PEOPLE
Simon & Schuster announced the 2019/2020 launch of a new imprint, Avid Reader Press. Jofie Ferrari-Adler and Ben Loehnen will serve as, respectively, VP, Publisher and VP, Editor-in-Chief; both are currently Executive Editors at S&S’s flagship imprint. Julianna Haubner is moving over from the Simon & Schuster imprint as Associate Editor.
As previously reported, Touchstone will be eliminated at the end of this year and its staff will be integrated with Atria and Gallery. Moving to Atria are Executive Editor Matthew Benjamin, Associate Editor Kaitlin Olson, Executive Editor Trish Todd, Associate Director of Publicity Shida Carr, and Marketing Coordinator Isabel DaSilva. Moving to Gallery are Senior Editor Cara Bedick, Executive Editor Lauren Spiegel, Assistant Editor Rebecca Strobel, Assistant Director of Publicity Jessica Roth, and Associate Publicist Sydney Morris. Brian Belfiglio, presently Director of Publicity for both Touchstone and Scribner, will focus exclusively on Scribner. Associate Publisher Meredith Vilarello will manage Touchstone’s backlist. As a result of the restructuring, Senior Art Director Cherlynne Li has left the company. Adene Corns, presently VP, Director, Warehouse Book Sales, will retire from S&S on January 30, 2019. She joined the company in 1994. At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Rebecca Syracuse joins as Designer, Atheneum, McElderry Books, and Beach Lane Books, having worked most recently as Associate Designer at Macmillan Children’s. Also joining the same three lines is Karyn Lee, Junior Designer. Gabrielle Chang joins as Junior Designer for Simon Spotlight and Little Simon. Laura Eckes is now Designer for Simon Pulse; she was previously Design Assistant at HarperCollins.
F+W Media has established a new standalone books group with Heidi Sachner joining as Head of Books. Most recently she was VP, Two Rivers Distribution at the Ingram Content Group. As part of this expansion, Pam Wissman has been promoted to Executive Director and Greg Nock has been promoted to Production Director.
Laura Ferguson joins Open Road as SVP of Business Development. She managed new business development at Time, Inc. SVP and Publisher Jon Fine is leaving his position November 15 to join National Enquirer parent company American Media as Deputy Counsel. Philip Rappaport, who had been Acting Publisher prior to Fine’s hiring, will take over that role.
At Pearson, Deirdre Latour has been hired as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, beginning January 1. She spent the last fourteen years at General Electric, most recently as Chief Communications Officer and Senior Advisor to the CEO.
At Hachette Book Group, Adam Guerriero has joined as VP, Pricing. He was most recently Director of Pricing Analytics at Macy’s.
Tara Parsons has joined HarperOne as Associate Publisher, Amistad, Harper Español, and International Fiction. She was previously Editor-in-Chief at Touchstone. At Ecco, Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski joins as Director of Publicity, having worked most recently as Deputy Director of Publicity at Grand Central.
At Tom Doherty Associates: Sarah Reidy will join as Executive Director of Publicity on November 19, having previously worked as Associate Director of Publicity at Simon & Schuster. Anthony Parisi, formerly Senior Marketing Manager at Simon & Schuster, joins as Associate Director, Tor Teen, Starscape, and School & Library Marketing. Isa Caban joins as Marketing Manager for the same divisions; she was previously YA Associate Marketing Manager at Scholastic. And Zakiya Jamal joins the company as Digital Marketing Assistant, Tor, Forge, Tor Teen, and Starscape. At Macmillan Children’s, Katie Quinn joins as Marketing Manager. Most recently she was Publicist at Penguin Children’s. Nikki Barnhart has joined Farrar, Straus & Giroux as Assistant Marketing Manager, leaving her previous position as Copy Coordinator at Simon & Schuster.
Alice Quinn will leave her position as Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America next June.
In agency news…Rex Ogle joins Aevitas Creative Management as Director of Book Packaging & Story Development. Previously he was Senior Editor at Little, Brown Children’s. Amy Stapp has joined Wolfson Literary Agency as Agent, moving over from her previous role as Editor with Tor. Rob Kirkpatrick has launched his own agency, Kirkpatrick Literary. He was Agent with The Stuart Agency.
At OverDrive, Paul Davighi joins as UK Country Manager. Previously he was Sales and Marketing Director at I.B. Tauris.
M’Bilia Meekers has joined the University of Washington Press as Publicity Manager. Previously she was Publicist and Copywriter at LSU Press. Also joining is Julie Fergus, formerly Associate Marketing Manager at Routledge, now serving as Exhibits and Direct Marketing Manager.
Hayley Kamin joins the American Psychological Association as Content Development Manager, APA Style.
Dan Gerstle will move to Liveright as Senior Editor on November 12. He has been Acquiring Editor for Basic Books since 2013.
At Sourcebooks, Eliza Swift has joined as Senior Editor, Fire and Jabberwocky. She was most recently Editor at Albert Whitman. Stephanie Levasseur joins as Sales Account Manager, having previously worked as Sales Account Representative at ReaderLink. Margaret Kelly has joined as Customer Service Manager.
Tessa Meischeid joins Penguin Children’s as Senior Publicist; she was previously Associate Publicist at Abrams Children’s.
At Columbia University Press, Miranda Martin has joined as Editor for Life and Physical Sciences, replacing Patrick Fitzgerald, who retired in June. She was previously Assistant Editor, Linguistics and assisted on the life sciences list at the University of Chicago Press.
Jenny Florence, previously Editor at Princeton Architectural Press, joins The Monacelli Press as Editor, Design, Interior Design, Gardening, Lifestyle, and Fine Art.
At Chronicle Books, Jon Glick joins as Senior Designer, Entertainment, a position he previously held at Insight Editions. Julia Marvel joins as Designer, Children’s; she was previously Associate Designer at Abrams. Also joining are Patrick Rafanan, now Marketing Photography and Visual Content Coordinator, formerly Ecommerce Photographer at Randa Accessories, and Eva Avery, Assistant Editor for Mark Tauber’s new imprint. Avery was previously Editorial Assistant at HarperOne.
At Abrams, Steph Stilwell joins as Designer for Abrams Children’s and ComicArts, moving over from little bee.
Maria Mann joins Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as Publicity Associate. She previously held that title at Page Street Publishing.
Jessica Dartnell joins Holiday House as Sales Coordinator. Most recently she was Client Relations Assistant at Ingram Content Group.
PROMOTIONS
Victoria Craven has been named Associate Publisher of The Monacelli Press Group, which includes The Monacelli Press and Monacelli Studio. Michael Vagnetti becomes VP, Production for the group, and Alan Rapp is now Editorial Director of The Monacelli Press.
At Amazon Publishing, Jason Kirk has been promoted to Executive Editor of the 47North and Skyscape imprints and Alex Levenberg moves up to Global Rights Director. Tara de Nicolas becomes Marketing Director, and Haley Reinke is now Senior Marketing Manager.
Claudia Gabel has been promoted to Assistant Publicity Director at Harper Children’s.
At Penguin Press, Gail Brussel moves up to Assistant Publicity Director. Bonnie Rice moves up to Associate Publicist at Putnam. At Random House Children’s, Casey Moses has been promoted to Designer and Regina Flath to Associate Art Director.
Wendy Thorpe becomes Senior Production Manager at Chronicle Books.
At Tom Doherty Associates, Rebecca Yeager has been promoted to Advertising and Promotions Manager, while Renata Sweeney becomes Digital Marketing Manager, Tor, Forge, Tor Teen, and Starscape. Sara Di Blasi is now Marketing Assistant, Tor Teen, Starscape, and School & Library Marketing. Ruby Rose Lee has been promoted to Assistant Editor at Henry Holt. In the publicity department, Alexis Saarela has been promoted to Senior Associate Director of Publicity, focusing on Forge; Laura Etzkorn, to Publicist; Desirae Friesen, to Senior Publicist, focusing on Tor; Saraciea Fennell, to Senior Publicist, Tor Teen and Starscape; and Lauren Levite, to Associate Publicist.
At Scribner, Sarah Goldberg and Sally Howe have been promoted to Associate Editors and Julia Lee McGill becomes Publishing Manager, while Rosie Mahorter and Abigail Novak become Senior Publicists. At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Matt Adamec has moved up to Associate Art Director and Brittany Naundorff becomes Designer, Little Simon and Simon Spotlight. In the editorial department, Julia McCarthy moves up to Assistant Editor, Atheneum; Amanda Ramirez becomes Assistant Editor for the Simon & Schuster Children’s imprint; Alyza Liu becomes Assistant Editor for Simon & Schuster Children’s, Atheneum, and McElderry Books; Nicole Fiorica moves up to Assistant Editor, McElderry Books; and Catherine Laudone becomes Associate Editor, Simon & Schuster Children’s. At Simon Pulse, Jessi Smith is now Assistant Editor and Jen Ung becomes Senior Editor. Sally Hosokawa becomes Assistant Editor for Simon Spotlight, Sarah Jane Abbott becomes Associate Editor for Paula Wiseman Books and Beach Lane Books, and Amy Beaudoin is now Associate Marketing Manager, Education & Library. And at Simon & Schuster, Stuart Roberts is now Editor.
At Workman, Laura Marciniak becomes Digital Production Associate and Erin Kibby becomes Marketing Coordinator.
Jessica Smith has been promoted to Associate Production Editor at Sourcebooks.
DULY NOTED
Crown Publishing Group and Random House will be put together in a combined division under the direction of President and Publisher Gina Centrello. For now, the division will be called Random House, and both parties will retain their editorial identities. As a result of the merger, Maya Mavjee, President and Publisher, will leave at the end of the year.
Llewellyn’s Midnight Ink imprint is shutting down after the Spring/Summer 2019 season.
In distribution news: Consortium now distributes titles for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Beginning this month, Abrams handles North American sales and trade distribution for Cernunnos, a publisher of books about popular art of the 21st century. Hopkins Fulfillment Services will distribute Northeastern University Press, beginning in December. And the Publishers Communication Group (PCG), part of the Ingenta Group, has secured a two-year extension to its contract with ICE Publishing for exclusive sales representation across North America. ICE Publishing supports the Institution of Civil Engineers, a professional membership body numbering 92,000 engineers worldwide.
Edite Kroll is transferring her active children’s book clients to Victoria Wells Arms of Victoria Wells Arms Literary, working in association with Hannigan Salky Getzler, effective January 1. Kroll will continue to work with her children’s backlist and adult trade clients.
Edmison Harper Literary now scouts fiction for the New York Times Magazine.
Newly-launched web-based cyber-publisher Blake Freeman Johnson has changed its name to Soho Friday Media.
After thirteen years as an agent, Carrie Howland has formed her own agency, Howland Literary.
Geoff Gerber left his position as President of Lion Forge in August to launch Anchorplate IP, a new consultancy.
EVENTS
October 31-November 10
Sharjah International Book Fair
Sharjah, UAE
November 9-11
Shanghai Children’s Fair
Shanghai, China
November 10
Portland Book Festival
Portland, OR
November 10-18
Istanbul Book Fair
Istanbul, Turkey
November 11-18
Miami Book Fair
Miami, FL
November 12-17
University Press Week
Online
November 14
Unlocking the Power of Influencers: A PubTech Connect Breakfast
New York, NY
November 15-17
Bluffton Book Festival
Bluffton, SC
November 15-18
National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention
Houston, TX
November 15-18
Dublin Book Festival
Dublin, Ireland
November 17
Mosaic Literary Conference
Bronx, NY
November 24-December 2
Guadalajara International Book Fair
Guadalajara, Mexico
November 30
FutureBook 2018
London, UK
November 30-December 2
Wizard World Comic Con
Madison, WI
For literary events, see Book Your Calendar.
