People
The beginning of a new year seems to have prompted some early spring cleaning, with an unusual number of moves around the industry.
The one that got the most attention was Sara Nelson’s move to PW as its new Editor-in-Chief, replacing Nora Rawlinson, who may be reached at norar@nyc.rr.com.
Lee Boudreaux has left Random House, where she was Executive Editor.
Tracy Carns has been named Associate Publisher of Reganbooks, reporting to Judith Regan. She was previously Associate Publisher of The Overlook Press. Other news at HarperCollins, Jacqueline Murphy has been named Executive Editor, Harper Audio. She was Director of Sub Rights at Harcourt. … Stephen Hanselman has left HarperCollins, where he oversaw HarperSanFrancisco and various New York units in the HarperInformation Division.
Ileene Smith ,VP Senior Editor, has leftRandom House. … Basic Books has hired Yale UP’s Lara Heimert as an Executive Editor, specializing in history. Heimert replaces Chip Rosetti, who recently moved to Cairo. … Deborah Brody has joined McGraw-Hill Professional as a Senior Editor in the self-help/health/parenting group. She was most recently a senior editor at Holt.
In marketing and publicity: Craig Herman VP, Director of Marketing at Simon and Schuster will be leaving the company at the end of February. He may be reached at craig_herman@hotmail.com…. Ina Howard has joined Avalon Publishing Group as a Senior Publicist. Howard was a publicist at Nation Books. … Director of Publicity Elisabeth Calamari has left FSG for Pantheon, with the title of Publicity Director. She had been replaced by Sarita Varma, who has been with FSG for about a decade. … At HarperCollins Pamela Spengler-Jaffee has been promoted to Director of Publicity for the Morrow/Avon Group. She had been Assistant Director.
Much is happening in children’s books:
Mary Alice Moore has been hired as Editorial Director at Scholastic’s Grolier division, reporting to Heather Burgett, SVP Direct Marketing Services for Scholastic’s At Home Division. She was publisher at innovative Kids. Susan Bishansky is stepping down from her position as Editorial Director to work on a consulting basis and be replaced in her former position by Cindy Eng who was VP, Editorial Director, Little Simon.
Meanwhile, Anne Schwartz has left S&S to return to Random House Children’s Book to head her own, as yet unnamed imprint. Suzanne Harper has also left. She had moved to S&S last July as SVP, Publisher for hardcover. With the exit of Schwartz and Harper, Emma Dryden becomes VP, Associate Publisher of Atheneum Books for Young Readers and Ginee Seo gets her own imprint. Seo had been Atheneum Associate Publisher.
David Nelson has been named VP, Publisher Beaufort Books. He was previously at Sales Director at Zagat and Harcourt. … Children’s book publisher innovativeKids has hired Tammy Johnston, who was most recently at ABC Books and previously at Candlewick, as VP of Sales, in charge of its new in-house sales program. … &S has hired Lauren Monaco as Director of Sales, national accounts. She was Director of Sales for Borders at Random House.
Martin Levin has returned to Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, to co-manage publishing mergers and acquisitions with Robert Halper and serve again as Counsel. He spent the last year working at The van Tulleken Company and was closely involved in the recent sale of Walker & Co. to Bloomsbury.
Rutledge Hill Press promoted Associate Publisher Pamela Clements to the position of Publisher. Founder Lawrence Stone is serving as Publisher Emeritus, focusing on acquisitions. Clements has worked for a total 11 years at Rutledge’s parent company Thomas Nelson.
Marcus Leaver , CEO of the U.K.-based Chrysalis Publishing Group, is moving to Sterling, in the newly created position of EVP and COO, starting April 1.
And Juergen Boos has been named Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, succeeding Volker Neumann. Boos has been at the German branch of Wiley since 1997. He starts April 1, but Neumann will continue to work until his contract runs out at the end of this year.
Promotions
HarperCollins has been a veritable beehive of activity these last few weeks: David Hirshey, Executive Editor, has been named a SVP of HarperCollins Publishers. … Following the hiring of Joe Tessitore, George Bick has been promoted to SVP, Director of Sales and Associate Publisher, Collins and Philip Friedman has been amed VP and Publisher, Collins Reference. Replacing Bick, Brian McSharry becomes VP, Director of Sales for Morrow/Avon and director of cookbook sales. He was National Account Manager for Morrow/Avon. … Mark Tauber has been promoted to Deputy Publisher at HarperSanFrancisco. The unit is now part of the recently-created Harper Morrow.
Harold Clarke has been named President and Publisher of Readers Digest RD Books and Music division. Neil Wertheimer has been promoted to the new role of Editor-in-Chief of books for the North American Publishing group, in charge of both trade and direct mail book operations.
Milena Alberti- Perez has been named Director of Spanish Language Publishing at Vintage Espanol. She was Director Corporate Development forRandom House.
At S&S Frank Fochetta has been promoted to VP Director of Field and Special Sales. Amanda Patten has been promoted from Editor to Senior Editor at TouchstoneFireside.
February Events
NYU’S Third Management Forum for Independent Publishers will be held on April 15-16. Among the speakers in this useful, nuts and bolts program are Nielsen Bookscan’s Jim King, Bookspan’s Larry Shapiro, Perseus’s David Steinberger, and Ingram’s Phil Ollila. The price is $950, or $855 before March 18. Call (212)992-3236 or www.scps.nyu.edu/indy.
• The Small Press Center and The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen will host the next speaker in The New Yorker talks, David Remnick, on Feb. 8. Adam Gopnik will speak on March 22. Reservations are recommended. Admission is $15, $10 for members, and $5 for students. For more information, call (212)840-1840. E-mail info@smallpress.org, or go to www.smallpress.org.
• Books for a Better Life Awards, to benefit the New York Chapter of the MS Society, takes place on Feb. 28 at the Millennium Broadway Hotel at 6 p.m. Meredith Vieira is the emcee and legendary publisher Oscar Dystel and author Heidi Murkoff are the Hall of Fame Inductees. For information call Jenny Green Sherman at (212) 463-7787 x 3016 or email jsherman@msnyc.org.
Duly Noted
The McEvoy Group, formed by Nion McEvoy, the chairman and CEO of Chronicle Books, increased its equity investment in Hartle Media, publisher of 7×7 magazine, on the acquisition of a controlling interest in California Home & Design magazine from 18 Media, LLC.
• Tokyopop Inc., the country’s leading manga publisher, has announced the “highly anticipated” fifth Rising Stars of Manga competition, launched on December 1, 2004 and running through February 15, 2005. Aspiring artists and writers are encouraged to submit their 15-to-20-page manga—along with completed entry forms—to Tokyopop “for the chance to join the next generation of nationally published manga-ka.” Go to www.tokyopop.com/news/mangatalent/index.php.
