PEOPLE
Sales was where the action was this past month, with big changes at Random House, S&S, Abrams and elsewhere. Mary Wowk, Director of World Wide Sales at Black Dog & Leventhal, has been appointed VP, Sales of HNA, which includes Abrams, STC and distributed lines. In a separate announcement, Katrina Weidknecht has been appointed Executive Director of Publicity for HNA. She was formerly Senior Director of Public Relations at Rodale.
David Rosen, former VP, Editor-in-Chief of Bookspan‘s Community Clubs, and most recently at Abrams, becomes Editor-in-Chief of Progressive Book Club (PBC), a new online book-club service to be launched later in the year. Contact: drosen@progressivebookclub.com. Also moving to PCB is Michelle Berger, another Bookspan alum.
Robert Baensch, who has long been involved in NYU’s publishing program, announced his retirement. Andrea Chambers continues as Director of both the MS and non-degree programs.
Editorial exits from Rodale include: Mariska van Alst, who is staying home after maternity leave, and Amy Super, who is moving to Pittsburgh.
Lisa Levinson has been appointed to the newly created position of Sales and Marketing Director for Time Out Guides, overseeing North America and Latin America. She was previously at S&S, most recently as Director of National Accounts. She can be reached at lisal@timeoutny.com. Time Out Guides are distributed by PGW. And speaking of S&S, Simon & Schuster Children’s, Justin Chanda has been named Associate Publisher, replacing Elizabeth Law and reporting to Rubin Pfeffer.
Julie Christopher has been hired as Associate Director of Marketing, for S&S Children’s, moving from Harper Children’s. Meanwhile, Mark von Bargen, National Accounts for children’s books at S&S has left the company. He may be reached at vonbarm@comcast.net. Lynn Smith, also previously at S&S Children’s, has joined Scholastic as Director of Licensed Publishing, reporting to Ellie Berger, SVP and Publisher. Corinne Van Natta has joined Scholastic as Director of Mass Market and Special Sales, reporting to Alan Smagler, VP of Sales. She too was previously Director of Mass Market Children’s Sales for S&S.
Also moving to Scholastic are Nisha Chakravarty, as Director of Finance, reporting to David M. Ascher VP, Finance. She was previously at Time Inc. Kathleen Rose has joined Scholastic as Marketing Coordinator, reporting to Lizette Serrano. She was previously at the Nielsen Media Company.
Ex-RH Dave Delano has moved to Toppan America’s New York sales office as an account executive. He can be reached at 212-489-7740 x514.
Luisa Weiss is leaving Bettina Schrewe to become a cookbook editor at STC. Anna Cory-Watson is leaving Franklin & Siegal for Harvey Klinger, where she will be building her own list.
Courier has hired Chris Kuppig in the new position of VP of Business Development, Publishing. He has spent the past 10 years as President of management consulting firm Stone Studio.
At Random House: Don Weisberg has left, where he was EVP and COO. Deputy Chairman Edward Volini was appointed to the additional corporate position COO, overseeing the RH Sales Group and Random House of Canada, as well as Financial, Legal, Administrative, and Human Resources areas.
Now reporting to Volini from the Sales Group are Jaci Updike, VP, Director, RH Adult Sales; Joan DeMayo, SVP, Director, RH Children’s Sales; George Fisher, VP, Director, Adult Mass Merchandise Sales; John Bohman, VP, Director, Sales Operations and Planning; Reed Boyd, VP, Director, International, Special Markets and Sales Services; and Dave Thompson, VP, Director, Sales Analysis. His new direct reports from RH of Canada are Brad Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer, and John Neale, Chairman.
Current VP and publisher of RH Reference and Value Publishing Sheryl Stebbins will be leaving the RH Information Group at the end of June.
Sales marketing manager Susan Hettleman will be responsible for RH Value Publishing, and publisher of Princeton Review and Living Language, Tom Russell, will take over the running of RH Reference. RH Proprietary Publishing will be led by Doubleday Broadway VP, sales director Janet Cooke. Kathy Weiss is leaving RH International.
iUniverse, has hired Kathryn Gordon as Director of Author Marketing, responsible for designing and launching a new business unit dedicated to providing marketing services to iUniverse authors. Most recently, Gordon founded The Book Hook, a company that provides freelance marketing services for authors and publishers. She was previously Editorial Director of S&S Online.
Editorial exits from Rodale include Mariska van Alst and Amy Super.
Gotham Senior Editor Erin Moore has relocated to London as her husband takes a new position there, though she will continue to edit and acquire for the imprint.
Dan Verdick, formerly Director of National Accounts and e-commerce at MBI is moving to ABDO as Director of Marketing.
Steve Quinn, formerly BGI Account Manager at Adams Media, has moved to Phaidon to head special sales.
Stephen Roxburgh has been named publisher of Boyds Mills Press, the trade publishing division of Highlights for Children, effective immediately.
Janet Palfreyman has been named Publisher of Allen & Unwin. She was Publisher at RH Australia and left the company in 2006.
Maureen O’Neal, who left ReganBooks last month, may be reached by email at mrnoneal@aol.com or by phone at 310-601-6235.
PROMOTIONS
At Rizzoli, Pam Sommers has been promoted to Executive Director of Publicity. Gerard Nudo, formerly Rizzoli bookstore manager, has joined the publishing side of the business as Sales and Marketing Manager, distribution clients.
Kim Wylie, who has been Director of PGW client sales, will remain in that position following its acquisition by Perseus.
ICM has promoted Sloan Harris to co-head of publications. Harris will share that title with Esther Newberg. Binky Urban, previous co-head, will focus on running the agency’s international book business, especially the London office.
Janet McDonald has been named VP of Client Acquisitions for Ingram Publisher Services. She joined Ingram in 1999 as VP and GM of Spring Arbor Distributors.
At HC, Josh Marwell promoted Kathy Smith to SVP, Sales Administration.
Alexandra Cooper has been promoted to editor at S&S Books for Young Readers; and Jordan Brown, to Associate Editor.
At Scholastic, Anne Henderson has been promoted to Director, Business Planning. She was previously Director, Planning and Analysis. Adrienne Vaughan has been promoted to Senior Manager, Pre-Publication Planning. She was previously Manager, Frontlist Planning. Yanira Castro has been promoted to Manager, Frontlist Planning. She was previously Sales Analyst.
At RH Children’s, Chris Angelilli has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Golden Books.
SVP and Publisher David Dunham announced the promotion of Joel Miller to VP Publisher for the Business and Culture book group at Thomas Nelson.
At Llewellyn, Bill Krause has been promoted to Publisher and Acquisitions Manager.
MARCH EVENTS
As part of the celebration of Small Press Month, New Press publisher Andre Schiffrin will appear at the Small Press Center on March 15 at 7 pm to discuss his new memoir, A political Education (Melville House), in a “public conversation” hosted by former NYTBR Editor John Leonard. Small Press Month is launching its first annual National Small Press Month Reading Marathon, to take place on Friday, March 16, 2007, from 6:00-11:00 PM, at Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction, located at 34 Avenue A in New York. Presses include: Soft Skull Press, Akashic Books, City Lights, Litmus Press, and Seven Stories Press. For more information visit www.smallpressmonth.org, and click on the “events” section, or call the Small Press Center, at 212-764-7021.
DULY NOTED
The Frankfurt Book Fair is inviting young publishers from around the world to apply for its Frankfurt Fellowship Program, under which 18 people spend two weeks in Germany visiting key publishing cities. The program takes place September 29 – October 14 and ends with attendance at the fair, October 10-14. The deadline is April 30. For further info email: wolffdecarrasco@book-fair.com
Bookseller+Publisher‘s Weekly Book Newsletter reports that Australia and New Zealand both have new, dedicated online bookselling sites with the launch of TheNile.com.au and TheNile.co.nz. “The Nile aims to provide Australian and New Zealand consumers with domestic alternatives to Amazon,” Director Jethro Marks tells WBN. ‘Amazon may be considered the world leader in online bookselling, but they’re 10,000 miles away and do nothing for the local trade. We estimate that overseas sites may be taking hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales out of the local industry every year.” Next up: LaSeine.fr?
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Congrats to former publishers Bill Rosen and Juliet Nicolson for earning starred Kirkus reviews for their debut books, respectively, Justinian’s Flea and The Perfect Summer.
