. On May 11, the UJA honors Jack Romanos. Al Roker is the host (NBC has obviously cornered the May gala sweeps), and Frank McCourt will present the award.
• The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) is celebrating it’s 37th birthday with a “Big Party for Small Publishers” on May 10 at the Mercantile Library. For information, to RSVP, or to make a tax-deductible contribution, contact tdidato@clmp.org.
• The 16th Annual Triangle Awards, honoring the best lesbian and gay fiction,
non-fiction, and poetry published in 2003, will be presented on May 12 at
the Tishman Auditorium of the New School for Social Research (66 West 12th
Street) at 7 p.m. Sponsored by HX Magazine & HarperCollins, it is free and open to the public, with a reception following.
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times talks with Arthur Gelb, former Managing Editor of The New York Times and author of City Room (Marian Wood/Putnam). The interview will be at 6 p.m. on May 20 at the Small Press Center, 20 West 44th.
Duly Noted
Atria’s Judith Curr, Morrow’s Lisa Gallagher and St Martin’s John Cunningham made for a tremendous marketing force at PAMA’s monthly luncheon where they laid out 3 cardinal rules for big book (or any book) marketing:
1. The book’s “gotta deliver” and word of mouth reigns supreme. (Curr’s dictum: “If it’s difficult to get the packaging right then the book’s message is obviously not clear.”)
2. Timing is everything — and “when the momentum is going, drop everything and get out of the way.” (Cunningham)
3. Do nothing in a vacuum — particularly spend money on ads. Successful marketing depends on the successful interaction of all component parts of the plan. (Gallagher)
P.S. Use the Web every chance you get …
Mazel Tov
Congratulations to Otto Penzler and Lisa Atkinson on their nuptials. The wedding party includes groomsmen of high media merit — Larry Kirshbaum, Sir Howard Stringer, Anthony Cheetham, and Nat Sobel, with Thomas Cook as the best man and Michael Malone as an usher.
