PEOPLE
Rodale President Karen Rinaldi announced that Colin Dickerman and Pam Krauss have been named VP, Publishing Directors. Dickerman will join effective September 2 and will be responsible for Rodale’s narrative nonfiction list. He was most recently Publisher of Bloomsbury USA. Krauss will join effective August 25 and will oversee the illustrated list, including cookbooks. She was most recently at Clarkson Potter. . . . Andrea Au Levitt is also joining as Projects Director, Prevention Books. She was most recently the Program Administrator for NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute. Previously, she was at Hatherleigh. . . . Courtney Conroy is rejoining the company as Editor. She was previously Associate Developmental Editor at Potter Craft. . . . Julie Will has been promoted to Senior Editor. . . . Meanwhile, Marya Dalrymple has resigned to become the Editorial Director for South Beach Diet LLC. She is reachable at marya.dalrymple [at] southbeachdietlp.com.
George Gibson has been named Publishing Director of Bloomsbury USA in the wake of Dickerman’s departure. Gibson will retain the title of Publisher of Walker & Company.
Six weeks after Jane Friedman’s departure and Brian Murray’s appointment as CEO of HarperCollins, it’s been announced that COO Glenn D’Agnes will leave the company in late August “to pursue other opportunities.” The COO position will be eliminated, but Larry Nevins has been promoted to VP Operations and CIO Rick Schwartz and SVP, Distribution Operations Joe Franceschelli will report to him. Reporting directly to Murray will be SVP and CFO Janet Gervasio; SVP and General Counsel Chris Goff; SVP, HR Jim Young; President of Sales Josh Marwell; and VP, Corporate Communications Erin Crum.
Reader’s Digest will cease publication of its line of condensed nonfiction books, Select Editions. As a result, several positions, including those of Laura Kelly and Barbara Clark, have been eliminated, although the condensed fiction line will continue. Laura Kelly can be reached at laurkell [at] yahoo.com and Barbara Clark at BarbaraKClark [at] yahoo.com.
Skip Dye has announced that Lane Jantzen has joined Random House as Imprint Sales Director, Random House Publisher Services. Lane, who fills the position that was vacated by Mary Dolan a few months ago, comes from Perseus Books Group (PBG), where he was the Director of National Accounts Marketing with primary responsibility for Barnes & Noble.
Baker & Taylor has named Thomas Morgan as Chairman and CEO. Most recently, he was CEO of Hughes Supply, a Florida-based distributor of construction. And James C. Melton, EVP and CFO, has decided to leave the company.
Michele Martin has joined Langenscheidt Publishing Group in the new position of Chief Sales & Marketing officer, reporting to President Marc Jennings. Most recently she was SVP for the Avalon Publishing Group (now part of Perseus). She can be reached at mmartin [at] americanmap.com.
New York Times Book Review editor and essayist Rachel Donadio announced via e-mail that she is leaving the Book Review to work as the Times’ bureau chief in Rome, starting this fall.
Helen Boomer joined HarperCollins Children’s Books as the Executive Director of Subsidiary Rights, replacing Jean Rosen. Boomer was previously at Viking and Puffin Children’s Books and started her career as a Subsidiary Rights Associate at William Morrow. . . . Laura Pillar Kaplan has gone to HarperCollins Children’s as Associate Director of Publicity. She had been at Goldberg McDuffie and, previously, Doubleday. Meanwhile, Cindy Tamasi has been promoted to Assistant Director of Publicity, and Melissa Dittmar has been promoted to Publicity Manager.
The Overlook Press announced that David Falk has been appointed Director of Sales & Marketing. Falk, who reports directly to Overlook Publisher Peter Mayer, will assist him in “numerous sales and publishing related activities.” Most recently, Falk was Director of National Accounts at Houghton Mifflin.
Geoffrey Stone has joined Running Press as an editor, focusing on cookbooks. He was previously Editor in Chief at Rutledge Hill/Thomas Nelson.
Daisy Hutton will join Thomas Nelson as VP of International Licensing in September. She was Rights Director at Harvard Business School Press.
Katie Henderson, who was previously at Bloomsbury, has become an Associate Editor at Doubleday.
Ethan Friedman has left Collins Business, where he was a Senior Editor.
Scholastic’s Director of Subsidiary Rights Linda Biagi has left the company. Scholastic’s Director of Spanish Publishing, Macarena Salas, has also resigned.
Rhalee Hughes has been named Executive Director of Publicity and Marketing at Octopus USA. She was previously Publicity Director at the Penguin Young Readers Group.
Marc Fierz has become Director of Strategic Partnerships at Waterfront Media, the company that builds Web sites in the diet, fitness, and health categories, including South Beach Diet and Duke Diet & Fitness. He was previously at Amazon.com. Debra Davidson has been named Senior Director of Research, and Amy Feng is Senior Director of Client Services. Davidson was at About.com, and Feng was most recently at CondéNet, where she managed client services.
Emma Parry has left the Fletcher & Parry Agency “to pursue new challenges” as of July 1. Christy Fletcher will take over Parry’s clients.
PROMOTIONS & INTERNAL CHANGES
With Abrams SVP President and Publisher Steve Tager, Charles Kochman is launching Abrams ComicArts. Kochman was recently promoted to Executive Editor at Abrams.
Lisa Gallagher announced that Jennifer Brehl has been promoted to SVP of Morrow. She was VP, Director of Editorial Development. She will continue to edit Terry Pratchett for the Harper list. . . . Jack Womack has been promoted to Associate Director of Publicity at Morrow, and Brianne Halverson and Jennifer Slattery have both been promoted to the title of Senior Publicity Manager.
At Atria, Peter Borland has been promoted to Editorial Director. Borland and Emily Bestler will both report to Publisher Judith Curr. The position of Associate Publisher is still open.
Candlewick is restructuring its Sales and Marketing operations, and adding a layer that will report to the newly created position (still to be filled) of SVP of Sales and Marketing, according to PW. As part of the restructuring, Susan Batcheller has been promoted to Executive Director, Marketing Services and Sales Ops. Charlie Schroder, VP of Marketing and Development, is moving over to rights, including digital rights. Schroder will be working on a contract basis out of New York. In response to changes in the production department at parent company Walker Books (UK), Candlewick former Sales and Marketing Services Director Kim Lanza has been named to the position of Executive Director of Production and Manufacturing, Allison D’Andrea has been named Director of Production and Manufacturing, and Sally Bratcher has been named Executive Managing Editor.
John Rudolph has been promoted to Executive Editor for Putnam Books for Young Readers. He was previously a Senior Editor and has been with Putnam since August 2001.
Erin C. Smith has been promoted to Publicity Manager at Beaufort Books. Smith joined the New York City–based publisher last year and, before that, worked for parent company Midpoint Trade Books.
Beth Parker has been promoted to Associate Publicity Director and Amanda Walker has been promoted to Publicity Manager in the Dutton and Gotham Publicity department.
DULY NOTED
Francisco Goldman has initiated the Aura Estrada Prize as a memorial to his late wife. It will be awarded every two years to a female writer of creative prose, aged thirty-five or younger, who writes in Spanish and lives in Mexico or the United States. The Aura Estrada Prize will be formally announced at the Guadalajara Book Fair in November 2008, and the first winner will be announced at the fair a year later. The Co-Chair Committee includes Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt, Salman Rushdie, Peter Carey and Frances Coady, Junot Díaz, Morgan Entrekin, Binky Urban and Ken Auletta, and others.
UPCOMING EVENTS
In celebration of its name change from McNally Robinson to McNally Jackson, the bookstore is holding an event on August 7 from 7 to 9 PM. Authors including Nathan Englander, Kate Christensen, Joseph O’Neill, and Colson Whitehead will both serve food and drinks and recommend books.
Claiming it is taking over the now-defunct New York Is Book Country, which ran as a nonprofit from 1979 until 2005, Nielsen Business Media is creating a new “festival” with the same name. It will take place on September 21 in Central Park. For more information, go to www.newyorkisbookcountry.com.
J. P. Leventhal, Publisher and Founder of Black Dog & Leventhal, has been named the honoree at the Goddard Riverside Benefit Gala on October 27. For more information, go to www.goddard.org.
