People Round-Up, Early June 2015

PEOPLE

Catherine Makk joined HarperCollins as VP, Global Insight. She was Director, Retail and Consumer Insights at Vogue. Additionally, Allison Jarvela is now Senior Manager, Consumer insight. Previously, she was Market Research Analyst at Wiley.

Laura Owen joined Nieman Journalism Lab as Deputy Editor. She was previously Managing Editor of GigaOM.

Mark Kuyper was named Executive Director of Book Industry Study Group, effective June 15^th. He came from Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

Chriscynethia Floyd joined David C Cook as VP, Sales and Marketing for Books and New Media, effective July 6^th. She is currently VP, Marketing, Trade for Harper Christian and VP of Marketing for Zonderkidz.

Terry Newell joined Insight Editions as Head of Sales and Marketing. Most recently, he was President of Weldon Owen.

Publisher of Cleis Press and Founder of Viva Editions Brenda Knight has left the company, citing irreconcilable differences with the new ownership, Start Publishing. The rest of the original staff resigned as well. Knight announced plans to launch an author-centered marketing consulting firm.

James Ernest is now Editor-in-Chief at Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing. He was Executive Editor at Baker Academic and Brazos Press.

Baker Publishing Group VP, Editorial Director Susan Allison will retire in July after 40 years in publishing.

Martin Barabas joined Regan Arts as Publicity Manager. He was most recently at Ingber & Associates Talent Agency as Associate.

Avalon Radys joined Inkshares as Marketing Manager. She was previously Editor-in-Chief at Umano.

In children’s publishing, Jessica Shoffel will join Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as Director of Publicity, leaving her current position as Associate Director of Publicity at Penguin Young Readers Group.

Publicists Kimberly Burns, Whitney Peeling, and Michael Taeckens have formed a full-service publicity group called Broadside: Expert Literary PR. They have previously worked for Random House, Perseus Books Group, and Graywolf, respectively.

Katharine Smalley Myers joined Little, Brown as Publicity Manager. She was previously Director of Sales at Princeton Architectural Press.

McKenna Jordan, the owner of independent bookshop Murder By the Book, was appointed to the newly created role, Publishing Consultant at Minotaur Books. The position will report to Associate Publisher Kelley Ragland. She will provide her expertise on the positioning, selling, and marketing of mysteries and crime fiction exclusively to Minotaur.

Sarah Knight left her position as Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster to launch Sarah Knight Books, which provides editorial, book doctoring, and ghost writing services.

Declan Taintor joined Picador as Senior Publicist. Previously, he was Publicist at powerhouse Books.

Ariel Lewiton joined Sarabande Books as Director of Marketing and Publicity. She is also Interviews Editor at Guernica Magazine.

Brad Woods joined VIZ Media as Chief Marketing Officer. He was SVP at DreamWorks Animation.

At literary agencies, Julie Barer, Faye Bender, Brettne Bloom, and Elisabeth Weed have teamed up to launch the full-service literary agency The Book Group. Rebecca Stead has also joined the agency as Agent. Anna Geller, Jenny Meyer, Caspian Dennis and Lora Fountain will act as Foreign Rights Agents. Bloom was previously Agent at Kneerim, Williams, & Bloom, which will revert to its previous name Kneerim & Williams. . . Amanda O’Connor will join Trident Media Group as Agent in mid-June. She was previously Editor at the discontinued Image Books imprint at Crown. . . Frances Coady joined Aragi Inc. as Literary Agent. She was formerly Publisher at Atavist Books and Picador. . . Moe Ferrara joined BookEnds Literary Agency as Literary Agent and Subsidiary Rights Director. Previously, she was Contracts Manager at The Guild Agency. . . Fuse Literary acquired Penumbra Literary. Penumbra Principal and Owner Jennifer Chen Tran joined Fuse as Associate Agent. . . Hannah Bowman, Senior Agent at Liza Dawson Associates, will open a West Coast office of the agency in August 2016.

Imani Mixon joined Sourcebooks as E-Commerce Copywriter/Storyteller. Ami Vanderhoof has also joined the company as Brand Marketing Manager, E-Commerce. She was Marketing Manager at Fannie May Confections Brands, Inc.

Sherrie Slopianka joined Humanix Books as Director of Publishing, replacing Andy Brown who was recently named COO of Humanix’s parent company, Newsmax Media. Slopianka was Executive Director of Online Sales at Worthy Publishing.

Neil Strandberg is now Director of Technology and Operations at Shelf Awareness. He was Director of Technology at the American Booksellers Association.

Alicia Simons joined Bibliomotion as Senior Director of Marketing. She was most recently Senior Consultant at Monaco Associates.

Debra Woodward is now Sales Manager at Red Wheel/Weiser. She was New England Rep at Candlewick Press.

Tobi Harper joined Red Hen Press as Development Associate.

Trent Hart joined Diversion Books & EverAfter Romance as Marketing Manager. He was previously Convention Coordinator at RT Booklovers Convention.

New York Times Book Critic Janet Maslin has switched from full-time to contributor, effective July 1^st.

PROMOTIONS

At Penguin Random House, Milena Alberti was named CFO, effective July 1^st. James Johnston was promoted to the new position of SVP, Deputy CFO, reporting to Alberti.

Kate Geraghty was promoted to VP, Communications of Macmillan Higher Education and Macmillan New Ventures.

Jim Hanas was promoted to Senior Director, Audience Development and Insight at HarperCollins. Stephanie Newton was promoted to Marketing Director, Backlist at HarperCollins Christian Books.

Hachette Book Group promoted Rich Tullis to VP, Digital and Online Sales, Strategy and Business Development, Barbara Slavin to Director of Digital Sales and Business Development, and Mary Urban to Digital Account Manager. Meanwhile, Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski was promoted to Associate Director of Publicity at Grand Central.

Julie Hamilton was promoted to Director of Sales at Insight Editions, replacing Byron Parnell.

Lindsey Lochner was promoted to Community and Marketing Director at NetGalley.

Sarabande Books promoted Kristen Radtke to Managing Editor.

Simon & Schuster promoted Emily Graff to Editor.

Katie Parry, who was Manager, Sales and Promotion at Penguin Random House, will transition to Marketing Manager at Dutton and Putnam. Emily Brock was promoted to Publicist at Dutton.

Becca Smith was promoted to Publicity and Marketing Specialist, E-Commerce at Sourcebooks.

DULY NOTED

St. Martin’s announced the closing of its Palgrave Macmillan trade imprint. New titles will be published under the St. Martin’s and Griffin imprints. The imprint’s staff will be absorbed. Karen Wolny will become Executive Editor, Elisabeth Dyssegaard will continue as Executive Editor, and Emily Carleton will continue as Senior Editor. Additionally, Christine Catarino will maintain the title of Associate Director, Marketing and Gabrielle Gantz will become Associate Director, Publicity at St. Martin’s.

James Patterson launched a children’s imprint at Little, Brown called jimmy patterson. Little, Brown SVP and Publisher Reagan Arthur will oversee the imprint. All profits will be put toward funding scholarships for teachers, bookstores, and school libraries.