PEOPLE
Even the seemingly endless holiday period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s hasn’t dulled the urge to move:
Jeff Abraham, Executive Director of BISG, has been appointed President, Random House Distribution Services, a new position. John Groton, VP, Client Relations, and Kevin Mailloux, Director, Operations Distribution Services, will report to him and he will report to Josh Wright, VP Operations.
Jennifer Pasanen, formerly VP Marketing and most recently Franchise Manager at Scholastic has been named VP Group Director at Verso Advertising. She will supervise major accounts including Harper Children’s and Bantam/Dell.
Pocket Books VP Publicity Director Hillary Schupf is leaving to join Sirius Satellite Radio as Senior Director, Public Relations in charge of Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and all entertainment talk channels.
Gary Urda has been named VP, Associate Publisher of Atria. Anne Zafian will replace Gary as VP, DSRM sales.
Colleen Lindsay, Assistant Director of Publicity at Ballantine, has been laid off. She may be reached at 917.312.1612.
Lee Miller is leaving Globe Pequot Press to become the new product Development Director for Waterford Press, one of Pequot’s distribution clients. Meanwhile, Maureen Graney has been named Editor-in-Chief of GP’s Lyons Press line. She was at The Taunton Press.
Emma Sweeney has left Harold Ober to open The Emma Sweeney Agency. www.emmasweeneyagency.com.
Steven Schragis has been named Editorial Director at Travel Savvy Magazine. He had been national director at The Learning Annex, and had owned Carol Publishing.
Craig Herman is going to Running Press as VP Marketing and Publicity. He was most recently at Spier NY and S&S. At another Perseus imprint, Public Affairs, Whitney Peeling has joined as Director of Publicity. She was Assistant Director at Houghton Mifflin.
Kylie Foxx has left Marlowe & Company/Avalon. . . . Katie Blough has left AAP, where she was Director of Public Relations and Promotions. . . . Paul Crichton, recently departed Publicity Director at Regan is back at work, now in Simon Spotlight’s publicity department.
Maggie Kneip will join Abrams (HNA) as VP, Marketing, on January 9, 2006, reporting to Michael Jacobs.
Scholastic has announced that Michael di Capua will bring his imprint to Scholastic effective January 2006. Michael di Capua Books was launched at FSG in 1987, moved to HarperCollins in 1991 and then to Hyperion Books for Children in 1999.
Colin Robinson who left The New Press because of “differences between Diane Wachtell, the Executive Director of the press, and myself.” Colin may be reached at colinrobinson2@aol.com.
ICM agent Jud Laghi will join Larry Kirshbaum’s start-up agency LJK Literary Management. Laghi’s projects include this year’s bestselling Why Do Men Have Nipples?
Riverhead Co-Publishers Julie Grau and Cindy Spiegel left Penguin’s Riverhead at the beginning of December to take up similar roles at Doubleday.
After leaving HarperCollins as the Publisher of Collins Design, Laurie Rippon has set up shop as an illustrated book consultant and packager. She can be reached at l.rippon@verizon.net
PROMOTIONS
Patrick Nolan has been promoted to VP Paperback Sales at Penguin.
Krista Lyons-Gould has been named publisher of Seal Press, an imprint of Avalon. She continues as VP Editorial.
Promotions at Warner: Caryn Karmatz-Rudy to Executive Editor, Jaime Levinegoes from editorial director of Warner Aspect to Senior Editor, reporting to Beth de Guzman. In publicity, Jimmy Franco to deputy publicity director, after 12 years at Warner; Tanisha Christie to publicist, for Warner Forever and in-house liaison for Warner Business.
Little, Brown also has announced a number of promotions: Reagan Arthur and Judy Clain have both been named executive editors; Liz Nagle is now an editor; Michael Mezzo is an associate editor; and Heather Fain has become deputy director of publicity.
At Abrams, Steve Tager, VP of Sales and Marketing has been promoted to SVP, Sales and Distribution and will oversee the publishing operations group.
At Jean Naggar’s Agency Alice Tasman has been named senior agent, Mollie Glick agent and contracts manager, and Jessica Regel also becomes an agent.
JANUARY EVENTS
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2006 “Eat, Drink & Be Literary” program kicks off January 12 with Kurt Anderson‘s interview with Gish Jen. On January 26 Anderson takes on Julian Barnes. Jonathan Safran Foer is scheduled for February 23 and his wife, Nicole Krauss, gets her turn on June 1. For a full listing go to the National Book Foundation, BAM’s partner in this series, at www. nationalbook.org.
DULY NOTED
Publishers are being asked to join the effort to help revitalize The New Orleans Public Library in the wake of the Katrina disaster, following the lead of HNA (Harry N. Abrams). On December 9th, HNA held a New Orleans-themed Holiday party and invited its staff as well as authors, artists and others to donate books that would be matched by HNA. More than 1000 books are expected to be shipped to the New Orleans Public Library. Hardcover and paperback books for people of all ages may be sent directly to the following address: Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations Department, New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112. Phone: 504/ 421-7055 or rtrigs@gno.lib.la.us
DM reports this month about Audible’s new ad campaign that revolves around the slogan “Don’t Read.” The ads, created by Agency.com, are a tongue-in-cheek play on the ALA’s “Read” campaign, featuring various characters listening to Audible programs on their MP3 players. A digital audio player built into the ad, lets users listen to 28 audio clips directly from the unit. Users can also send the clip to a friend by e-mail or text message. The ads have been prominent on sites like Gawker.com (see p.5) this week.
Although Michael Korda only claims to be slowing down and not retiring, S&S paid tribute to his “extraordinary career” by taking over the Grill room of the Four Seasons for much of the evening and a no-holds-barred event. Speakers included colleagues and his authors Henry Kissinger, David McCullough and Mary Higgins Clark as well as Bob Gottlieb (who is getting around these days, see below). Among the first industry superstars to arrive were Jason Epstein, Liz Smith, Mort Janklow and Bob Loomis.
IN MEMORIAM
Longtime publishing executive and editor Leona Nevler, 79, died suddenly on December 10. Nevler was a senior editor at Berkley Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group. For much of her career she was an executive at Fawcett Books. At the memorial tribute, speakers included Bob Gottlieb—who painted a brief nostalgic portrait of publishing “then” and Nevler’s influence on paperback publishing at that time, for the younger generation which was present in substantial numbers—Susan Kennedy, Jonathan Dolger and Arlene Friedman as well as Nevler’s two children.
