People Round-Up, Mid-December 2016

PEOPLE

Julia A. Reidhead, formerly VP and Publishing Director of the W. W. Norton College department, has succeeded W. Drake McFeely as President. McFeely remains Chairman. And Steven Pace, currently Sales Director at Workman, will join Norton as Director of Trade Sales on January 2. He is replacing VP and Trade Sales Director William F. Russin, who is retiring.

Sarah Smith has joined Amazon as Editorial Director, Print & Kindle Books. She was most recently a lecturer in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and previously Children’s Book Editor at the New York Times Book Review.

Jamie Raab, President and Publisher at Grand Central Publishing, and Deb Futter, VP and EIC of hardcovers at Grand Central and Publisher at Twelve Books, are both leaving Hachette Book Group at the end of January.

Andy LeCount is joining HarperCollins as Director of Sales, General on December 29. He is currently Executive Director, Chains for Hachette Book Group.

At Chronicle Books, Tyrell Mahoney will take over as President on January 3. She joined Chronicle in 1996 and has held her current position, VP of Sales and Marketing, since 2007. Chronicle’s current president, Jack Jensen, is moving to a new, more comprehensive role as President of McEvoy Group LLC.

Stephen Power joined Thomas Dunne Books as Executive Editor. He was previously Senior Editor at Amacom. At Minotaur, Catherine Richards will be joining as Senior Editor on March 6, having most recently worked as Senior Editor for Fiction at Pan Macmillan UK.

Derek Stordahl has joined Holiday House as Executive Vice President, General Manager. He was most recently Executive Vice President at Bloomsbury USA.

Ginny Anson, VP, Director of Manufacturing at Penguin Young Readers Group, is retiring at the end of the year, after 31 years. Nadine Britt will succeed her with the title VP, Executive Director of Production.

At Penguin Random House Audio, Linda Korn has joined as Executive Producer, having previously operated her own company, Kornucopia Sounds. Nick Martorelli, formerly Ebook Production Manager for Penguin Random House, joined as Producer, and Tara Hart, formerly Associate Contracts Administrator for John Wiley and Sons, joined as Assistant Manager, Rights and Permissions.

At agencies…Adriana Stimola has joined the Stimola Literary Studio as Agent. She was previously Content Manager at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Danielle Smith has left Red Fox Literary after three years to launch her own literary agency, Lupine Grove Creative, with most of her clients set to follow. Kimberly Whalen has left Trident Media Group to open her own literary agency, The Whalen Agency, with many of her clients to set to follow as well. Jane Chelius is closing her eponymous agency and retiring at the end of the year.

At Scholastic, Angie Chen has joined as Production Editor for picture books and Cartwheel. She was previously Sales & Rights Associate at the Aperture Foundation. Rachel Gluckstern is Production Editor for hardcover, having formerly worked as Editor at DC Comics. Melissa Schirmer, formerly Assistant to the Events Manager and Bookseller at Books of Wonder, is Assistant Production Editor, and Teresa Harris, previously Assistant Brand Manager at the Joester Loria Group, is Licensing and Brand Manager, Licensed Publishing.

Bonnie Dailey has joined Ingram Publisher Services as Client Implementation Manager. She had previously been Senior Systems Implementation Analyst at GEODIS. Bunmi Western has joined IPS as Sales and Marketing Director in the London office. At Ingram Content Group, Roger Lee has joined as VP, Credit, succeeding Rob Montgomery, who is retiring in early 2017.

Caitlin Kleinschmidt has joined Workman Publishing as Associate Manager of National Accounts. She was most recently Associate Marketing Manager at Penguin Random House.

Bret Kehoe has joined Sourcebooks as Managing Editor. He previously worked as Lead Editor at Questions Galore. Chris Francis joined as Assistant Editor, having earlier worked as a freelance editor and designer.

At Running Press, Valerie Howlett has joined as Children’s Publicity and Marketing Manager after working as an author marketing consultant.

At Open Road, Laura J. Burns has joined as Executive Editor and Garon Benner has joined as Senior Product Manager. Benner was previously Product Manager for Crain Communications, Inc.

At Diversion Books, Lia Ottaviano is now Editor; she was previously Associate Editor at Wiley.

Jaime Carey, President, Development and Restaurant Group, is leaving Barnes & Noble at the end of February.

Mark Nichols is leaving his position as Development Officer at the American Booksellers Association. He will continue working through the Winter Institute in January.

At Princeton University Press, director Peter J. Dougherty is retiring at the end of the year. He has held his position since 2005.

Elizabeth Scarpelli is Director of the new University of Cincinnati Press. She was previously Director of Publisher Services at Baker & Taylor and Bookmasters.

At the University of Washington Press, Katrina Noble joined as Art Director and Rebecca Brinbury joined as Assistant to the Director. Margaret Sullivan came on in late October as Editorial, Design, and Production Manager; she was previously Director of Editorial and Production at The Mountaineers Books.

PROMOTIONS

At Algonquin Books, Craig Popelars has been promoted to Associate Publisher.

At Random House Children’s, Laura Morgan has been promoted to Subsidiary Rights Assistant Manager. At Clarkson Potter, Ashley Meyer and Amanda Englander are both now Senior Editor.

Cassie Drumm is now Associate Digital Marketing Manager at Running Press, promoted from Associate Publicist.

At agencies…Adria Goetz has been promoted to Associate Literary Manager at Martin Literary Management.

At Chronicle Books, Diane Levinson has been promoted to Senior Publicist. She was previously a part-time publicist for Chronicle’s art list and worked with Princeton Architectural Press, both owned by the McEvoy Group.

At Scholastic, Jody Corbett is now Senior Editor and Erin Black and Paige Hazzan are now both Editor. Weslie Turner has been promoted to Assistant Editor, Arthur A. Levine Books. Sophia Pestun has been promoted to Associate Business Manager. David Villeroel is now Senior Financial Analyst. Alexandra Wladich has been promoted to Associate Director, Corporate Communications, and now oversees the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge and the Kids & Family Reading Report. Elizabeth Krych has been promoted to Senior Production Manager, and Stephanie Peitz is now Manager, Cross Channel Marketing.

Amanda Aleksey has been promoted to the newly-created position of Manager, Client Relations at Ingram Publisher Services and will work as a liaison between international customers and the sales team. Kimberly Highland has been promoted to Director of Sales for Distribution – Client Business Development. Jonathan Buford is now Manager, Database Administration for Ingram Content Group. At Ingram Book Group, Richard Dixon has been promoted to content manager; Amy Alder, to Manager for Trade Shows & Events, Channel Marketing; Jessica Driver, to Marketing Manager; and Jennifer Rice, to Marketing Manager for Content Marketing. Nicholas Brown has been promoted to Director of Product Management at VitalSource. Hani Hanna is now Manager of Onboarding and Integrations, Customer Operations, and Sarah Knoll and Kathleen Kelly have been promoted to Customer Success Manager. Nancy Stout has been named as Credit Manager in the finance department.

At the American Booksellers Association, Matthew Zoni is being promoted to Director of Development and Publisher Relations, and David Grogan is being promoted to Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, both becoming members of the ABA’s senior staff. Peter Reynolds will be taking on an expanded role as Project Manager. Gen de Botton is being promoted to Group Manager from Program and Development Coordinator. In addition, the ABA has created a senior staff executive committee to which all other directors and officers will report. Those on the committee are Robyn DesHotel, Chief Financial Officer; Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, Senior Program Officer; and Dan Cullen, Chief Strategy Officer.

Brianna Scharfenberg and Jaidree Braddix have both been promoted to Publicist at Skyhorse.

DULY NOTED

Agencies Kuhn Projects and Zachary Shuster Harnsworth are officially merging to form Aevitas Creative Management. David Kuhn, Todd Shuster, and Esmond Harnsworth will serve as managing partners of the new firm. Jennifer Gates, Laura Nolan, Janet Silver, and Lane Zachary are senior partners, and Rick Richter and Jane von Mehren are additional partners.

The 28^th biennial Jerusalem Book Fair has been set for June 11-15, 2017 and will run concurrently with Hebrew Book Week.

As of December 7, the Perseus New York staff has moved in with their Hachette Book Group colleagues at 1290 Avenue of the Americas. The staff now uses Hachette email addresses and has new phone numbers.

The owners of Brooklyn’s BookCourt have announced that it will close on December 31 after 35 years in business. Upon hearing the news, author Emma Straub announced her own plans to open a new bookstore in the neighborhood.

Macmillan and the New York Public Library have reached an agreement to collaborate on children’s and adult books, both print and digital, drawn from or otherwise inspired by the library’s collection.

Bookigee is ceasing its operations on December 23, and GalleyCat permanently closed on December 9.

The Chicago Review Press has acquired Parenting Press, which will continue on as an imprint. Parenting Press was already being distributed by the Chicago Review Press’s IPG unit.

The Oakland fire of December 2 claimed the lives of Counterpoint Press administrative assistant Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, and Green Apple Books music buyer and DJ Johnny Igaz, 34.