People
At Hachette Book Group, VP controller Roy Fagan will retire at the end of the year after 29 years at the company. Veronique Dubois joined on July 13 in the new position of deputy CFO, reporting to CFO Stephen Mubarek. She is currently senior vp of finance at Paradies Lagardere. At Basic Books, Theo Calderara will join as editor in chief. He was previously editor in chief, humanities, at Oxford University Press.
Macmillan brings on Charli Barnes as senior designer, publishing operations. Beth Conway has joined as associate director, contracts, Brenna Connor has joined as senior director, consumer insights, CIMA, Emma Greydanus has joined as Manager, Retail Media Advertising, CIMA, and Christina Tsoucalas has joined as sustainability specialist, ESG.
DK announced that Page Edmunds will join as president in August, reporting to CEO Paul Kelly and based in New York. Edmunds is currently VP, associate publisher at Harper Collins Children’s.
At Sourcebooks, Jacqui Teruya has joined as inside sales manager. Dawn Chopp has joined as accounting operations manager.
Abrams’ SVP, publishing services, Josh Weiss has retired after being with Abrams since 2023. Previously, he had spent 24 years at Harper Collins.
At Simon and Schuster, Katie Quigley has joined the Adult Demand Planning Group as demand planning analyst. She was previously an analyst at the Cloudbreak Compliance Group. Caroline Noll has joined the digital & online sales team as national account manager. She was previously national account manager at Scholastic. At Simon Maverik, Sonia Brand-Fisher has joined as editor. She was previously at Tantor Media.
Waterstones and Barnes and Noble appoints Michael Roney to non-executive chairman in advance of the company’s expected IPO. For Saga, Mark Galarrita has joined as senior publishing manager. He was previously publishing and marketing manager at Scribner.
Oregon University State Press has Marty Brown joining as director. She was previously at University of Washington Press.
Author’s Equity has Jules Horbachevsky joining as head of publicity strategy. She was previously director of publicity at Little Brown.
At Harlequin Intrigue, Lindsay Warren has joined as associate editor.
Chooseco brings on Rachel Sonis as senior editor. Sonis was previously Time magazine’s Ideas Editor.
At Holt, Sabrina Callahan joins to lead the publicity department as VP, executive director of publicity. She was previously at Little Brown for 19 years.
Astra House brings on Grace Brown as junior designer for DAW.
In Agency News…
Europa Content has Grace Garrahan joining as associate agent and agency coordinator. She was previously at The Robbins Office.
At Martin-Newens Literary Management, Hollie Michaels has joined as literary manager.
Folio Literary Management promotes Hannah Teachout to literary agent.
At Neighborhood Literary, Lana Harper joins as agent and subrights manager. She was previously at Chalberg & Sussman.
Wordlink Literary has promoted Zeynep Sen to director of their New York branch.
The agency Bookends promotes Sophie Scheumaker to associate literary agent.
Promotions
At Penguin Random House, Beth Conte is promoted to vice president, marketing production. Penguin Publishing Group promotes Darren Haggar to VP, executive art director, Penguin Press. Christopher Lin has been promoted to VP, executive art director, Dutton, Jason Ramirez to VP, executive art director, Viking/Penguin, and Helen Yentus to VP, executive art director, Riverhead.
Basic Books promotes Meagan Levinson to editor in chief, Public Affairs, Basic Venture, and Seal Press. Thomas Spence is promoted to editorial director, Basic Liberty. Alex Cullina and Naomi Tomlin are promoted to associate editors.
Promotions at Macmillan include Sabrina Boyle and Cordia Leung to associate managers, contracts. Meg Miguelino to VP, children’s sales, sales, and Julia Metzger to associate manager, national accounts, sales. Macmillan has formed a new legal operations team promoting Amber Hoover into the role of director.
At Harper Collins, Jessica Cozzi has been promoted to manager, marketing & publicity and Odette Fleming has been promoted to director of marketing. Sam Fox has been promoted to executive director of content creation & strategy. Lindsey Kennedy has been promoted to director of publicity and Erin Merlo has been promoted to assistant director of marketing. Courtney Nobile has been promoted to senior director of publicity, Katie Teas to senior manager, marketing & publicity, Taylor Turkington to senior associate, marketing & publicity, and Martin Wilson to director of publicity. Megan Pagano has been promoted to senior director, sales analysis. Jessica Vestuto has been promoted to senior editor and Maya Horn to assistant editor at Mariner. Darelyanel Medina has been promoted to marketing coordinator.
Harper Children’s promotes Lauren Tambini and Shannon Cox to assistant directors of marketing. Jenny Lu has been promoted to senior publicity manager and Emma St. John to senior manager of marketing & publicity. Abby Dommert has been promoted to senior publicist, Matt Maguda to senior associate of marketing & publicity, and Elba Luz to marketing associate.
Within Harlequin, Katarina Hunter is promoted to assistant editor for Harlequin Intrigue and Harlequin Romantic Suspense, Safiya Tariq has been promoted to assistant editor for Harlequin Presents, and Elena Lodge has been promoted to assistant editor for Harlequin Medical / Harlequin Romance. Emer Flounders is promoted to senior director, publicity. Diane Lavoie is promoted to associate director, marketing. Dina Davis and Grace Towery are promoted to senior editors at Hanover Square. Kamille Carreras-Pereira is promoted to publicist and Lynn Raposo to associate editor at Mira.
Abrams promotes Mary O’Mara to VP, managing editorial
Portfolio promotes Daniel Marx to associate publicist.
At Grove Atlantic, Joseph Payne has been promoted to subsidiary rights manager, associate editor and Marie Ungar has been promoted to assistant editor.
At Henry Holt Children’s, Carina Licon has been promoted to editor.
DK promotes Carol Stokke to the expanded role of senior vice president, continuing to lead the sales team.
At Astra House, Laura Fitzgerald has been promoted to associate publisher at DAW. Frankie DiGiovanni has been promoted to senior graphic designer. Tara Sharma has been promoted to editor and Madeline Goldberg has been promoted to associate editor at DAW.
Duly Noted
Shannon Berning and Celina De León have launched Comma & Dash Literary. They state “Comma & Dash Literary was founded to provide you with guidance through an opaque process. The publishing world is full of unwritten rules and confusing terminology. With our decades of experience, we help demystify every step of the journey.”
Base salaries across the industry are seeing some changes. According to an internal email, Penguin Random House announced that it will raise its base salary to $55,000 effective August 3, at “most non-warehouse locations.” That base was previously $51,000. The Harper Collins Union won a base of $52,500 earlier this year — for a 35-hour work week, with up to three hours of overtime per week without prior approval (providing $57,000 for a 38-hour week all year). The other big houses all start at $50,000, though the numbers of hours in the work week can vary.
Simon & Schuster Children’s has expanded its partnership with Fred Rogers Productions to publish books “inspired by Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” starting in fall 2027. S&S already publishes books from Mister Rogers spin-off Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Pub Lunch reports “Simon & Schuster has been an exceptional partner since our first Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood title was published in 2014,” Fred Rogers Productions senior director of licensing Katie Huber said in a release. “We’re delighted to expand our collaboration with them for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and to work together to deliver even more ways for parents, teachers, and librarians to help children learn and grow from the enduring series created by Fred Rogers.”
Employees at Hachette Book Group, which is a number of about 600, have voted 388 to 160 to unionize with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. They are now the largest union in trade publishing, and the second Big Five house to do so after Macmillan.
Canongate announced a new quarterly payment structure for its authors. At the end of June, the publisher will make its first quarterly royalty payments for the period January to March 2026. The initiative applies to all book contracts and is led by head of finance Laura Wilkie.