PEOPLE
Macmillan President, Brian Napack, has left the company, where he had also served as Chairman and CEO of Scientific American. He will announce plans early in 2012.
Also at Macmillan, Kingfisher has hired Brian Buerkle as Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing, replacing Angus Killick who has been named VP, Associate Publisher, Macmillan Children’s. Buerkle was Senior Marketing Manager at Marshall Cavendish.
Lots of news from HarperCollins: Carrie Thornton will join the company in January 2012 as Executive Editor for It Books. Thornton held the same position at Dutton. And Hilary Redmon has joined Ecco as Executive Editor, focusing on non-fiction titles. She was Senior Editor at Free Press. Iobyte’s Dan Lubart is joining HarperCollins in the new position of SVP of Sales Analytics. He will “develop, build and implement dynamic pricing strategies” for their books. Lubart will report to Josh Marwell. And Casey McIntyre will be joining HarperCollins Children’s Books as Publicity Manager on January 9th. She was at the Penguin Young Readers Group.
Shannon Welch will join Scribner as a Senior Editor on January 9. She was previously an Executive Editor at Rodale.
Roger Labrie has left his position as Senior Editor at S&S and will be providing freelance editorial services to agents and authors. He is based in Summit, NJ, and may be reached atrlabrie311@comcast.net
Josalyn Moran, who left her job as children’s publishing director at Chronicle Books to become VP of publishing at Albert Whitman in 2010, will step down from that role at the end of the year. Whitman head John Quattrocchi said in a memo that “having achieved all preset goals,” Moran will transition to an advisory role from St. Louis.
Peter Miller has been hired as Director of Publicity at Liveright Publishing, the new division of W.W. Norton. He was formerly with Bloomsbury and Walker.
William Kiester is leaving his position as Publisher at Fair Winds Press after five years. In 2012 he will be pursuing a new publishing venture. He can be reached at williamkiester@gmail.com.
Dystel & Goderich Literary Management has hired Morris Shamah as the agency’s new Royalties Director and Junior Agent. Shamah previously worked at Writers House and the Carol Mann Agency as an intern.
Amy Grillo has been named Digital and Print Projects Manager at The Museum of Modern Art. She was Digital Accounts Manager at Hachette.
Marcy Goot is leaving Kaplan, where she was Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, and moving to California to be Marketing Director, Literacy Program, at non-profit Benetech. She may be reached at marcyg@benetech.org
PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES
Kate Klimo, VP Publisher Random House/Golden Books, is moving over to the television side of the Random House Young Readers Group. Her contact info will remain the same.
At Grand Central, Ben Greenberg has been promoted to Executive Editor; Alex Logan moves up to Editor; and Latoya Smith is promoted to Associate Editor.
Vanessa Mobley is being promoted to Executive Editor at Crown, reporting to Molly Stern.
At Public Affairs, Tessa Shanks has been promoted to Assistant Director of Publicity.
Paul Whitlatch has been promoted to Editor at Scribner. He was previously an Associate Editor.
Deborah Aaronson has been promoted to Associate Publisher, Abrams adult trade, with responsibility for editorial resources and the adult art and design department. Both Aaronson and Publishing Director for lifestyle Leslie Stoker will report to Tager. Jennifer Levesque moves up to Editorial Director, reporting to Aaronson, where she will oversee Abrams Image.
Lauren Shakely, who stepped down last month as Senior VP, Publisher, Clarkson Potter, is reachable at lshakely@earthlink.net
DULY NOTED
Below is the Audio Publishers Association just-released annual Survey Highlights:
- Unit sales were up nearly 10% in the past year, showing continued consumer interest in audiobooks.
- Based on the companies who reported (representing 61% of industry), total net sales (after returns) are up by 2 million units and $2 million.
- The total number of audiobooks being published doubled in the past three years, from 3,073 in 2007 to 6,200 in 2010.
- Audiobook downloads continued on a growth trend representing 36% of dollar volume (up from 29% in 2009) and 52% of unit sales (up from 48% in 2009)
- In the past 5 years, downloading has grown 300% by dollar volume (from 9% in 2005) and 150% in terms of units (from 21% in 2005).
- The CD format still represents the largest single source of dollars but showed slight declines overall in 2010 – 58% of revenue (down from 65%) and 43% of unit sales (down from 46%).
- Unabridged editions (89% of the market by dollars; 85% of the market by units) continue to lead in sales.
******
The Women’s National Book Association wants to know about bookstores in the United States that excel at inspiring kid’s interest in reading, as well as creatively bringing books and young people together. The organization will present the annual WNBA Pannell Award to two bookstores—one a general bookstore and one a children’s specialty bookstore—at BookExpo America in June. Each recipient will receive a check for $1,000 and a framed piece of original art by a noted children’s book illustrator. Deadline for nominations is Jan. 15. Nominated stores can make their submissions to the Pannell jury electronically via email: vtomaselli@mtmpublishing.com
UPCOMING EVENTS
The spring awards seasons begins in January, with the Newberry and Caldecott medals, which will be presented along with the Coretta Scott King Book Awards on January 23, 2012, at the midwinter ALA in Dallas. For details go to: http://ala.org
The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction will be given in Toronto on March 5, 2012. For details go to http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards take place on March 8 at The New School, 66 West 12th Street. For details go to http://bit.ly/txEwEZ
The 16th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards will take place Monday, March 12, 2012 at the The New York Times Center at 242 W. 41st St. For details go to: http://bit.ly/rHJoCZ
PEN New England is now accepting submissions for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for books published in 2011. The award of $8,000 is presented for a novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a book of fiction. The award will be presented at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston on Sunday, April 1, 2012.
Anna Quindlen has been named honorary national chairperson for World Book Night US. World Book Night is a campaign to give away a million free books across America all on one day — April 23, 2012 — by enlisting 50,000 volunteer book lovers to help promote reading by going into their communities and distributing free copies of a book they especially enjoy. World Book Night US has opened the registration process for those wishing to become volunteer book givers. They can go to www.us.worldbooknight.org and register through February 1, 2012.
