People Round-Up, Early May 2017

PEOPLE

Barnes & Noble has announced Demos Parneros as their new CEO. He joined the company as Chief Operating Officer in November, before which he was President at Staples. Michael C. Miller has been named Chief Legal Officer and VP of Corporate Affairs, having previously served as EVP, General Counsel and Secretary at Monster Worldwide.

Rich Thomas is joining HarperCollins Children’s as VP, Publishing Director, and will lead the Festival, I Can Read, and licensing programs. He was most recently Associate Publisher and Editorial Director for Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Andrea Fleck-Nisbet has joined Ingram Content Group as Director of Content Acquisition Sales, moving over from her role as Executive Director, Business Operations at Workman Publishing. At Ingram Academic Services, Christy Johnson has joined as Client Relations Manager. She previously worked as National Account Representative for Amazon at HarperCollins Publishers.

At Holiday House Publishing, Margaret Ferguson joins as Publisher of the new Margaret Ferguson Books imprint. She had previously been Publisher of an imprint of the same name at Farrar, Straus Children’s. This is the first time Holiday House has created an eponymous imprint.

At the Quarto Group, Kristine Anderson has joined as Adult Marketing Director. She previously worked as VP of Marketing at LSC Communications Publishing (Dover Books). In addition, Diane Naughton has joined as Children’s Marketing Director, US. She was previously VP of Integrated Marketing at HarperCollins Children’s Books.

Kimberly Woods has joined Penguin Random House as Sales Director of Higher Education, moving over from McGraw-Hill Education, while Travis Temple has joined as Sales Director of K-12 School Education. He worked previously with the K-12 sales group at Norton. Kathryn Santora has joined Crown Publishing Group as Publicity Manager for Crown Archetype, Three Rivers Press, and Harmony Books. She was previously Publicity Manager at Regan Arts. At Clarkson Potter, Jennifer Sit will join as Senior Editor effective May 8, following her tenure as Cookbook Editor at Blue Apron. Sara Neville has joined Clarkson Potter as Associate Editor, moving over from Book and Stationary Buyer at Urban Outfitters, and Jenni Zellner moves over from Crown Archetype to become Associate Editor. In addition, Sarah Hochman is leaving her position as Editor-in-Chief of Blue Rider and Plume on May 10. She had been with Blue Rider since its founding in 2011.

Angela Baggetta will leave her position as Managing Director at Goldberg McDuffie Communications at the end of May in order to launch Angela Baggetta Communications.

Lena Khidritskaya Little has joined Little, Brown as Assistant Director of Publicity. She most recently worked as Communication Manager, Books at National Geographic. Alaina Mauro is leaving her position as Associate Director for James Patterson at the Hachette Book Group and can be reached at mauroalaina@gmail.com.

At agencies…Stephany Evans has joined Ayesha Pande Literary as Agent. She was previously Principal at FinePrint Literary Management. Holly Root has left her job as Agent at Waxman Leavell Literary Agency to launch Root Literary.

The most recent round of layoffs at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt affected a number of Books for Young Readers employees, including Jeannette Larson, Senior Executive Editor, Donna McCarthy, Executive Director of Children’s Book Production, and Linda Magram, VP, Marketing and Publicity. Also leaving were Elizabeth Bennett, Executive Editor, Manager of the Franchise Publishing Program; Amy Carlisle, Managing Editor; Carol Chu, Art Director of Franchising and Paperbacks; Christine Kettner, Creative Director; Margie Markarian, Editor, Children’s Paperbacks; Julia Richardson, Editorial Director, Paperbacks; Sheila Smallwood, VP, Creative Director; and Julie Tibbott, Senior Editor.

At Regan Arts, Alexis Gargagliano has left her position as Executive Editor in order to work independently.

Sonia Sanchez has joined Open Road as Email Marketing Manager, having worked previously as Email Marketing Strategist for Hillary For America. In addition, Jeff Freiert has joined as Copywriter. He previously worked in the copy department at Penguin.

John Glynn is now Editor at Hanover Press, having previously worked in that position at Scribner.

Eugenia Pakalik has left her role as Director, Sales Operations, Distribution Services at W.W. Norton and can be reached at epakalik@gmail.com.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Casey Nugent has joined as Subsidiary Rights Assistant. Julia McCarthy has joined Atheneum Books for Young Readers as Editorial Assistant, moving over from her role as Editorial Assistant at Penguin Group USA.

PROMOTIONS

Mary Mackay has been promoted to Associate Executive Director for Publishing at the American Library Association, effective June 5.

Alison Weiss has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Sky Pony Press.

Campbell Wharton, Associate Publisher for Crown Business, Crown Forum, and Convergent, is taking on the additional role of Associate Publisher for WaterBrook and Multnomah. Emily Ollis is now Marketing Manager for Putnam. At Random House Children’s, Jenna Lettice, Michael Joosten, and Anna Membrino have each been promoted to Associate Editor. Emily Wunderlich is now Editor at Viking.

At Chronicle Books, Jeff Wiebe has been promoted to Director of Operations; Sarah Billingsley, to Executive Editor of Food and Lifestyle; Lauren Lubell, to Industrial Designer; and Jaime Wong, to Marketing Manager, Children’s.

At Amazon Publishing, Maggie Sivon has been promoted to Head of Publicity, while Julia Sommerfeld has been named Editorial Director of Kindle Singles. In addition, Katie Finch has been promoted to Director of Strategic Programs.

At agencies…Don Fehr has been promoted to Senior Vice President at Trident Media Group.

Nick Yates has been promoted to Manager of Operations Analysis at Ingram Content Group.

HarperCollins Christian Publishing, as part of its efforts to expand into the Spanish Bible market, has promoted David Coyotl to Associate Publisher. At HarperCollins, Jennifer Murphy has been promoted to Marketing Coordinator, and David Pomerico has been promoted to Editorial Director for the Voyager imprint.

At Scribner, Taylor Noel is now Publicist.

DULY NOTED

Ingram Publisher Services has added Fodor’s Travel to their list of publishers for distribution.

Quarto is launching a Spanish-language imprint, Quarto Iberoamericana, in partnership with Argentina-based Catapulta Editores. The imprint will launch in fall 2017, publishing twenty books a year from Quarto’s catalog.

Mary Anne Thompson Associates has been appointed US book scout for Bookie Publishing House in Korea, while Jane Starr Literary Scouts has been appointed US scout for Vigmostad & Bjørke in Norway.