PEOPLE
It seems as though anyone who wasn’t on vacation or sabbatical this month was busy changing jobs:
Liz Perl has been named VP Publisher of Rodale, reporting to Tami Booth Corwin. She was previously Associate Publisher of Penguin‘s Riverhead, Perigee, HP, Portfolio and Sentinel lines and Director of Marketing and Executive Director of Publicity for Berkley and NAL. Meanwhile, Marya Dalrymple has also gone to Rodale as a Senior Editor for cookbooks, reporting to Margot Schupf. She was previously at Rebus.
Andrews McMeel named Kirsty Melville as Publisher, succeeding Tom Thornton, who steps down at the end of the year. Melville was most recently Publisher of University Games, and previously Publisher of Ten Speed Press. She reports to President and COO Hugh Andrews, and will start at AMP September 2.
Susan Weinberg was appointed Publisher of PublicAffairs, succeeding Peter Osnos, who announced that he would assume the position of Founder and Editor-at-Large. Weinberg was most recently Publisher of the HarperCollins imprint.
After 30 years at Transworld, Patrick Janson-Smith will be leaving at the end of September to join the Christopher Little Literary Agency. Bill Scott-Kerr has been promoted to the role of Publisher, reporting to Larry Finlay.
Mary Ellen O’Neill has been named VP, Publisher, Collins Wellness and Lifestyle. Reporting to her will be Kathy Huck, Toni Sciarra, and Greg Chaput. O’Neill was most recently Executive Editor at Hyperion.
And more HarperCollins news this month, starting with ex-Harperites Cathy Hemming and Stephen Hanselman, former colleagues who have launched an “author services agency” called LevelFiveMedia. Meanwhile, HC’s Children’s Books announced that Adriana Dominguez has joined the company as Executive Editor. She was the children’s review editor at Críticas, and will manage Harper’s Spanish language children’s publishing program, working with Rayo Publisher Putnam, Rene Alegria.
Andrea Chambers has been named Director of the MS program in Publishing at NYU. A veteran magazine and book editor who has worked for Time, People, and Penguin Putnam, Chambers is currently an interim editor for Fairchild Publications and will join NYU in January of 2006. Heidi Johnson will continue as Associate Director and Robert Baensch will now manage the Summer Publishing Institute and focus on the non-credit portion of the Center’s offerings.
John Cunningham, Associate Publisher at St Martin‘s has been named VP, Director of Marketing at DC Comics. Also moving to DC and reporting to him is Nellie Kurtzman, from S&S Children’s…Thomas Willshire has been named Director of Sales & Marketing for Continuum Publishing. He was previously Director of Trade Sales for OUP.
NYTBR‘s Sam Tanenhaus announced that Eden Ross Lipson will retire as children’s book Editor. Julie Just, the NYTBR Deputy Editor, will succeed Lipson, and Bob Harris will succeed her as Deputy. Dwight Garner has been promoted to Senior Editor.
The Los Angeles Times has appointed author and literary critic David Ulin as its new book Editor. David Kipen, book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, was named Director of Literature at the National Endowment for the Arts. Kipen replaces former NEA literature director Cliff Becker, who died suddenly of a heart attack in May.
Sam Moore is moving up to chairman at Thomas Nelson and will be replaced by Michael Hyatt as CEO. He had been President and COO at Nelson. . . . Glen Moreno has been named chairman of Pearson replacing Lord Stevenson. He was CEO of Fidelity International.
Meredith is opening a NY office which will be headed up by Trade Editorial Director, Linda Cunningham, who is moving is back from Des Moines and will be working out of a Meredith office.
PW‘s Steve Zeitchik has moved to Reed‘s Variety, to cover media companies. And PW children’s book Editor Jason Britton has been hired to replace Allison Heiny at Barbara Tolley Associates.
Deborah Seager has been named Director of Publicity at Grove Atlantic. . . . Claire McKinney has gone to Houghton Mifflin as Director of Publicity. She was formerly at Miramax.
Farrin Jacobs’ replacement as Editor at Harlequin‘s Red Dress Ink is Selina McLemore. She was at Avon. . . . Renée Sedliar, formerly of HarperSanFrancisco, has joined Marlowe & Company/ Avalon Publishing Group, as an editor working out of the Emeryville offices. Sedliar will report to Matthew Lore, Publisher and VP of Marlowe.
Ruth Pomerance has left IDT, where she was Executive Producer, and may be reached at pomerancer@hotmail.com. Marcy Goot has left Inner Ocean to join TOKYOPOP in charge of marketing.
Ingram Publisher Services has named Kevin Moran, Sanford Hernandez, Edward Brazas and Mark Piasecki as Field Sales reps.
Doug Jones has gone to Putnam as VP, Marketing Director, for Putnam and Riverhead Books, part of the position recently vacated by Dan Harvey. He had been VP Sales Director at Random House, responsible for Crown Publishing Group.
Jennifer Perry has been named Editorial Director for Book Publishing at Sesame Workshop. And Kama Einhorn has been named Senior Editor of Sesame Street magazine. They were both at Scholastic.
Anna Stein who handled foreign rights for Donadio & Olson is joining the Susan Golomb Agency in the same position.
Danielle Chiotti has been named Senior Editor at Kensington, reporting to Gene Brissie, Editor-in-Chief of the company’s Citadel Press imprint. She was most recently Senior Editor at Adams Media.
PROMOTIONS
At Clarkson Potter Pam Krauss moves from VP to SVP and relinquishes Editorial Director duties to assume the role of Executive Editor, reporting to Lauren Shakely. She will continue in her present duties until a new Editorial Director is hired.
Rob Weisbach has promoted Kristin Powers to Associate Publisher. Powers had been Director of Production. Last month Judy Hottensen was hired as VP and Publisher. Hottensen was Director of Marketing & Publicity at Grove/Atlantic.
Gotham Books founder Bill Shinker has been promoted to President of the imprint (he remains its Publisher).
At the University of California Press, Sheila Levine was promoted to Associate Director and Publisher, and Anna Weidman and Deborah Kirshman were both promoted to Assistant Director. R. Jill Phillips has joined the press as intellectual property and subsidiary rights Manager.
Lest we go a month without a promotion over there, S&S Children’s Publishing announced that Michelle Nagler has been promoted to Senior Editor, Simon Pulse.
SEPTEMBER EVENTS
The Book Standard and Nielsen BookScan announce “Book Summit & Bestseller Awards 2005,” to take place on September 22 at The Roosevelt Hotel, in NYC. PT is a sponsor of the event.
Panel discussions will include “The State of the Book Industry: 2005 By The Numbers,” “The Big Debate: New Technologies Invade The Book World,” and “Reclaiming Readership: How To Get In Front Of Tomorrow’s Book Buyers … Today.” The day will end with The Bestseller Awards 2005, “the first-ever, Nielsen-data-powered Bestseller Awards Ceremony for books.” For details & online registration visit: www.thebook standard.com or contact Kelly at (646) 654-4643 or kpeppers@billboard.com.
The Book Industry Study Group‘s Annual Meeting of Members takes place on September 28 and will include a preview of the new Used Book Study and an evaluation of Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) for the book industry. Go to www.bisg.org/ conferences/annual_meeting_ 2005.html for more information and for future updates on the agenda and program.
At its September 20 Luncheon, Publishers Advertising and Marketing Association (PAMA)’s guest speaker will be Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review. The time is 12:15 at Crowne Plaza Times Square, 1605 Broadway. Reservations by Monday, September 12, 2005, via e-mail pama_ny@hotmail.com. Space is limited.
DULY NOTED
John Mutter, who had been at PW for most of his career, and Jenn Risko have launched Shelf Awareness (www.shelf-awareness.com), a free e-mail newsletter focused on “books that are out or about to be published (and media for them), wholesaling, bookstores, nontraditional outlets, etc.” Unlike other industry publications, Mutter tells PT, this newsletter concentrates less on deals and publishing, and more on retailing.
