PEOPLE
As was anticipated, Marie Toulantis has resigned from her position as CEO of BarnesandNoble.com. She had been with the company since 2002 and will continue to serve as a consultant. Tom Burke, VP E-Commerce, and Kevin Frain, CFO, have temporarily assumed her duties. They report to Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio.
Marjorie Braman, previously Executive Editor at HarperCollins and Morrow, will become Editor-in-Chief at Henry Holt, a position which has gone unfilled since, ironically, Jennifer Barth departed for HarperCollins in December 2006. Braman starts September 8 and will report to Dan Farley, Henry Holt President and Publisher.
Emmanuel Shalit, the Deputy Managing Director of La Martinière Publishing Group—who oversees U.S. holdings, including Harry N. Abrams—is leaving the company. A new deputy MD will not be appointed, but Group Chairman and CEO Hervé de La Martinière will assume two of his jobs.
Sarah Durand has joined Atria Books as a Senior Editor. She was previously with HarperEntertainment.
Mary Albi has been hired as Director of Sales and Marketing for the new Egmont USA. She most recently held the same title at HarperCollins Children’s Books. Egmont’s first list will launch in Fall 2009.
Jane Rosenman has been hired as an editor at Algonquin. She was formerly an Executive Editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Anna Crowe has joined HMH as a Senior Publicist. She was previously at Bantam Dell.
Bill Frucht has accepted the position of Executive Editor for Political Science and International Relations at Yale University Press. Meanwhile, John Collins has been appointed General Editor of the Anchor Yale Bible Series. He is a professor at Yale Divinity School.
Marian Brown has opened her own publicity business, Marian Brown PR. She was most recently at Bloomsbury and Basic Books.
Johanna Bowman has left McGraw-Hill, where she was an editor in the trade division, to go to Columbia Business School.
Nicholas Brealey has hired Wendy Lazear as Senior Editor. Following Trish O’Hare’s departure, the U.S. office will now be run by Chuck Dresner, who has been promoted to VP, Associate Publisher.
Allison Malec has joined Clarkson Potter as an Associate Marketing Manager, reporting to Donna Passannante. She was at Madison Square Garden and previously at Rodale. Rebecca Behan has moved to Potter Craft as a Developmental Editor reporting to Erica Smith, ME of Potter Craft. She comes from Assouline Publishing, where she was an Editor. Terry Deal has joined the Crown Production Editorial department as a Senior Production Editor. Deal was a Senior Editing Supervisor at McGraw-Hill Professional.
Casualties from the newly instigated category buying at Baker & Taylor are mounting. Thirty-year veteran David Hogue, VP Director of Merchandising, has left, along with at least seven buyers. B&T has hired John Lindsay as VP, Book Merchandising, reporting to Jean Srnecz. Most recently, he was VP Marketing/Merchandising at Levy Home Entertainment with responsibilities for all areas of category management, book buying, marketing, and publisher relations.
Laura Geringer, Publisher of the eponymous Harper Children’s imprint for seventeen years (and a Harper employee since 1980), “has announced her decision to leave her position” at the end of the month. Geringer will spend more time writing, and working on “the development of a new business with the capability of delivering story content on multiple platforms, and to channel more time into First Book.”
Alison Indrisano has been appointed President and CEO of National Geographic School Publishing, starting in early September. She was COO at Prometric, a subsidiary of ETS.
Black Dog & Leventhal announced that Liz Hartman has been appointed to the newly created position of Marketing and Publicity Manager. Her appointment follows the recent additions of Nathaniel Marunas as Associate Publisher and Elizabeth Van Doren as Editor-in-Chief. Hartman was formerly VP, Director of Publicity at Pocket Books and held similar positions at OUP and CUP. She holds a Master’s degree in library science.
Joel C. Turner has become an Advertising Consultant to ForeWord Magazine, working out of his home in Asheville, NC.
PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES
Crown’s Tina Constable has “decided to restructure the department rather than hire a new Editorial Director.” Mary Choteborsky has been promoted to the newly created position of Associate Publishing Manager/Associate Editor, reporting to Constable. Lindsay Orman has been promoted to Associate Editor.
In McGraw-Hill’s Business editorial group, Donya Dickerson has been promoted to Senior Editor. She was an editor.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Craig Mandeville has been promoted to VP, General Manager for Adult and Children’s Publishing. Frank Totaro has been appointed to the position of VP, Deputy Publisher, Novelty and Licensed Publishing, effective immediately, and Alyson Grubard has been named Director of Licensing and Brand Management, reporting to Totaro.
At St. Martin’s, Tom Stouras has been promoted to VP Supply Chain and Sales Ops. Steve Faber has been promoted to Inventory Director, Supply Chain and Debbie Derevjanik becomes Director of Analysis and Forecasting, Supply Chain. Both report to Stouras.
DULY NOTED
The Daily Telegraph notes in its August 22 issue that, according to Nielsen, only a dozen books in its 1.8 million titles have appeared in the top 5,000 selling books every week for the last decade, making them the most consistent sellers. The titles include Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, and The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. J. R. R. Tolkien is there, as are J. K. Rowling and Dan Brown. For the full article, click here.
Weinstein Company has moved yet again, to 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, where Penguin Children’s is located. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses remain the same.
The New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP) and the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen announced that the Jane Hope Hastings Philanthropic Trust has awarded a $25,000 grant to help underwrite the NYCIP’s 21st Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair, which takes place December 6 and 7 at the West 20 West 44th building. For more information, e-mail nycip@nycip.org.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The BISG Annual Meeting of Members is here again. It will be held on September 12 at the Yale Club in New York City. Speakers will include Anita Elberse, Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School, on “Revisiting the Long Tail: Implications for the Book Industry”; Susan Danziger, CEO of DailyLit, on “Books and Busy Lives: Adapting to Changes in Reading Habits”; Mike Shatzkin, CEO of the Idea Logical Company; and Sourcebooks’ Dominique Raccah.
The 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival will be held on Sunday, September 14, at Borough Hall, from 10 AM to 6 PM. Participating authors will include Joan Didion, Richard Price, Jonathan Lethem, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, A. M. Homes, Chuck Klosterman, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, Elizabeth Nunez, Cecily von Ziegesar, and many more.
J. P. Leventhal, Publisher and Founder of Black Dog & Leventhal, has been named the honoree at the Goddard Riverside Benefit Gala on October 27.
The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP)’s annual Spelling Bee has been rescheduled and will now take place on Monday, November 3. It will be hosted by Diane von Furstenberg and held at her new studio. Publishers may submit the names of authors who would like to participate to jlependorf@clmp.org. CLMP celebrates its fortieth birthday in 2008.
The American Book Producers Association (ABPA) hosts its semi-annual all-day seminar in New York on November 5. This year’s afternoon panels will include “The Internet: Its Impact on Publishing” and “What’s Next?: Future Trends in Publishing.” For more information, e-mail office@ABPAonline.org.
