People Round-Up, Early October 2016

PEOPLE

Brian O’Leary began as Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group on October 3, succeeding Mark Kuyper, who left after a year in the job.

Linda K. Zecher, President and CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has left her position after five years. The Board of Directors has appointed L. Gordon Crovitz as interim CEO while a permanent replacement is found.

With the acquisition of Logical Marketing by OptiQly, Logical Marketing Founder and CEO Mike Shatzkin has assumed a seat on the OptiQly board and a long-term consulting agreement. Logical Marketing Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Pete McCarthy and Co-Founder and Director of Operations Jess Johns are now, respectively, Chief Product and Services Officer and Director of Marketing at OptiQly.

At Touchstone/S&S, Cara Bedick joined as Senior Editor. She was previously Senior Editor at William Morrow.

Amanda Bergeron joined Berkley as Executive Editor. She was previously at Morrow/Avon for eight years.

At Harmony Books, Alyse Diamond has joined as Associate Editorial Director. She was previously Editorial Director of Online Integrated Products at Rodale and launched their online learning program.

Rick Bunka is the new President and CEO of Nebraska Book Holdings. He had previously been President of New Dots LLC from January 2007 to February 2013 and served as its Chief Executive Officer until August 2012. Interim head Ben Riggsby will remain on the company’s board. He was appointed Interim President and CEO in early 2015.

At VitalSource, Jason White joined as Director, Sales Operations. He had most recently served as Vice President, Finance, with Expion. Tracy Schreiber joined as VP, Customer Success. She previously worked as Senior Director, Customer Success with Dude Solutions.

Hank Cochrane joined Macmillan as Senior National Account Manager. He most recently worked as VP, Sales Imprint Director at Penguin Random House. Cristina Cushing has been appointed National Account Manager. At Henry Holt, Jessica Wiener has been appointed Director of Marketing for adult trade. She previously worked as Director, Integrated Marketing, for Workman.

Lauren Velasquez has joined Little, Brown as Marketing Manager. Previously, she was Marketing Manager at Crown Publishing Group.

At agencies…Mackenzie Brady Watson has joined the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency as Literary Agent. She was previously Agent at New Leaf Literary & Media. Natasha Fairweather is joining Rogers, Coleridge & White as Agent and as a member of the board; she was previously at United Agents. David Granger has joined Kuhn Projects and Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as Agent after spending 19 years as Editor-in-Chief of Esquire. Grace Ross joined Regal Hoffman & Associates as Agency Assistant and Junior Assistant. Previously, she was at the Denise Shannon Literary Agency. William Lippincott is leaving Lippincott Massie McQuilkin at the end of 2016 to pursue other interests. The agency will become Massie McQuilkin & Co. Anna Knutson Geller has left The Book Group in order to found Write View, a literary agency with an emphasis on inspirational memoir, practical nonfiction, and spirituality.

Joan Strasbaugh has joined The Experiment as Senior Editor. She worked previously as Senior Editor with Abbeville Press.

Moira Kerrigan has returned to Workman Publishing as Associate Director of Marketing with a focus on the adult titles.

At Lion Forge Comics, Andrea Colvin has joined as Senior Editor at Roar Comics. She was previously VP of content for the book division at Andrews McMeel Universal.

Amy Kosar is joining Chronicle Books as Distribution Client Account Manager after working at Photojojo as General Manager.

Becky Herrick, formerly of Scholastic, has joined Skyhorse as Editor at Sky Pony Press.

At The Nation, David Marcus has been named Literary Editor. He was previously Co-Editor at Dissent and succeeds John Palatella, who will serve as editor-at-large.

Darcy Cohan has joined Insight Editions as PR Director. She worked previously at HarperCollins, Chronicle Books, Perseus Books Group, and Princeton University Press and, most recently, as communications director for a Washington, DC political think tank.

At Catapult, Nicole Chung has joined as Managing Editor of the online magazine and writing community. She was previously Managing Editor at The Toast.

Chris Saynor will join EDItEUR as Standards Editor in November. He is currently metadata specialist and project manager at Giant Chair.

At Random House Children’s, Bob Bianchini has joined the art and design department as Designer.

Sarah Creech has joined Simon Pulse as Senior Designer; she was previously Designer at HarperCollins.

Megan Looney is joining Harper Audio as Marketing Associate. She has worked with HarperCollins since 2014, previously in legal. Claire McLaughlin has joined Little Bird Publicity as Assistant Publicist.

PROMOTIONS

The National Book Foundation has promoted Benjamin Samuel to Director of Programs.

Kate Travers has been promoted to Director, Digital Business and Operations at Workman. Cialina Temena-Husemann has been promoted to Assistant Manager, Web Operations. Allison Huggins has been promoted to International Rights Manager. Also at Workman, Noreen Herits has been promoted to Publicity and Marketing Director for juvenile titles and Estelle Hallick has been promoted to Publicist and Marketing Associate for the children’s list. Laura DiNardo is now Digital Marketing Coordinator. Jenny Lee has been promoted to Associate Publicist. Steve Whitener is moving from the sales team to the digital team to become Director, Digital Operations & Analytics.

Erin Clarke has been promoted to Senior Executive Editor at Knopf Children’s; Katherine Harrison has been promoted to Editor. At Crown Children’s, Samantha Gentry has been promoted to Assistant Editor. Talia Krohn has been promoted to Executive Editor at Crown Business, and Mary Choteborsky Reynics has been promoted to Executive Editor for that imprint as well as Crown Forum and Convergent. Derek Reed is now Editor for all three imprints. Gary Jansen has been named to the new role of Director at Image; he will retain his existing editorial duties at Convergent and Harmony. At Riverhead, Claire McGinnis has been promoted to Assistant Director of Publicity, and Liz Hohenadel is now Senior Publicity Manager. Mallory Matney has been promoted to Assistant Manager, Marketing Operations, at Random House Children’s. Megan Williams is now Assistant Managing Editor.

KeriLee Horan is now Marketing Manager at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. She was previously Associate Marketing Manager.

Lindy Humphreys has been promoted to Associate Publisher, Abrams Plus. She was previously Senior Director of Digital Publishing at Abrams.

At Harper Audio, Caitlin Garing has been promoted to Executive Producer. Beth Ives has been promoted to Associate Director of Marketing. At HarperOne, Miles Doyle has been promoted to Deputy Editor. Stephanie Hitchcock has been promoted to Editor at Harper Business.

At Little, Brown, Katharine Myers has been promoted to Associate Director of Publicity. Pamela Brown has been promoted to Marketing Director, Little, Brown and Mulholland Books.

At agencies…Sarah Perillo has been promoted to Foreign Rights Manager at Curtis Brown. At Triada, Brent Taylor has been promoted to Subsidiary Rights Manager, audio and foreign, in addition to his role as Associate Agent.

At Akashic, Ibrahim Ahmad has been promoted to Editorial Director.

At Quarto, Geraldine McBride has been promoted to UK Sales Director. Jon Stefani, who previously held that position, is leaving the company to join the “social eating start-up” WeFiFo.

Mark Siegel has been promoted to Editorial and Creative Director at First Second, while Calista Brill has been promoted to Executive Editor.

At Rowan & Littlefield, Jenny Cima is now Director, International Sales and Marketing; she was previously Head, International Sales. At NBN International, Oliver Gadsby is taking over as chairman from Ken Rhodes, who is leaving to pursue opportunities elsewhere in the industry.

DULY NOTED

PEN America has named five new members to its board of trustees: Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House; Lauren Embrey, President and CEO of the Embrey Family Foundation; Saeed Jones, Buzzfeed culture editor; Dinaw Mengestu, author of All Our Names; and Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life.

The National Book Foundation has received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to initiate a new study of translation in the United States. Translator and former NBF director Harold Augenbraum will oversee the project.

IDW Publishing is moving their trade bookstore sales and distribution to Penguin Random House Publisher Services as of April 2017. Diamond will continue to represent them, but only for the comic book market.

Author Rick Riordan is launching the Rick Riordan Presents imprint at his publisher Disney-Hyperion, with plans to begin publishing in 2018. The imprint will focus on mythology-based middle grade books.

Lena Dunham will serve as spokesperson for this year’s Indies First campaign on November 26.

Three Christian publishers – Deep River Books, John Ritchie Limited, and Mark Cahill Ministries – have signed agreements with AtlasBooks, the distribution division of Bookmasters. AtlasBooks will distribute their titles in the US and abroad.

Nan A. Talese is the recipient of the Biographers International Organization’s award for editorial excellence.