People Round-Up, Early April 2018

PEOPLE

Judith Curr has joined HarperCollins in the newly-created role of President and Publisher of HarperOne, Amistad, and Rayo. She was, until January, the President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster’s Atria Publishing Group.

Aimee Bell will join Gallery Books as VP, Editorial Director on April 17; she had been the longtime Deputy Editor at Vanity Fair until February. At Simon & Schuster, Seth Russo, VP and Director of International Sales, will retire on April 20.

Nancy Mercado joins Dial as Associate Publisher and Editorial Director beginning April 9. She was previously Editorial Director at Scholastic.

Karen Allman joins Rowman & Littlefield as VP, Sales and Marketing. Most recently she was VP, Business Development at Blackboard Inc. Elsewhere in the company, Dave Horvath, Senior Marketing Manager, is retiring after 41 years in publishing.

At Scribd, Jared Fliesler joins as Chief Operations Officer. He was most recently General Partner at venture capital firm Matrix Partners.

Rebecca Vnuk joins LibraryReads as the organization’s first Executive Director. Previously she was Editor for Collection Management and Library Outreach with the American Library Association’s Booklist publications.

At Emerald Publishing, Phill Jones joins the board as Chief Technology Officer. He was previously Director of Publishing Innovation at Digital Science.

Marie-Claire Wastiaux will retire as Secretary General and Chief Financial Officer of Hachette Livre on July 1. Her successor will be Fabrice Bakhouche, who has been promoted to Deputy Secretary General and Deputy Chief Financial Officer.

At the American Psychological Association, Jason Wells has joined as Director, Books Marketing. He was most recently Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing and Publicity for Rodale Children’s.

Tim Burgard has been announced as Senior Acquisitions Editor at HarperCollins. He was most recently Senior Editor for AMACOM.

At Oni Press, Sarah Gaydos joins as Editorial Director of Licensed Publishing. Previously she was Editor at IDW Publishing.

At Scholastic Trade, Amanda Shih has joined as Associate Editor, Nonfiction. She was most recently Assistant Editor at Tarcher Perigee. Rachel Weinert moves over from Scholastic International to her new role as Rights and Co-Edition Manager, while Crystal McCoy, most recently Senior Publicist at little bee and Sizzle Press, joins as Publicity Manager.

Josh Zajdman joins Picador as Senior Publicist, having worked previously as a Publicist at Media Connect. At Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Trisha de Guzman has joined as Associate Editor. She was previously Editorial and Subsidiary Rights Associate at Rodale.

Jenna Huerta joins Chronicle as Senior Publicist. She was previously Lead Designer at Pixar. In addition, Rachel Nuzman, most recently Rights Manager at Insight Editions, joins as Subsidiary Rights Manager, and Lydia Ortiz joins as Designer, having most recently held that position at MudPuppy.

At Bonnier Publishing USA, due to Crystal McCoy’s departure as Senior Publicist, Gayley Avery will serve as the main contact for children’s PR until a replacement is found.

At IPG, Diana Calice is retiring as Managing Director, Spanish Distribution Program. Spanish Sales Manager Kelsey Wayne will succeed her and will handle all Spanish-language client publishers moving forward.

Stacey Kondla joins The Rights Factory as Associate Agent, Children’s Books. She previously worked as Customer Experience Manager at Indigo.

Jaime Levine is leaving her position as Publisher at Diversion Books.

Chris Artis has joined Shreve Williams Public Relations as Affiliated Publicist. He was most recently Head of Editorial Communications at Reuters.

Jaime Green is now Romance Columnist at the New York Times Book Review. The quarterly column will debut in June’s Summer Reading Issue. Green is Contributing Editor at Catapult and Series Editor for Best American Science and Nature Writing.

At The Ohio State University Press, Ana M. Jimenez-Moreno joins as Acquisitions Editor, Literary and Cultural Studies. She was previously Editorial Assistant at University of Notre Dame Press.

PROMOTIONS

At Penguin Young Readers, Ken Wright has been promoted to President and Publisher of Viking Children’s Books and Philomel, and Jill Santopolo becomes Associate Publisher at Philomel. Krister Engstrom has been promoted to Assistant Director, Licensed & Proprietary Brand Marketing at Random House Children’s, where Tara Grieco has also become Associate Marketing Manager, Licensed & Proprietary Brand Marketing, and Jena Debois is now Marketing Coordinator, Licensed & Proprietary Brand Marketing. At Dutton, Jamie Knapp is now Associate Director of Publicity and Becky Odell is now Associate Publicist. Erica Gonzalez has been promoted to Associate Editor at Random House. Austin O’Malley has been promoted to Manager, Digital Publishing for Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. And at Tarcher Perigee, Roshe Anderson moves up to Assistant Marketing Manager and Alexandra Bruschi becomes Publicist.

Lance Fensterman has been promoted to President of Global ReedPOP.

At Macmillan, Leslie Padgett has been promoted to SVP, Technology.

Brian Perrin has been promoted to VP, Marketing for Harper Business and Harper Wave.

At Scholastic Trade, Emily Clement moves up to Executive Editor, Harry Potter, Wizarding World, and Special Projects.

Renee Jardine is now Publisher at VeloPress.

Keith Wallman has been promoted to Executive Editor and Editor-in-Chief at Diversion Books.

At Thomas Dunne, Janine Barlow and Samantha Zukergood have both been promoted to Assistant Editor.

Jonathan Lee has been promoted to Executive Editor at Catapult.

Lisa Forde is now Art Director, Grand Central Life & Style. Lexi Smail is now Associate Editor, Forever.

At Chronicle, Elizabeth Hambrick is now Operations Coordinator.

At Princeton University Press, Laurie Schlesinger has been promoted to Associate Director of Sales and Marketing, Sara Henning-Stout moves up to Senior Publicist, and Jodi Price has been promoted to Publicist. Additionally, as part of the launch of the press’s Creative Media Lab, Donna Liese is now Assistant Creative Director; Heather Hansen, Advertising & Marketing Art Director; Jessica Massabrook, Design Manager; and Meredith McMahon, Advertising Coordinator.

Annette Pollert-Morgan has been promoted to Editorial Director at Sourcebooks Fire. Beth Sochacki and Liz Kelsch both move up to Senior Marketing Manager at Sourcebooks, while James Hegberg becomes Senior Online Marketing Manager.

Alyson Heller has been promoted to Senior Editor at Aladdin.

DULY NOTED

LSC Communications has acquired TriLateral, the logistics provider specializing in distribution for university presses and academic publishers that was formed in 2001 as a joint venture among Harvard, MIT, and Yale University Presses. LSC has also announced a multi-year publisher services agreement with America’s Test Kitchen.

In distribution news, Rough Guides are now distributed in North America by Ingram Publisher Services. They had previously been distributed through Skyhorse. And Sterling Publishing Co. is now the exclusive distributor of Amber Books Ltd. in the US and Canada.

Beginning July 1, Longleaf Services will provide fulfillment and publishing services for University of New Mexico Press.

Sourcebooks has appointed Moxie & Company as their brand licensing agency.

Beginning this month, Blackstone Audio will manufacture, sell, and distribute on-demand physical CD audiobooks of titles previously issued solely as digital audiobooks for Simon & Schuster. S&S will continue to distribute its standing catalog of physical audiobooks.

Hay House is adding an imprint, Hay House Business. Its first book, Dean Graziosi’s Millionaire Success Habits, will be released in January 2019.

The startup Libros en Español has launched an online bookstore for Spanish-language titles within the United States. Customers can begin placing orders on April 15.

Erroll McDonald, VP and Executive Editor at Knopf Doubleday, has been named Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for Fiction.