PEOPLE
Jon Yaged has been named successor to Don Weisberg as CEO of Macmillan. Weisberg will leave the company at the end of the year. At Celadon, critic and professor Jabari Asim joins as Literary Acquisitions Advisor on June 20.
Brian Scharp joins Nelson Books as VP of Marketing. He worked in the past as SVP of Global Marketing for Our Daily Bread Ministries. At Mira, Dina Davis joins as Associate Editor and Leah Mol joins as Assistant Editor.
Editorial Director Jonathan Lee has left Bloomsbury to focus on developing projects for television, including an adaptation of his novel High Dive.
Claire Israel has left Legible, where she was Head of Development & Growth Initiatives; previously, she was Senior Director, Business Development at Barnes & Noble. She can be reached at cisrael480@gmail.com.
At Little, Brown, Bryan Christian joins as Senior Marketing Director, overseeing marketing for Little, Brown and Mulholland Books. He was formerly Associate Marketing Director at Meredith.
At the University of Chicago Press, Wayne Willis joins as Senior Director of Information Technology, beginning May 17. Previously he was Technical Account Director at Gutenberg Technology.
At Scribd, Laura Malinasky joins as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. She was previously Chief Legal & Compliance Officer at Planet Labs.
Penguin Random House Audio Director, Studio Production Dan Musselman has retired. At Ten Speed Press, Claire Yee, previously Editor at Weldon Owen and 4 Color Books, joins as Senior Editor. Raven Ross joins Viking Penguin as Marketing Coordinator, while Rachel Wainz joins as Social Media Manager. Nina Rodriguez-Marty joins Penguin Life as Associate Editor. And at Random House Children’s Books, Denise Morales Soto, formerly Picture Book Editor at A Kids Book About, joins as Bilingual Copyeditor.
Adam Philips joins Dynamite Entertainment as Director, Marketing. Most recently he was President of Untold Stories Marketing.
At Sounds True, Penny Anne Makras, formerly Associate Director of Marketing at HarperCollins, joins as Marketing Director.
Alison Black has left her position as Director, Business Operations, IPS at Ingram Content Group and can be contacted at alison_swetlik@bellsouth.net.
In agency news…Sanford J. Greenburger Associates is launching Greenburger Kids, a division of the agency dedicated to “specializing in the representation of authors and illustrators of children’s literature.” Alexander Slater, lately Literary Agent at Trident Media Group, joins as Literary Agent, alongside Greenburger agent Wendi Gu.
Elsewhere at the agencies: Adria Goetz joins P.S. Literary Agency as Senior Literary Agent. Previously she was Senior Literary Agent at Martin Literary Management. At Red Fox Literary, children’s author Sarah Stephens joins as Agent, as does Eve Adler, most recently Executive Editor at Union Square Kids. At BookEnds, Jenissa Graham joins as Subsidiary Rights Manager and Associate Agent. And Keir Alekseii and Shannon Lechon both join Azantian Literary Agency as Agents.
At Astra House, Paul Boccardi joins as Senior Finance Director; he worked in the past as Director of Finance for Hachette Book Group. Alexis Nowicki, lately Associate Publicist at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, joins as Publicist. At Toon Books, Tucker Stone, lately Client Marketing Manager at Consortium, joins as Executive Editor and Aria Balraj joins as Assistant Editor. Octavia Saenz joins minedition and Hippo Park as Assistant Editor.
Joe Brosnan joins Grove Atlantic as Senior Editor, dedicated to acquiring crime fiction. Previously he was Senior Marketing Manager at St. Martin’s Press and Site Manager at CriminalElement.com.
Nicole James joins The Quarto Group as Senior Acquisitions Editor; she was previously Agent and Founder of The James Literary Agency.
At Insight Editions, Michael Hylton, formerly Senior Production Editor at Hayden-McNeil Publishing, joins as Senior Production Editor.
Adrian Matejka is the new Editor of Poetry, effective May 16.
At Disney Publishing Worldwide, Alex Serrano, lately Publicity Manager at HarperCollins, and Crystal McCoy, lately PR Manager at Wattpad Books, both join as Publicity Manager.
Samantha Simon, formerly Marketing Manager at Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press, joins Chronicle Books as Food & Lifestyle Marketing Manager, and Gabriel Martinez joins as Junior Production Designer.
At Simon & Schuster, Olivia Taylor Smith joins as Senior Editor; she was previously Executive Editor at Unnamed Press, which she cofounded. Shauneice Robinson, lately Marketing Associate at Sourcebooks, joins as Associate Marketing Manager for Book Clubs and Partnerships.
At Marble Press, Michael Green, formerly President and Publisher of Philomel Books, joins as Acquisitions Editor for picture books, graphic novels, and middle-grade. He can be contacted at michael.green@marblepress.com.
Cat Reynolds, formerly Editor at Sesame Workshop, joins Dr. Seuss Publishing as Editor.
Brock Schnoke, formerly Marketing Coordinator at Cornell University Press, joins the University of North Carolina Press as Digital Marketing Specialist.
At Verto Literary Group, author Jenny Fran Davis joins as Assistant Editor.
PROMOTIONS
At Penguin Random House, Natalie Loucas moves up to VP of Human Resources. Casey Blue James has been promoted to the newly-created role of Senior Director of Strategic Development. Liza Cassity becomes Director of Publishing and Marketing Operations at Penguin Publishing Group. Madeleine Denman becomes Agent Director at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Speakers Bureau. At Avery Books and TacherPerigee, Casey Malone has been promoted to Publicity Director and Anne Kosmoski has been promoted to Executive Publicist; meanwhile, Rachel Dugan is now Associate Publicist, Alyssa Adler is now Senior Publicist, and Katie MacLeod-English moves up to Marketing Coordinator.
Danielle Bartlett becomes Senior Director of Publicity at the Morrow Group. April Osborn moves up to Senior Editor at Mira.
At Sourcebooks, Christy Droege is now Senior Director of Data and Analytics.
Jennifer Jackson has been promoted to Executive Director, Marketing at Celadon. At St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Stephen Erickson becomes Associate Marketing Manager and Mac Nicholas becomes Assistant Marketing Manager.
At Simon & Schuster, Christopher Cosgrove is now Director of National Accounts. Alyssa diPierro has been promoted to Associate Marketing Manager.
Ashley Quackenbush has been promoted to Art Director at Insight Editions, and Lara Starr moves up to Associate Director of Publicity.
At Bloomsbury, Lily Yengle becomes Associate Director of Children’s Marketing.
In agency news…Dan Mandel is now VP at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Ana Ban has been promoted to Director of Foreign Rights at Trident Media Group, while Sarah McEachern moves up to Senior Foreign Rights Agent and Stephanie Manova becomes Foreign Rights Agent; additionally, Tess Weitzner becomes Literary Agent.
Stephanie Duncan Smith is now Executive Editor at Baker Books.
At Chronicle Books, Samantha Allen becomes Senior Rights Manager and Freesia Blizard becomes Senior Production Developer.
At Workman, Meghan O’Shaughnessy has been promoted to Associate Publicist across the Workman adult, children’s, and calendar publishing groups, as well as Algonquin Young Readers.
Rachel Hastings has been promoted to Associate Editor at IVP Academic.
DULY NOTED
At the Independent Book Publishers Association, five candidates were newly elected to two-year terms on the board of directors, beginning July 1. They are Maria Jesus Aguilo, VP of Direct and Partner Sales, Berrett-Koehler Publishers; Paige Allen, Director, IngramSpark; Alesha Brown, Founder and CEO, Fruition Publishing Concierge Services; Annette Hobbs Magier, Senior Director of Marketing & PR, The Collective Book Studio; and Dr. Morissa Schwartz, Owner, GenZ Publishing. Additionally, Tieshena Davis, Founding Director of Publish Your Gift, and Victoria Sutherland, Founder & Publisher of Foreword Reviews, were both elected to second terms.
University of Toronto Press Distribution has expanded its publisher roster to include Between the Lines, Catholic University of America Press, Demeter Press, Duke University Press, Fernwood Publishing, Roseway Publishing, Georgetown University Press, Inanna Publications, Johns Hopkins University Press, the Modern Language Association, Monster House Publishing, New York University Press and Monthly Review Press, the University of New Orleans Press, and Wesleyan University Press.
Gibbs Smith now distributes F. Ferguson titles worldwide and is taking orders for all backlist and future titles.
Franklin & Siegal Associates has been named US scout for Korea’s Munhakdongne.
Author and pop-up paper engineer Matthew Reinhart is launching a new imprint at Insight Editions, Reinhart Pop-Up Studio, starting in July. The line will publish eight to ten pop-up books a year, including original content as well as licensed material.
