People Roundup, October 2012

PEOPLE

The Ingram Content Group has made two new executive appointments: Kelly Gallagher has been named VP of Content Acquisition. He was VP of Publishing Services at Bowker. He will join Ingram October 8, as will Pep Carrera, who has been named Chief Information Officer.

Jessica Schmidt joins Perseus Distribution as Associate Director of Client Services on October 15th.  She was most recently at Audible as Editorial Manager and PR.

CEO Caroline Marks has left Bookish, but her successor has not yet been named.

William (Billy) Clark joins Hachette Book Group on October 1 in their Nashville office as VP of Client Sales and Services/Nashville Sales. In this new role, he will oversee Client Services, manage the newly-formed Client Sales team, and act as Nashville Sales Liaison/Sales Director. He was at Anderson Merchandisers for over 18 years, most recently as VP of Merchandising, Sales and Marketing. Also at Hachette, Bruce Paonessa, VP Director of Sales, has left the company.

Anica Rissi moved to HarperCollins as Executive Editor.  She was Executive Editor, Simon Pulse/S&S. Mary Ann Zissimos has been named Senior Publicist at HarperCollins Children’s Books. She was previously a senior publicist at Abrams.

Brettne Bloom has been named a partner of Kneerim, Williams & Bloom.  In other agency news, Gemma Cooper has joined The Bent Agency, representing children’s and young adult fiction exclusively. She was previously with the Bright Literary Agency.

John Groton has left Innodata, where he was Account Executive eBook Publishing. Previously, he was VP Sales Director NBN. He can be reached at jgroton@gmail.com.

Pamela Horn will join Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum as head of cross-platform publishing. She was previously Editorial Director at Sterling and succeeds Chul R Kim, who went to MoMA as Associate Publisher this summer.

IAC chairman Barry Diller and film producer Scott Rudin announced the launch of Brightline, led by Frances Coady (who was President and Publisher at Picador until February 2012)with $20 million in funding from IAC. Brightline will partner with The Atavist and books will be published under the Atavist name.

Tal Goretsky will join Scribner as Art Director. He was previously Senior Designer at the Penguin Press.

Ben Adams has joined PublicAffairs as Senior Editor, Print and Digital Books. He was previously a Senior Editor at Bloomsbury.

Tamra Tuller will join the children’s editorial group at Chronicle Books as an editor. She was previously with Philomel Books.

Mike Underwood has joined Osprey as Sales and Marketing Manager. He was previously with the Wybel Marketing Group.

Erin Harris is leaving Irene Skolnick Literary Agency to join Folio Literary Management, representing YA and narrative non-fiction titles, along with the agency’s growing fiction list.

 

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

At S&S Children’s, Liesa Abrams has been promoted to Executive Editor and moves from Aladdin to Simon Pulse. In addition, Annette Pollert moves up to Editor, while Karen Nagel has been promoted to Executive Editor at Aladdin.

Faber & Faber has announced a series of new appointments: Following the recent appointment of Leah Thaxton as Publisher – Children’s, Julian Loose will take on the role of Publisher – Non-Fiction and Arts, and Hannah Griffiths the role of Publisher – Crime, Paperbacks. Griffiths will also assume  the role of Associate Publisher /Fiction, working  with Stephen Page and Lee Brackstone. Matt Haslum was appointed Consumer Marketing Director, reporting to Will Atkinson, Faber’s Sales and Marketing Director.

Shelby Meizlik has been promoted to HarperCollins’ Group Publicity Director, overseeing publicity for all of the Morrow and Avon imprints and formats.

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Katrina Kruse has been promoted to Senior Marketing Manager and Simmi Aujla has been promoted to Senior Publicity Associate.

 

IN MEMORIAM

Wendy Weil died on Sunday, September 23rd.  She founded The Wendy Weil Agency, and her clients included Beth Gutcheon, Alice Walker, Mark Helprin, and many other well-known authors. Her associates Emily Forland and Emma Patterson remain at the agency. She began her publishing career at Doubleday in 1961, and was an agent with the Julian Bach Agency before founding her own in 1986. She is survived by her husband, Michael Trossman. A memorial service is being planned, though no firm date has been set at this time.

Ashbel Green, retired Knopf vice president and senior editor, died near his home in Stonington, CT, on September 18. During his 43 years at Knopf, he worked with  numerous great writers, particularly international icons such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Andrei Sakharov, and Vaclav Havel, among others. A funeral service was held on September 28. Plans for a memorial service will be announced later.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Oct 3 – 5
NEIBA
Providence, RI

Oct 3 – 5
Liber International
Gran Via Exhibition Centre, Barcelona, Spain

Oct 4 – 7
Bouchercon Mystery Convention
The world’s premier event bringing together all parts of the mystery and crime fiction community.
Cleveland, OH

Oct 7 – 10
Graph Expo
An Offset, Digital and Hybrid Printing show with more than 450 exhibitors and dozens of educational sessions and seminars.
McCormick Place, Chicago, IL

Oct 10 – 14
Frankfurt Book Fair
Guest of Honor: New Zealand
Frankfurt, Germany

Oct 11 – 14
New York Comic Con (East Coast)
Javits Convention Center, New York, NY

Oct 13 – 18

DMA 2012 Conference & Exhibition
Thousands of practitioners and experts from the entire marketing continuum discuss solutions and best practices.
Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

Oct 16
2012 Man Booker Prize
Announcement of the 2012 Man Booker Prize-winning novel.

Oct 16 – 18
Brand Licensing Europe 2012
These free-to-attend sessions are designed especially for European retailers and licensees to advance their skills and learn from industry experts.
London, UK

Oct 24
Novelists, Inc. 2012 Annual Conference
“Profitable Partnerships: Publishing a la Carte”
Crowne Plaza Hotel, White Plains, NY

Oct 26 – 28
Inaugural Designers & Books Fair
Hosted by the blog DesignersandBooks.com, a gathering of designers from all disciplines, publishers, and authors to explore the relationship between books and visual arts and design.
Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY

Oct 29
Goddard Riverside Gala
Benefiting the Goddard Riverside Community Center, an evening honoring Michael Jacobs, President & CEO of ABRAMS Inc.
Capitale, New York, NY

Oct 30
The Place to Bee!
A Spelling Bee to benefit the Counsel of Literary Magazines and Presses
The Standard Hotel, New York, Ny

Oct 30
A Celebration of Chinese Literature
A Tribute to James H. Ottaway, Jr., founding chair of Words Without Borders
Tribeca360, New York, NY.

Nov 1 – 4
World Fantasy Convention 2012
The dual themes of World Fantasy 2012 are Northern Gothic and Urban Fantasy.
Toronto, ON, Canada

Nov 11 – 18
Miami International Book Fair
Miami, FL

Nov 14
National Book Awards 2012
Presentation of the 2012 National Book Awards
New York, NY.

Nov 14 – 19
Montréal Book Fair
The 2012 Salon du livre de Montréal is the 35th edition of this Canadian book fair.
Place Bonaventure, Montréal, Canada

Nov 16 – 18
Goddard Riverside New York Book Fair
Goddard Riverside Community Center, New York, NY

Nov 17 – 25
Istanbul Book Fair
Guest of Honor–the Netherlands
TÜYAP Fair and Convention Center, Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, Turkey

Nov 24– 30
Guadalajara International Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Chile
Centro de Exposiciones, Guadalajara, Mexico

Dec 3
TheBookSeller’s FutureBook 2012 Conference
The Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre II, London, UK

Dec 4 – 5
AllFacebook Marketing Conference
New Yorker Hotel, New York, NY

Dec 7 – 8
Publishing App Summit
Two-day, four-track event that will teach how to build apps. The conference will provide book and magazine publishers, developers, digital content strategists, editors, authors, and entrepreneurs with an extensive look at publishing app design, demographics, and distribution.
New Yorker Hotel, New York, NY

Jan 3 – 6
MLA Annual Convention
Boston, MA