PEOPLE ROUNDUP
Broadway’s Editor-in-Chief Stacy Creamer will join Simon & Schuster as VP and Publisher of Touchstone Fireside, reporting to Free Press Publisher Martha Levin. The two lines “will have independently functioning editorial and publishing staffs,” according to the announcement….Current T/F Publisher Mark Gompertz takes on the new role of EVP, Digital Publishing. He and Ellie Hirschhorn, EVP, Chief Digital Officer, who was hired last year, both report to CEO Carolyn Reidy.
There have reportedly been a number of layoffs at Phaidon in the US and UK, including Executive Managing Editor Nancy Grubb.
Gretchen Koss and Meghan Walker have announced the formation of their company, Tandem Literary, a full-service firm that combines all aspects of book marketing with PR under one umbrella. The two worked together at Random House until late 2008, Koss as the Director of Publicity for Spiegel & Grau (the principals of which endorse their former employees on the Tandem website), and Walker as Spiegel & Grau’s Director of Marketing.
Michael Healy, Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), will also reportedly head the Book Rights Registry, if the proposed settlement of the Google lawsuit is eventually accepted. Before coming to the U.S. in 2006, Healy was Director of Nielsen Book Services in the UK.
Lorna Owen has joined Other Press as Senior Editor. She was at Nan A. Talese/Doubleday for eight years.
John Mendelson will join Candlewick Press in mid-May as SVP, Sales and Digital Initiatives. He is currently Director of Trade Sales at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where he has worked for more than a decade in a variety of sales positions.
As reported in the New York Observer, following the merger of the William Morris and Endeavor agencies, Richard Abate’s literary department appears to be the first casualty. In other agency news, Writers House has set up a small London operation. Writers House UK will be under the direction of Angharad Kowal, who joined the agency in 2008 following eight years with S&S, most recently as Rights Director for the Children’s Division, as well as for Simon Spotlight Entertainment….Kirsten Neuhaus has started her own eponymous literary agency. She was most recently an agent and foreign rights manager at Vigliano Associates. Michael Harriot was also at Vigliano, where he represented his own clients and co-agented deals with David Vigliano, and has now joined Sanford J. Greenburger Associates as an agent.
Liza Pulitzer Voges has opened her own literary agency, Eden Street LLC. She will represent authors and illustrators of children’s books, and can be reached at lvoges [at] edenstlit.com. Voges was with Kirchoff Wohlberg for 25 years. The website is not yet operational.
Kathy Warren has been named National Accounts Manager at Dover Publications, which is owned by Courier. Warren previously worked for Sellers Publications in Portland, ME. According to Publishers Lunch, Courier took a non-cash $15.6 million charge related to performance at Dover, representing 100% of Dover’s goodwill.
Lloyd Jassin resigned as chairman of the New York Center for Independent Publishing executive committee, citing differences between his vision for NYCIP and that of the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen. NYCIP Executive Director Karin Taylor was laid off in February. The NYCIP is being overseen by interim director Leah Schnelbach.
Matthew Lore has launched The Experiment, LLC, a new trade publishing company focused on practical nonfiction. The company publishes its inaugural list this fall, with six books. Lore is joined by Peter Burri as general partner. The Experiment’s adviser and principal investor is Richard Gallen, who has been a co-founder or investor in more than a dozen companies, including Tor.
Sarah Reidy has joined Pocket Books as Associate Director of Publicity. She was at Soho Press, where she was Director for the past two years. Justin Hargett has rejoined Soho as the new Director of Publicity, after working at Ohio University Press, Other Press, and Oxford University Press.
Feminist Press Editorial Director Amy Scholder has hired Jeanann Pannasch as new Managing Editor. She was Managing Editor for Spin and Ms. magazines. Drew Stevens, who has produced titles for Knopf, Chanticleer, Scholastic, Sterling, Chronicle, and Random House, has been hired as Production & Design Manager. Newly hired Administrative Manager Deonne Kahler was a business consultant and is a blogger and freelance writer. Publicity Manager Rachael Rakes was Marketing Director at AK Press.
S&S Children’s announced that Sy Sumg has joined the children’s subsidiary rights group as Assistant Manager. He was at Random House.
PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES
David Levithan has been promoted to VP, Editorial Director for Scholastic Trade Publishing. He had been Executive Editorial Director for Scholastic Press fiction, multimedia publishing, and PUSH.
Random House Publishing Group’s Sanyu Dillon announced that in addition to her current role as VP, Director of Marketing for the Bantam/Dell imprints, Carolyn Schwartz will now also oversee the marketing efforts for Ballantine, with the title of VP, Director of Marketing, Ballantine/Bantam/Dell.
At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Josh Harwood has been promoted to National Sales Director in the NYC office, replacing John Mendelson, who has gone to Candlewick (see above). He was a sales rep covering New York and New England. Beth Ineson has been promoted to Director of Field Sales and Distribution Clients. She was previously a distribution client manager.
Oren Teicher, COO of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), has been named CEO, replacing Avin Domnitz, who is retiring. Separately, ABA announced that Books Inc.’s Michael Tucker is up for election as President of ABA in June.
DULY NOTED
Agent Ira Silverberg has negotiated an imprint, to be called Igniter, within Carrie Kania’s new HarperCollins imprint, It. Igniter will be managed by Silverberg’s client Neil Strauss and co-editor/publisher Anthony Bozza and will focus “on the margins of pop culture.” The first title will appear this fall.
comScore, Inc. released the results of a study of vertical ad networks, which target ads to specific audiences online according to demographic or category content. The study showed that the collective reach of such networks has increased from 21.5% of the total U.S. internet audience in March 2008 to 57.1% in March 2009. The most popular categories were gaming, entertainment, community, news/information, and health.
Publishers Weekly’s list of publishing’s unemployed continues to grow and includes many familiar names. Though only loosely alphabetized, it is a good resource.
The Stanford Publishing Courses for Professionals announces the first “Amazon ’09 Innovation Scholarship,” awarded to “a book or magazine publisher who has demonstrated particular innovation either in using new technologies to deliver content or in developing new business models to sustain and promote publishing in a digital age.” The Scholarship covers full tuition, lodging, and travel costs for one publishing professional to attend the course. The deadline is May 15.
UPCOMING EVENTS
PEN’s World Voices Festival finishes May 3 with “Henry Hudson 400 Years: Amsterdam and New York City,” featuring Ian Buruma, Geert Mak, and Russell Shorto talking about the influences of Holland on New York, and vice versa.
New York City’s New School is hosting a series of forums on writing for children, hosted by editor Deborah Brodie. The next forum takes place May 5 from 6:30–7:30 p.m. and features Leonard S. Marcus, book critic and children’s book historian. Tickets cost $5 and can be ordered from the New School by calling (212) 229-5488.
The French-American Foundation’s Translation Prizes will take place on Tuesday, May 26 at 6 PM at the Century Association (7 W. 43rd St.).
