People Round-Up, Mid-October 2014

PEOPLE

The following update about Perseus Book Group was added to the original post on 10/17/14.

Perseus Book Group announced a number of changes in order to unify its publishing imprints and distribution. Susan Weinberg is promoted to Senior VP, Group Publisher and all imprint heads will report to her. Sabrina McCarthy moves from her position as President of Perseus Distribution to become Senior VP, Group Sales with Heidi Sachner moving up to replace her while Matty Goldberg takes on a new position as President of Publishing, Client and Sales Development. Mark Suchomel is promoted to a new position of President, Client Services with all four heads of the distribution companies reporting in, while Jeff Tagge moves up at Legato to replace him. Joining Perseus from General Electric is Raymond Floyd in the new position of Senior VP for Operations.

As a result of these changes, Chris Navratil, Publisher of Running Press, is leaving the company as are Patrick Kirk and Scott Edinburgh, who were in project management and business development respectively. Allison Devlin, currently Associate Publisher and Marketing Director, has been named Acting Publisher of Running Press while a search is conducted.

Mary Rasenberger was named the new Executive Director of the Authors Guild. She is a Partner at media law firm Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams and Sheppard. Her predecessor Paul Aiken will continue to act as a consultant for the Guild.

Liza Baker returned to Scholastic as VP and Executive Editorial Director of Cartwheel and Orchard Books, leaving her previous position as Editor-in-Chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Meanwhile, Abigail Stahlman joined Scholastic as Graphic Designer of the Trade Marketing Group after freelancing for the company.

Jonathan Jao joined the Harper imprint last month as VP, Executive Editor. Previously, he was Senior Editor at Random House. Kendra Harpster has also left her position as Senior Editor at Random House to join Berkley Books as Executive Editor.

Janet Goldstein left her position as SVP, Editorial Director of National Geographic Books in DC and is now pursuing other opportunities. She can be reached at her publishing strategy firm, www.janetgoldstein.com, or her email, goldstein.janet@gmail.com.

Michele Jacob left her position as VP, Director of Publicity at Basic Books at Perseus Book Group to join the Manhattan Institute, a nonprofit that supports and publishes research on public policy. She can be reached at mjacob@gmail.com.

In children’s: Sarah Dotts Barley joined Flatiron Books at Macmillan as Senior Editor. Previously, she was Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books. . . .Faye Bi joined Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing as Publicist after leaving her position as Publicist at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. . . .Anne Hetzel joined the teen imprint Amulet Books at Abrams as Editor. Previously, she was Associate Editor at Razorbill. In August, Cecily Kaiser left her position as Publishing Directorat the Appleseed imprint of Abrams to join Phaidon as Publishing Director, Children’s Books.

Bobbilyn Jones joined Grand Central Life & Style as Publicity Manager. Previously, she was Senior Publicist at Atria.

Tim Wudurski joined Chronicle Books as Manager of Production and Creative Systems. His previous experiences were in production and IT at California Home+Design, 7×7, and Spin.

John Maas and Sarah Passick joined Sterling Lord Literistic as Associate Agents. Maas was an Assistant Editor at Wiley and Passick was an agent at Stonesong.

Valerie Cortes is now Publisher of Boston Review. Previously, she was Circulation and Marketing Director Bookforum and Artforum.

Deborah Kaufmann joined Legendary Entertainment as VP, Literary Affairs. She was Senior Editor at Calmann-Levy and head of fantasy and science fiction publisher Orbit France.

Tom Scotty is now Chief Operating Officer at digital textbook distributor RedShelf. Previously, he was Co-President at Macmillan Higher Education.

Jennifer Hergenroeder joined The Experiment as Marketing and Publicity Manager. She previously was the Senior Publicist at The University of North Carolina Press.

Dr. Michelle Anthony has joined the nonprofit Christian publisher David C. Cook as VP and Publisher of the Learning Resources Group.

PROMOTIONS

At Basic Books, Cassie Nelson was promoted to Director of Publicity and Betsy DeJesu was promoted to Associate Director of Publicity.

At National Geographic Kids, Nancy Feresten was promoted to Senior VP, Education and Children’s Media and Melina Bellows was promoted to Chief Education Officer.

Jenny Kühne has taken over Rights and Licensing at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This will be in addition to her previous duties, which include marketing the Book Fair’s RightsLink licensing service for online permissions.

In the Penguin Random House Sales Department, Amy Zenn was promoted to VP, Imprint Sales, while Christine Dillon was promoted to VP, Director, Proprietary and Diversified Sales and Lisa Vitelli was promoted to VP, Premium Sales.

Ashley Phillips was promoted to Editor at Clarkson Potter/The Crown Publishing Group.

DK had some promotions recently: Rachel Kempster was promoted to VP, Marketing and Publicity and Jaimie Cona to Associate Director, Marketing. Rebecca Behan to Marketing Manager, Adult and Travel, while Malisa Savanh was promoted to Marketing Coordinator and Kari Cunningham was promoted to Senior Marketing Manager, Online.

At Atria Books, Yona Deshommes has been promoted to Associate Director of Publicity and Ariele Friedman was promoted to Publicity Manager.

Open Road Media also announced some promotions: Allison Underwood was promoted to Director, Digital Analytics, Leily Kleinbard to Director of Production, Open Road Distribution, Laura DeSilva to Senior Marketing Manager, Amy Grillo to Senior Merchandising Manager, Jack Palmer to Marketing & Analytics Manager, while Megan Buckman was promoted to Assistant Managing Editor and Valerie Vincent to Controller.

Maya Ziv has been promoted to Senior Editor at Harper.

Charlesbridge promoted Megan Quinn to Senior Director of Sales.

Tracy Brickman was promoted to Associate Publicist at Grand Central Publishing.

Carlos Lozada will become Nonfiction Book Critic for Washington Post. The previous Nonfiction Book Critic Jonathan Yardley is retiring after 30 years with the paper.

DULY NOTED

Jeff Berg’s talent agency Resolution will close. The company opened in 2013 after Berg left ICM.

The freelance editor association Consulting Editors Alliance has changed its name to Book Editors Alliance. Their new website is www.bookeditorsalliance.com.

The New York University Publishing Institute is launching the Advanced Digital Publishing Institute, which will be a month-long course in March 2015 on specific topics of digital books for mid- to senior-level publishing executives. More information is available at www.sps.nyu.edu/publishing/adpi.