PEOPLE
Director at Janklow & Nesbit Tina Bennett has joined William Morris Endeavor‘s literary division as a partner in the New York office. She was at J&N for seventeen years and joins Eric Simonoff, who left Janklow for WME in 2009.
Perseus Books Group’s VP Corporate Strategy & Business Development Clare Peeters, has left the company to join Axel Johnson Investments as VP, Managing Director. With Peeters’ departure, Sabrina McCarthy has been promoted to the new position of President, Perseus Distribution Client Services and has taken on Argo Navis. Greg Anastas has been promoted to the new position of VP, Supply Chain & Sales Ops.
After thirty years with the company, President and Publisher of Viking Children’s Books Regina Hayes will relinquish that position, to become Editor-at-Large. Writers House Agent Ken Wright will take over as VP, Publisher of Viking Children’s on August 27, reporting to Penguin Children’s President Don Weisberg.
Brian Phair has rejoined Sterling Children’s as Managing Editor after stints at Watson Guptill and Potter Craft.
Kathy Smith, former SVP Sales Administration and Operations at HarperCollins is starting her own consulting business with an emphasis on untangling the mysteries of metadata. She may be reached at smith2310kathy@gmail.com.
Zola Books has made two hires: Seale Ballenger as head of marketing and publicity and Mary Ann Naples as Chief of Business Development. Ballenger was most recently VP, Group Publicity Director at William Morrow. Naples was most recently VP, Business Development at OpenSky. Naples told PT.com “Zola is fundamentally re-imagining ebook retail and including authors, publishers, booksellers, and other key book-lovers as a fundamental part of the business plan, and that’s a company I need to be a part of.” She may be reached at maryann.naples@zolabooks.com
Philip Jones has been promoted to Editor of the Bookseller, the U.K. book trade magazine. Jones has been Deputy Editor of the magazine and Editor of Futurebook, the Bookseller Group’s digital blog. Jones succeeds Neill Denny, who has been Editor-in-Chief since 2004 and will begin a column for the Bookseller.
Mark Chait has joined HarperCollins’ It Books as Executive Editor. Previously he was a Senior Editor at NAL/Dutton.
Lucas Hilbert, formerly Senior Product Manager, Marketing and Merchandising at Amazon, has been hired to the position of VP of eCommerce for F+W.
Amanda Pritzker has joined Grand Central as Publicity Manager. Previously she was a Publicist at Portfolio/Sentinel. In addition, Nick Small has been promoted to Senior Publicist.
In agency news, Keating Literary and Brick House are “formalizing what has been organically emerging over the past few years as a strong alliance” between the two and joining together to form Union Literary. Trena Keating and Sally Wofford-Girand are joined by Brick House Senior Agent Jenni Ferrari-Adler and newly promoted agent Kezia Toth under the new banner.
Kristin Ostby has joined S&S for Young Readers as Editor. She was most recently a Senior Editor for Albert Whitman.
Robin Corey will be stepping down from her role as VP, Publishing Director of her eponymous imprint, Robin Corey Books at Random House, effective December 21, though her last day in the office was July 26. She will be working with New York City museums and their education programs which introduce elementary school students to the arts. She will continue to consult. Jason Zamajtuk, Art Director for Robin Corey Books, will be moving to a permanent role in the Random/Golden art department, reporting to Cathy Goldsmith.
Derek Stordahl will join Bloomsbury on August 6 in the newly created role of Head of Sales, Americas, based out of the company’s New York office. Previously he was vp, global marketing for McGraw-Hill Professional.
Teleread’s Paul Biba resigned after five years as Editor; he is being replaced by Dan Eldridge.
FremantleMedia and Random House have teamed to develop scripted TV programs through the newly created Random House Television. Jeffrey Levine has been appointed Head of Television for Random House Television, based in FremantleMedia’s LA offices. He reports to Peter Gethers and works with Jeff Tahler, FremantleMedia’s SVP of Global Content, and Tony Optican, SVP of Scripted, and with Random House Studio. He was previously at Spring Creek Productions. Christina Malach, Executive Story Editor, Random House Studio is joining the LA team.
Nellie Kurtzman will join Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as VP of Marketing. She was most recently Director of Digital and Trade Marketing at Disney/Hyperion.
PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES
Mark Schoenwald has been appointed President and CEO of HarperCollins’ new Christian publishing division, comprised of Zondervan and the newly acquired Thomas Nelson. Schoenwald will report to Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, and will serve on the HarperCollins executive committee. Scott Macdonald will leave his position as President and CEO of Zondervan and will serve in an advisory role.
Eric Huang has been promoted to New Business and IP Acquisitions Director at Penguin Children’s. At Perigee/Penguin, Meg Leder has been promoted to Executive Editor. She was Senior Editor and has worked there since 2005.
Harper Children’s Claudia Gabel has been promoted to Executive Editor at Katherine Tegen Books.
At Chronicle Books, Mercury Ellis has been promoted to Senior Distribution Coordinator, Operations, while Graham Barry has joined the department as Distribution Client Coordinator. Barry was previously an Operations Manager at Amber Lotus Publishing.
Karin Schulze has been promoted to Associate Director, Foreign Rights at Crown; Rachel Berkowitz moves up to Senior Manager. Courtney Snyder has been promoted to Assistant Director, Domestic Rights.
Karen Wojtyla has been promoted from Editorial Director to VP, Editorial Director of Margaret K. McEldrerry Books.
DULY NOTED
Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has moved to 145 W. 45th Street Suite 601 New York, NY 10036. Telephone numbers, email addresses, and other contact info will remain the same.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Aug 3 – 6
Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference
Join acclaimed authors Caroline B. Cooney, Miranda Kenneally, Earl Sewell, Cecil Castellucci, and more!—on Thursday, August 9th, as they discuss their forthcoming titles to help you kick start your fall collections. School Library Journal presents SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books, an online event
Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
Aug 18 –22
New York International Gift Fair
Javits Convention Center and Piers 92 & 94, New York City, NY
Aug 29 – Sep 2
Beijing International Book Fair 2012
China International Exhibition Center, Beijing, China
Sep 1 – 3
Bumbershoot
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA
Sep 5 – 10
Moscow International Book Fair
Moscow, Russia
Sep 7 – 9
SIBA Fall Trade Show
Naples Grande Beach Resort, Naples, FL
Sept 20-21
NYU-SCPS Advanced Publishing Institute (API) Studies in Digital Book Strategy
The NYU Advanced Publishing Institute is a two-day intensive in digital book strategy for mid to senior-level executives interested in learning more about how to incorporate digital into their workflow and to enhance their digital skills. This course is designed to bridge the gap between the plethora of panel-based conferences and the lengthier programs offered by NYU-SCPS and other institutions.
NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies, New York, NY
Sep 21 – 23
NAIBA
Hyatt Regency Crystal City, VA
Sep 23 – 27
Theory and Practices of Digital Libraries (TPDL) Conference
The leading European scientific forum on digital libraries.
Pafos, Cyprus
Oct 3 – 5
NEIBA
Providence, RI
Oct 3 – 5
Liber International
Gran Via Exhibition Centre, Barcelona, Spain
