PEOPLE
In a reorganization of the books group, Linda Cunningham, Editorial Director at Meredith has been laid off along with 15 other people. She can be reached at 215.752.2664, or at lindacunningham1@hotmail.com.
HarperCollins has hired Steve Ross as President and Publisher, Collins, reporting to Brian Murray. He had been Publisher of Crown. George Bick, SVP Director of Sales and Associate Publisher, Collins, is leaving the company and may be reached at gdbick@gmail.com or 212 861 5144.
At Crown, Andrew Schultz has been named VP Director of Random House Custom Media, reporting to Jenny Frost. He succeeds David Arcara, who left earlier this year. He had been VP General Manager at Hanley Wood, a media company and custom publisher for home plans.
Lots more editorial moves this summer:
Patty Gift has left Sterling for Hay House, where she is opening its New York office. She may be reached at PGift@Hayhouse.com. (See below for other Sterling changes). Eamon Dolan is moving to Penguin Press as VP, Editor-in-Chief, as of July 9. He held the same position at Houghton Mifflin. Scott Moyers has left Penguin for The Wylie Agency, as a Director.. . . Amy Einhorn is also moving to Penguin, where she is starting the Amy Einhorn Books imprint for Putnam. She will be VP and Publisher, reporting to Ivan Held and also begins July 9. She had been hardcover Editor-in-Chief at Grand Central.
Senior Editor Liz Stein has left Free Press and may be reached at elizabethstein@yahoo.com. . . . Random House Publishing Group SVP and Executive Editor-in-Chief Daniel Menaker has left, to give “more time to his own writing and to teach.” The company also announced that Kate Medina will add the role of Associate Publisher for RH hardcovers (where she is already Executive Editorial Director), and Associate Publisher for the Random House Group Tom Perry has been promoted to SVP, Deputy Publisher. Random imprints Editorial Director Jennifer Hershey has been promoted to SVP. And Susan Mercandetti and Will Murphy have both been promoted to Executive Editor. Kurt Andersen is joining the group as Editor-at-Large.
Avalon has closed its offices and those who are staying on as Perseus or DaCapo employees are moving to the office at 387 Park Avenue South. Meanwhile, Anne Sullivan has accepted the position of Publicity Director at The New Press, taking over for Ina Howard’s position. She was a Publicity Manager at Avalon. Betsy Steve, Senior Publicist at Avalon, has gone to NYU Press as Publicity Manager.
Dinah Dunn has been hired as Editor for Tess Press, Black Dog & Leventhal’s Proprietary and Special Projects Imprint. She spent 13 years with Byron Preiss. She may be reached at Dinah.Dunn2@comcast.com. Maureen Winter, who has been with BD&L for three years, is taking on the role of Sales Supervisor for Tess Press. She had previously been handling sub-rights and foreign sales. (Maureen@blackdogandleventhal.com)
Jackie Everly, SVP, Associate Publisher and Executive Director of Marketing at Doubleday Broadway, has left the company after more than three decades (beginning at Doubleday). She may be reached at jme2@optonline.net.
As part of the Broadway Doubleday reorganization, Suzanne Herz has been promoted to Executive Director of Marketing, while continuing to serve as Publisher of her Flying Dolphin imprint. Marnie Cochran is going to Ballantine as Executive Editor. She had been at DaCapo.
Kathyrne Sagan has joined Pocket Books as Senior Editor. Most recently, she was online Executive Editor at Womansday.com and previously at Family Circle magazine. . . .
Mark Ouimet has joined Ingram Publisher Services as VP of Client Acquisitions, the title also held by Janet McDonald, and both report to Phil Ollila, SVP, Publisher Services of Ingram Book Group. Ouimet has most recently been the Associate Publisher and Director of Sales and Marketing at North Atlantic Books. Previously he was the EVP of Marketing at PGW. He will be located in the IPS office in Berkeley, California.
Founder Troy Williams is leaving Questia. Questia claims to be one of the 1000 websites in the US with over 350,000 paying customers in over 210 countries and territories to date and $12 million in sales last year. Tim Harris, Questia’s long-time COO, has taken over as CEO and is available at tharris@questia.com.
Jeannie Emanuel has moved from Adams Media to Candlewick as VP of Sales for the U.S. and Canada. She succeeds Jon Ackerman, who left earlier this year.
Tom Gesking is going to Scholastic Book Fairs as CFO. He was most recently at Disney Retail Stores in Europe, based in London and will be relocating to Orlando, Florida.
Blackwell Book Services has hired David Swords as the new VP of Sales and Marketing. Swords was previously at YBP Library Services, where he was VP of International Sales.
Mark McVeigh has joined S&S’s Aladdin as Editorial Director, reporting to Ellen Krieger. McVeigh has worked since 2004 at Dutton Books for Young Readers.
Siobhan Ciminera will be joining Simon Scribbles as Senior Editor. Ciminera comes from Grosset & Dunlap/Penguin, where she edited titles for a variety of properties, including Franny’s Feet, Littlest Pet Shop, and Nancy Drew.
Also at S&S, Terri Harker was appointed Director, Children’s Sales, DSRM (Distributor Sales and Retail Marketing), overseeing the mass merchandise club and major supermarket sectors. Previously, she was Director of Sales, Wholesale and Mass Merchants at S&S Canada. She reports to Anne Zafian.
PROMOTIONS
Following Steve Ross’s departure, Tina Constable was appointed VP and Publisher of Crown. She has relinquished responsibilities as Executive Director and a successor will be found. Marketing Director Philip Patrick was named VP and Publisher of Three Rivers Press and Publisher of Ebooks and Digital Content for the Crown Publishing Group. He continues as Director of Marketing.
Peter McCarthy was named Director, Direct-to-Consumer Sales & Operations, Random House, Inc. He succeeds Amanda Close, who has joined the RH Sales Group as VP Director, Adult Online Sales. Meanwhile, Peter Kay has left the company.
Marty Shamus is retiring as SVP Business Dev. from Sterling, on July 31. Carlo De Vito has been promoted to VP Editorial Director, including the Hearst imprint, puzzles and games. Philip Turner has been promoted to VP Editorial Direct for non-illustrated titles. Michael Fragnito will take on illustrated categories.
Talia Ross has been promoted to Library Marketing Director, adult trade, at Holtzbrinck. She joined the company in 2004. . . . At FSG Janine O’Malley has been promoted to Senior Editor.
Susan Batcheller has been promoted to Executive Director of sales operations at Candlewick. She has been with the company six years, most recently as Director of Sales Administration.. . . . Bethany Buck has been promoted to VP and Associate Publisher of Simon Pulse.
Bruce Nichols has been named Executive Editor at Free Press. Wylie O’Sullivan has been promoted to Editor.
Jared Kieling, Editorial Director of Bloomberg Press has been named Publisher. Mary Ann McGuigan goes from Executive Editor to Editorial Director.
Katherine Beitner has been promoted to Director, Publicity for the Harper imprint. Gideon Weil has been promoted to Executive Editor of HarperOne. Rachel Bressler is the new Associate Publisher for the Ecco imprint. She had been the Barnes & Noble National Accounts Manager for Ecco, along with the Harper, HarperOne, Amistad and Harper Perennial imprints. Amy Baker has been promoted to Marketing Director for Harper Perennial.
At Rodale, Beth Lamb has been promoted to Senior Marketing Director for trade books.
JULY EVENTS
On Thursday, July 12 / 6:30 p.m. Mad. Sq. Reads, The Madison Square Park Conservancy’s free readings series, offers Humor, with Roy Blount Jr. reading from Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South and Cathleen Schine reading The New Yorkers. The July 19 event focuses on sports, and July 26 is devoted to Patrons and Philanthropists, with the doubleheader of Frances Kiernan and Martin Duberman. For details go to www.madisonsquarepark.org.
The Bookseller sponsors Closer to Consumers, its first full-day conference this year which takes place on July 12 at the Royal Society of Arts, and “has been planned in collaboration with some of the world’s most influential commentators on consumer behaviour and retail trends.” Presentations will cover the new shape of people’s leisure time, economic trends, and an analysis of book sales patterns from a wider consumer perspective. Go to http://www.thebookseller.com/seminars.html.
IN MEMORIAM
Jan Nathan, Executive Director of PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association (http://www.pma-online.org/) since its beginning in 1983, died on June 17 after a year-long battle with cancer. She was 68. PMA now represents 4,200 book, audio and video publishers.
