People
Philip Patrick has joined Amazon.com, in Seattle, as Senior Leader, Rights & Licensing. He was most recently VP, Digital & Marketing Strategy, Publisher Ebooks at Crown Publishing Group.
Margot Schupf has left her position as VP, Publisher, Sterling Innovation. She was previously SVP, Editorial Director, Digital Publishing for the Morrow/Avon/Eos group. Meanwhile, Derry Wilkins, who was Publicity Manager at Sterling Children’s, has joined Sourcebooks in the same role.
David Hathaway, who was most recently a buyer at Barnes & Noble, has gone to Greenleaf Book Group as Special Projects Manager.
Chronicle has appointed Ginee Seo as Children’s Publishing Director. She was most recently VP, Editorial Director at Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, and was previously at HarperCollins for 10 years.
Joy Aqulino has left Potter Craft/Watson Guptill, where she was Executive Editor.
Jason Root has been named Chief Content Officer and Jeff Zakim named Marketing Director at Ruckus Media. Root was previously at Nickelodeon, and Zakim was at EMI Music.
Justine Trubey has rejoined Random House as SVP, Technology and Operations. Previously, she was Senior Manager of Global Content Operations for Amazon Kindle, and before that, Executive Director, Operations, Random House Audio. Also at Random House, Nihar Malaviya has been named VP Strategy, Analytics & Program Development.
Susan Piver has been named Editor-at-Large at Shambhala. She is also the author of several spiritual/self-help books, including The Wisdom of a Broken Heart.
Sue Grimshaw has joined Ballantine Bantam Dell in the newly created position of Category Specialist and Editor-at-Large, focusing on romance. She spent 15 years at Borders, and will continue to work from her home in Michigan.
Author Michael Levin has been named an Editor-at-Large at Brown Books’ new business books division. Levin has written and co-written over 90 books, including Giants (with Pat Summerall) and Rules of Engagement (with Chad Hennings).
Caroline Garner has joined Turner as Director of Publicity. Previously, she was a Senior Publicist with The Penguin Press.
Adams Media has hired Simone Parham from Ryland, Peters, and Small as Special Sales Manager, reporting to Publisher Karen Cooper.
Rodrigo Corral has joined FSG as Creative Director. He remains head of Rodrigo Corral Design.
Yvette Chin has joined Digital Book World as Content Editor, where she will write articles and help map out editorial strategy.
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) announced that Mindy Im has been appointed to the newly created position of Marketing Director. Im, who was most recently Associate Director of Marketing at Hachette, will be responsible for membership outreach, media relations, and overall organization branding.
Mauro DiPreta announced that Denise Oswald has joined HarperCollins’ It Books as Senior Editor. She was Editorial Director of Soft Skull and previously oversaw the Faber and Faber list at FSG.
Comcast/NBC Universal’s iVillage has named former Barnes & Noble VP, Digital Products Douglas Gottlieb as VP for User Experience. He joins Mike Skagerlind, iVillage’s SVP/GM, who also came from B&N, where he ran digital media and was GM of Sparknotes.
Book critic and social-media consultant Bethanne Patrick is joining Shelf Awareness as Editor of its forthcoming consumer publication.
Laura Nolan has joined Paradigm as a literary agent and will serve as head of the agency’s book publishing division. She was most recently an agent with The Creative Culture.
PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES
The National Geographic Society has promoted Melina Bellows to EIC of adult and children’s books. She also runs NG’s children’s magazine Explorer. The company is conducting a search for a new books division President.
The Crown Publishing Group has reorganized its religious publishing program. It has done away with the Doubleday Religion imprint and moved the Catholic list under the Image Books imprint. Michael Palgon, SVP and Deputy Publisher of Crown, announced that all Catholic-interest titles will be overseen by Trace Murphy, EIC, Image. Murphy will now report to Steve Cobb, who becomes President and Publisher of Image and continues to oversee Waterbrook Multnomah, which is based in Colorado Springs. All marketing, publicity, and sales administration will move to Colorado under the direction of Carie Freimuth, VP, Associate Publisher for Waterbrook Multnomah and Image.
In Norton’s College division, the Emedia group will reorganizate to meet increased demand for digital products. Peter Lesser will head up the emedia editorial group, with the new title Editorial Director, College Digital Media. Meanwhile, as part of his current responsibilities, Peter Kay will head up a separate product development group, responsible for looking forward six to eighteen months and beyond and building digital. Dan Jost, as New Product Development Manager; Cliff Landesman; and the rest of his emedia and customer support team will comprise this group.
Dennis Eulau announced that Sam Cohen has been promoted to Director, Digital Content Development, at Simon & Schuster. In her new position, Sam will staff, train, and manage a dedicated Digital Content Development department. Joining Sam in the new department is Steve Leung, with other staff to be hired. Also, Doug Stambaugh has been promoted to VP, Business Development & Ops.
Duly Noted
Michael Cader and Mike Shatzkin have formed a partnership to produce educational events worldwide under the banner of Publishers Launch Conferences PLC expects to convene up to eight events in four cities over the next year. The first, “Ebooks Go Global,” will be held in conjunction with BEA. The second event follows on June 21 in London, as PLC pairs with The Publishers Association for a full-day show focused on opportunities and challenges for British publishers in the world English-language ebook market. Digital Book World/F+W Media continue as a primary producing partner and events will be added to the DBW annual conference and other F+W-owned events, including the inaugural StoryWorld Conference taking place in San Francisco in October. PLC will also work with the Frankfurt Book Fair to convene a full-day conference the Monday before the trade exhibits and a half-day show on Tuesday. Additional freestanding PLC events in NYC will be announced shortly.
IN MEMORIAM
Walter Zacharias, 87, founder of Kensington, died on March 2 in New York City.
Owen Laster, 72, former EVP and Worldwide Head of Literary Operations for William Morris, died March 9 after a short illness. The date for a memorial service will be announced.
Former agent Edward Knappman, 67, died on March 10 from an infection that resisted antibiotics. He was the former president of New England Publishing Associates, where he worked with his wife, Elizabeth Frost-Knappman. They retired in 2010 after selling the business to Roger Williams at the Publish or Perish Agency. Prior to 1990, Knappman was Publisher and EVP of Facts On File.
Roger Waynick died on March 22. He was Founder and President of Cool Springs Press, the largest publisher of gardening books in the U.S. He was a founding partner of the Williamson Herald, former owner of Franklin Booksellers, and former VP of Taylor Impressions.
