PEOPLE
Rodale’s Publisher, Karen Rinaldi has left the company following a reorganization. She may be reached at karen.rinaldi1@gmail.com. David Zinczenko and Steve Perrine will take over the book group. Top executives Ken Citron and Gregg Michaelson, along with Senior Director Operations Bill Siebert, will also leave the company.
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) has hired Michael Healy, the Former Executive Director (Designate) for the Google Settlement’s proposed Book Rights Registry, in the newly created post of Executive Director, Author and Publisher Relations. Since 2009, Healy, former Executive Director at the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), served as a consultant to the Google Book Settlement classes, in anticipation of heading up the rights registry that would have been created under the proposed settlement.
S&S announced that Lance Fitzgerald will be the new VP and Director of Foreign Rights, overseeing the lists for the S&S imprint and Touchstone. Lance is currently Director of Subsidiary Rights for several imprints within the Penguin Group. He replaces Marcella Berger, is who retiring after 35 years with the company. Marie Florio has been promoted to Deputy Director of Subsidiary Rights for the Touchstone, Threshold, Howard, and S&S imprints, effective immediately. Kate Gales has joined S&S as a Senior Publicist. Previously she worked at Overlook Press as a Publicist.
Tom Dussel will join Penguin Group as Director of Sub-Rights on November 7, responsible for the Putnam, Berkley, Portfolio, Tarcher, Avery and Perigee lists, reporting to SVP Leigh Butler. He has been Sub-Rights Manager at S&S, selling rights for the Free Press, Scribner and Howard Books imprints.
The Random House, Inc. International Sales group under Cyrus Kheradi, SVP, Director, International Sales and Marketing, has hired John Sakal as Regional Sales Director, Random House, Inc. for East Asia. He had been President, Planetdash Media LLC, an Asian-centric wholesaler of English-language titles. Sakal succeeds Rino Balatbat.
David Moldawer has joined Amazon Publishing as Senior Editor for the New York-based trade group, run by Larry Kirshbaum. Previously he was a Senior Editor at McGraw-Hill. Kelli Martin has joined Amazon Publishing in Seattle as Senior Acquisitions Editor at Montlake Romance. Most recently, she was a Senior Editor at Harlequin. Ed Park is joining Amazon’s New York-based trade division as a Senior Editor. Park is a founding Editor of The Believer, a former editor at the Village Voice and the Poetry Foundation, and author of the novel Personal Days (2008).
Steve Geck is joining Sourcebooks in the new position of Editorial Manager for Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, responsible for acquisitions and the overall direction of the children’s imprint. He was Executive Editor at Harper Children’s Greenwillow Books imprint for nine years.
Betsy Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief of Del Rey for the last decade, has chosen to take early retirement and will leave the Random House imprint in December. With her pending departure, Tricia Pasternak has been promoted to Editorial Director of Del Rey Spectra.
Andrea Colvin has been named VP, Content/Executive Producer, Book Division, at Andrews McMeel Publishing. Colvin was formerly Director of Publishing Operations at Open Road Integrated Media. She succeeds Chris Schillig.
Harry Burton is leaving Newmarket after 15 years, most recently as Publicity Director.
Tom Willshire has become Assistant Sales Manager at Cambridge U. Press, reporting to Liza Murphy, Academic Sales & Marketing Director. He was Sales Manager at Overlook Press.
Caroline Brown has joined Running Press as Publicity Manager. She was formerly Senior Manager of Marketing and Publicity at Sterling Publishing.
Meagan Stacey has joined Crown as Editor, Trade Paperbacks, reporting to Tina Pohlman. Previously she was an Editor at HMH/Mariner Books. Christina Foxley will join Crown Archetype as Marketing Manager. Previously she was Director of Store Events and Marketing at the Strand Bookstore.
Richard Nash has joined LA start-up Small Demons (now in limited alpha) as VP of Content and Community. He may be reached at richard@smalldemons.com.
Allison Verost has joined Macmillan as Children’s Publicity Director, reporting to President Jon Yaged. She was the Assistant Director of Publicity at Harper Children’s.
In agency news, Terra Chalberg and Rachel Sussman have launched Chalberg & Sussman, a new literary agency representing fiction and nonfiction authors. The agency will also sell foreign rights to select titles from independent publishers Milkweed Editions and Ig Publishing. Chalberg was previously Director of Foreign Rights for the Susan Golomb Literary Agency, and Sussman was with the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Agency. . . . Jessi Cimafonte has joined Mary Evans Inc. as Director of Foreign Rights, where she will also be developing her own client list. She was previously an Associate Agent at Kuhn Projects.
Palgrave Macmillan announced that Karen Wolny has been named Editorial Director of trade and professional books. Previously she was Editorial Director of Learning Express.
Firebrand Technologies has launched a new affiliate company, Firebrand Associates, an independent management consulting organization. It will be led by Don Linn, former Book Group Publisher at The Taunton Press. It also announced that Doug Lessing is the new President of Firebrand Technologies, and Susan Ruszala is the new President of NetGalley. Toolan will remain as CEO.
PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES
Ben Sevier has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief at Dutton. He was previously Executive Editor at the company, which he joined in 2007.
Hector Sierra has been named GM and SVP of National Geographic Society Book Publishing Group. He was COO.
John Parsley has been promoted to Executive Editor at Little, Brown. He joined the company in 2007. And at Little, Brown Children’s, Tina McIntyre has been promoted to Executive Director, Digital Business Development and Operations, reporting to Deputy Publisher Andrew Smith. Vintage Senior Editor Jennifer Jackson has been named Senior Editor, Knopf and Doubleday. She has been with the group since 2002, and became an Editor at Vintage in 2006.
Molly Barton has been promoted to the position of VP, Digital Publishing, Business Development and Strategy. Penguin Group Publishing Coordinator Matthew Boyd has been promoted to Publishing Manager and Manager of Special Marketing Initiatives.
Melanie DeNardo has been promoted to Assistant Director of Publicity for Holt, Metropolitan and Times Books. She joined the company in 2009.
At Ten Speed Press, Kristin Casemore has been promoted to Publicity Director, Cookbooks, continuing to report to Patricia Kelly, VP, Marketing & Publicity Director.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The presentation of the annual Thurber Prize for American Humor takes place on October 3 at the Algonquin Hotel. Alan Zweibel, winner in 2006 for his book The Other Shulman,will emcee the event.
*****
Carolyn Reidy, CEO of S&S, will be honored at the 25th anniversary Gala for Goddard Riverside on November 7, 2011, at 583 Park Avenue in New York. For details, go to www.goddard.org/BookFairGala.html
*****
PubWest is pleased to announce that Len Riggio, Chairman of Barnes & Noble, will be the featured keynote speaker for the PubWest Conference 2011 in November. As the keynote, Riggio will discuss his thoughts on the future of bookselling and his predictions for the future of reading from print to screen. The PubWest Conference 2011 will be held November 3–5 at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Henderson, NV. The theme is “Beating the Odds: Making Money Making Books.” Register at www.pubwest.org/conference.
****
At The Frankfurt Book Fair, the new Publishers Launch E-books Around the World conference, which looks at the digital landscape in major territories around the world, takes place on October 10. It is followed, on October 11, by a half day conference, Children’s Publishing Goes Digital: New Markets, Players, and Platforms. Both events will look at how the digital marketplace will change in the coming year, and what publishers need to know to prepare for it. For details, go to http://www.publisherslaunch.com/events/launch-frankfurt
****
CLMP’s annual Spelling Bee takes place on Monday, October 24, at the Highline Ballroom in the Standard Hotel. Competing authors include Simon Winchester, Julia Glass, and Francine Prose hoping to hang on to her title. For tickets, details and contributions, go to www.CLMP.org/Bee. . . .
****
Macaulay Honors College at CUNY has launched a lecture series featuring writers from the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The upcoming author will be Paul Hendrickson, who will discuss his forthcoming book, Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life and Lost, 1934-1961, on November 2nd at 7:00 pm. The series is free and open to the public. Reservations can be made by visiting http://macaulay.cuny.edu/otsuka, calling 212-729-2910, or emailing olga.barskaya@mhc.cuny.edu. Macaulay is located at 35 West 67th Street.
****
Words Without Borders has announced that its annual benefit will take place on November 14. For details go to: http://wordswithoutborders.org
IN MEMORIAM
Marion (Buz) Wyeth, Jr, a long time Editor at HarperCollins, died on September 25 at the Preakness Health Care Center in Wayne, NJ at the age of 84. The cause of death was complications due to Alzheimer’s Disease.
