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Hachette Book Group announced that Ben Sevier will become the Chief Executive Officer of the Hachette Book Group starting January 1, 2027. Christine Ball will take over as President and Publisher of Grand Central Publishing. She was previously EVP Publisher at Berkley. Rena Kornbluh has retired after spending 16 years at Hachette and 40 years in publishing. Little Brown has Michael Goldsmith joining as VP, executive director of publicity, reporting to president and publisher Sally Kim. He was previously at Doubleday and Pantheon.
Quarto announced Andrea Fleck-Nisbet is taking over as President of its US division, leading all 27 of their North American imprints. They previously spent 4 years as CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association. She was also the founding publisher at Harper Horizon.
At Simon & Schuster, Maya Sze has joined the special markets department as assistant manager on the mail order team. She was previously at Greentech Renewables. Katie Painter has joined as director of marketing and publicity, promoting their list of Christian and spiritual titles. She formerly worked at Zondervan. At Saga Press, Molly McGhee has joined as editor. She is an author and fiction faculty advisor at Columbia University and previously worked as assistant editor at Tor Books.
At Pen America, Phil Klay becomes president and chair of the board of trustees. He succeeds Dinaw Mengestu, who resigned from the position after just seven months. Executive director Gwydion Suilebhan will step down on November 15 after more than seven years in the position. The board of directors is launching a nationwide search for a successor.
At Macmillan’s Flatiron division, Bryn Clark returns as vice president and editorial director of nonfiction. Clark was most recently executive editor at Little Brown. At Tor, Nivia Evans has joined as an executive editor, reporting to vp, editorial director Monique Patterson and acquiring across all imprints. Evans was previously at Saga Press.
Random House Publishing Group has Shauni Swanson joining as production editor on the corporate bookmaking team. Swanson was previously at Publang. At Penguin Random House, Renata De Oliveira has joined as senior director, art/design on the corporate bookmaking team. She was previously at Harper Collins. Random House Children’s has Abby Sturgill joining as associate manager, advertising. Most recently she was a senior associate at Dentsu. At Knopf, executive editor Erroll McDonald will retire at the end of the year. He has been at Random House for 50 years and will continue to teach graduate courses at Columbia.
At Harper Collins, Olivia Wilson has been appointed group sales director, children’s books. Maria Magallanes becomes group sales manager. Monica Shah, VP, national retail, will step away from leading children’s sales to focus fully on her channel sales responsibilities, overseeing the publisher’s Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million businesses.
The Rizzoli Group has Christine Edwards joining as chief commercial officer and VP, effective November 1st. She succeeds Jennifer deForest Pierson, who becomes emeritus CCO and will stay on for the transition through August 2027.
RB Media has Margaret Hargrove joining as senior director, acquisitions, focusing on romance and independent publishing. She was previously editorial director at Brilliance Audio.
At Crooked Lane and Alcove, Christine Zikas has joined as senior editor. She was previously the lead editor for Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club/Mystery Guild. Tanya Leet has joined as assistant marketing director. She was previously at Penguin.
At Monacelli, Lisa Tenaglia has joined as senior editor. She was previously senior editor at Black Dog & Leventhal.
Within Chronicle, Lia Sina has joined as assistant editor, art & entertainment.
In Agency News…
Storm Literary Agency promotes Lisa Amstutz to senior literary agent.
At Tobias Literary Agency, J.D. Myall joins as an associate literary agent with a focus on middle grade and young adult titles. She was previously at Neighborhood Literary Agency.
East West Literary Agency brings on Julie Romeis Sanders. She was previously at SteelWorks Literary.
At AF Scouting, Lexi Sinclair has joined as assistant scout for children’s/YA, crossover, and adult romance and fantasy and Tricia Viveros has been promoted to associate scout for international and US literary fiction and nonfiction.
At Kimberley Cameron & Associates, Josey Dunham has joined as a literary agent.
Yates and Yates has Elizabeth Moore joining as associate literary agent. She was previously at Vintage Anchor and is the co-author of two books published by Penguin Random House Christian.
The Whalen Agency has promoted Nina Powers to managing director, overseeing both domestic and foreign rights. Powers will be taking on her own clients, focusing on dystopian, fantasy, and paranormal fiction with a romantic twist.
SteelWorks Literary promotes Faith Lane to associate agent. They have also formed a partnership with Sara Crowe Literary.
At Wave Literary, Jessica Larios-Zarate has been promoted to associate literary agent, representing narrative nonfiction and literary and genre fiction.
Storyteller Literary Agency has Emily Thorpe joining as a literary agent. She is also an educator and librarian. Jenna Satterthwaite has been promoted to senior literary agent.
Writers House promotes Sasha Landauer to agent.
At Daniela Schlingmann Literary Scouting, Isabel Martin has been promoted to scout and Tom Taylor has been promoted to associate scout.
At Empire Literary, Andrianna deLone joins as agent. Andrianna deLone joins as agent. She was previously at CAA.
The Rights Factory promotes Kathleen Foxx and Julia Kim to associate agents.
Promotions
Crown promotes Kellyann Cronin to assistant director, subsidiary rights. At Penguin Classics, Elda Rotor has been promoted to senior vice president. Berkeley promotes Elizabeth Vinson and Genni Eccles has been promoted to assistant editors. Viking Penguin promotes Carlos Zayas-Pons to assistant editor, Julia Falkner to publicist, and Becca Stevenson and Magdalena Deniz to associate publicists. Double Day and Pantheon promotes Elena Hershey to senior director of publicity, reporting to Todd Doughty.
Simon Element and Simon Acumen promotes Jessica Preeg to VP, associate publisher, expanding her responsibilities beyond publicity and marketing to the full publishing operations of the imprint. At Atria, Karlyn Hixson has been promoted to senior director, associate publisher and Abby Velasco has been promoted to assistant publishing manager.
McClelland & Stewart promotes Jordan Ginsberg to executive editor.
Promotions at Sourcebooks include Allison Lewis to digital marketing manager, Christina Noriega to senior director of sales, special markets and gift, and Tracy Bozentka to senior national account manager.
At Picador, Andrea Henry has been promoted to nonfiction publisher and Sophie Jonathan to fiction publisher.
Duly Noted
The Book Industry Study Group has renamed its Industry Champion Award in honor of former executive director Brian O’Leary. Also, Book Industry Study Group and BookNet Canada released its second annual study of AI use in publishing, AI Use Across the North American Book Industry 2026, finding that AI use is particularly rising in organizational and workflow areas.
Simon & Schuster has become the exclusive publishing partner of The Great Courses, with plans for books, ebooks, and audiobooks. Pub Lunch also reported that Simon & Schuster has raised its entry-level salary to $60,000, effective January 1, 2027. The publisher told PL, “Other employees across levels will receive additional salary adjustments as part of this update.” The base level salary was previously $50,000 — for a 40-hour work week.
Valsoft Corporation, a Montreal-based company specializing in the acquisition and development of vertical market software businesses, has announced the acquisition of Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley, and Supadu, together known as the Firebrand Group. “Firebrand, NetGalley, and Supadu are trusted names that publishers depend on every day. We’re ecstatic to continue building and investing in the technology that helps a title from the moment it’s created to the moment it reaches a reader. We’re excited to partner with the passionate team that shows up every day to make life better and more productive for everyone in the book industry,” said Anthony Caruso, Managing Partner at Valsoft.