People Round-Up, Early February 2017

PEOPLE

Liese Mayer is joining Bloomsbury on February 27 in the newly-created role of Editorial Director, Fiction. She has been working as Editor at Scribner.

John Morgan is now Executive Editor at Imprint. He was previously Senior Producer at Melcher Media, Director of Digital Publishing at Penguin, and Creative Director at DC Comics.

Bernd Leukert has joined the supervisory board of Bertelsmann. He is Executive Board Member at SAP SE.

Doug Pocock will become Managing Director of Capstone’s UK businesses, Curious Fox and Raintree. He is replacing Miles Stevens-Hoare, who is leaving the company for W.F. Howes. Pocock was most recently Managing Director of the Abrams and Chronicle joint venture.

Bloomsbury announces that Anthony Salz will step down as Chairman of the Board in July, with a successor to be named at a later date. On March 1, Steven Hall, Managing Director of IOP Publishing, will join the board, and Stephen Page, Faber Chief Executive, will exit.

At F+W Media, Phil Sexton, Jamie Markle, and Kristi Loeffelholz have left the company. Sexton was VP, Group Publisher, overseeing Writer’s Digest and The Writer’s Store; Markle, VP, Group Publisher, Fine Arts; and Loeffelholz, VP, General Manager, Quilting.

At Bloomsbury Digital Resources, Lenny Allen has joined as Global Sales and Marketing Director. He was previously Director, International Accounts at Oxford University Press.

Daniel Berkowitz has joined Writers House as Digital Director. He was previously Senior Editor at Digital Book World.

Susan Jurevics is leaving her position as CEO of Pottermore at the end of February and will not be replaced.

At Da Capo Press, Matthew Weston is now Assistant Marketing Director. He was previously International Marketing Director at Random House. In addition, Quinn Fariel has joined as Marketing Manager; he had been Operations and Rights Manager at Hachette Audio.

Carmen Álvarez has joined Abrams as Assistant Manager, Wimpy Kid brand marketing. She was previously Integrated Marketing Assistant at Harper Collins Children’s. Rebecca Westall is now Production Manager, formerly Senior Production Associate at Hachette. Evangelos Vasilakis is Managing Editor, Children’s; previously, he was Associate Managing Editor at Penguin Random House.

At The Experiment, Anna Bliss has joined as Editor-at-Large. She was previously Editor at HarperCollins and Globe Pequot Press and runs her own consultancy service, Bliss Editorial. In addition, Chloe Texier-Rose has joined as Publicity and Marketing Assistant. She was most recently Interim Marketing Manager at Harper Wave and Harper Business.

At Diversion Publishing, Mark J.H. Fretz has joined as Editorial Director of the self-publishing division, Radius Book Group. He was previously Editorial Director at Scribe Inc.

At Melville House, Ian Dreiblatt has joined as Director of Digital Marketing and Editor of the company’s blog, MobyLives, having worked previously as Senior Publicist and Academic Marketing Manager at Seven Stories Press. Peter Clark has joined as Sales Manager; he was previously Director of Sales at RosettaBooks. And Susan Rella has joined as Managing Editor; she had been working freelance.

Tom MacDonald has joined the ecommerce team of Sourcebooks as Marketing Manager. He was previously Marketing Manager at Whittl.

Meagan Szekely has joined Naval Institute Press as Marketing Manager. She had previously worked as Editorial Assistant at Johns Hopkins University Press.

Barbara Ras, President of Trinity University Press, is retiring after fifteen years. Before launching the press, she had worked on the editorial staffs of Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England, University of California Press, North Point Press, Sierra Club Books, and University of Georgia Press.

Tim Barton is stepping down from his position as Managing Director of Oxford University Press’s academic division. In September he will leave the university, where he has worked for more than twenty-five years.

At agencies…Susan Hawk has joined Upstart Crow Literary as Agent. She was previously at The Bent Agency. At Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency, Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts has joined as Agent and Rights Director; she was most recently Agent at Writers House. Alice Sutherland-Hawes has joined Madeleine Milburn Ltd as Rights Agent, having worked previously as Literary Assistant at The Agency.

Barbara Brown has joined Kensington as Senior Designer.

Tim Cross has joined Westchester Publishing Services as Business Development Manager. He had previously worked for Allen Press in various capacities from 2006 to 2016, most recently as Product Marketing Manager and Product Education Manager.

Mary Ann Gwinn is leaving her position as Book Editor at the Seattle Times. She had spent eighteen years in that role and thirty-four at the newspaper in total.

PROMOTIONS

Penny Simon has been named a VP of Crown Publishing Group. Christine Ball has been promoted to Senior VP, Publisher, Putnam Dutton Berkley, following the departure of Dutton publisher Ben Sevier to Grand Central. Christina Jeffries has been promoted to VP, Director, National Accounts, Mass Merchandise Sales and Frank Berrios has been promoted to Senior Editor, Licensing at Random House Children’s. At Random House, Barbara Fillon is now VP, Deputy Director of Media Coaching and Publicity, Emily Isayeff is now Publicist, and Danielle Siess is now Social Media Publicist. Andrea Deward has been promoted to Assistant Director, Marketing for Random House, Spiegel & Grau, and One World imprints. At Penguin Random House Audio, Karen Dzienkonski has been promoted to Assistant Director, Content Production, and Julie Wilson has been promoted to Executive Producer and Audio Special Projects Manager. Caitlin O’Shaughnessy has been promoted to Assistant Marketing Director and Grace Fisher to Marketing Coordinator at Penguin Press. Bria Sanford is now Senior Editor at Portfolio and Sentinel. At Ballantine Bantam Dell, Anne Speyer is now Editor and Elana Seplow-Jolley Assistant Editor. Nicole Counts has been promoted to Assistant Editor at One World.

Heidi Weiland has been promoted to Director of Trade Sales at Sourcebooks.

Anna deVries has been promoted to Executive Editor at Picador USA. At St. Martin’s, John Nicholas and Joseph Brosnan have been named Marketing Managers and Allison Ziegler and Kim Lew have been named Assistant Marketing Managers. Gianna Terranova has been promoted to Senior Marketing Operations Manager, while Sara Vogt is joining the Marketing Operations team as Marketing Operations Manager. Samantha Zukergood has been promoted to Marketing Operations Coordinator. Jessica Lawrence and Sarah Melnyk have both been promoted to Senior Publicity Manager, and Staci Burt and Brittani Hilles have both been promoted to Publicist.

At Disney-Hyperion, Rotem Moscovich has been promoted to Executive Editor; Laura Schreiber to Senior Editor; and Hannah Allaman to Assistant Editor.

Sofia Groopman has been promoted to Associate Editor at Harper.

At agencies…Kortney Price has been promoted to Associate Agent at Holloway Literary. At Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency, Leigh Eisenman and Tanusri Prasanna have been promoted to Agent.

At Abrams, Anne Heltzel has been promoted to Senior Editor, Amulet & ComicArts, Courtney Code to Assistant Editor, Amulet, and Bridget Waterhouse to Assistant Editor, Abrams Plus. In marketing and publicity, Patricia McNamara and Mamie VanLangen have both been promoted to Digital & Social Media Manager for Children’s and Adult; Nicole Schaefer to Marketing & Publicity Associate, Children’s; and Jordan Sapiro to Publicist, Adult. In Production, Denise LaCongo has been promoted to Associate Director and Kathy Gaffney to Manager. In addition, Alyssa Nassner has been promoted to Art Director, Children’s.

At Ingram Content Group, Caitlin Churchill has been promoted to the new position of Business Development Manager, Aerio. At Lightning Source, Ed Spade has been promoted to Senior Manager, Content Acquisition, North America and Camille Watts moves up to Manager, Content Services, General Sales. At Ingram Publisher Services, Bonnie Marie Dailey has been promoted to Client Implementation Manager, while Janine Cook has been promoted to Senior Key Account Sales Manager, working out of the UK office in Milton Keynes. And at Ingram Book Group, Dina Caplan moves up to Manager of Online Marketing, Content Marketing; Ann Zangri, Marketing Manager; Juan Anthony Walker, Jr., Wellness Center Manager; Jonathan Hardiman, Senior Manager, Open System and Mainframe; and Michael Bradford, Independent Publisher Advertising Manager.

Madeline Moe has been promoted to Production Developer, Food and Lifestyle at Chronicle Books.

At Rodale, Susan Turner has been promoted to Senior Manager of Communications and Suzee Skwiot has been promoted to Online Editor for Books and RodaleWellness.com.

Janea Brachfeld moves up to Trade and Special Sales Manager for Storey Publishing and Timber Press.

DULY NOTED

Penguin Random House Publisher Services will take over sales and distribution for No Starch Press in August. The “geek entertainment” press had been distributed by O’Reilly Media.

Ten Speed Press announced the launch of Lorena Jones Books, a cooking and lifestyle imprint to be overseen by VP, Publisher Lorena Jones. The imprint, set to begin publishing in April, will release six to eight books annually.

Kensington editor-in-chief John Scognamiglio will run an eponymous imprint beginning in 2018. John Scognamiglio Books will publish four to six works of commercial fiction in hardcover per year.

IPG began handling North American distribution and sales for Albert Whitman’s digital frontlist on February 1 and will add all print and digital titles as of April 1. Whitman had handled their own distribution.

Fordham University Press is moving their distribution to Ingram Publisher Services as of July 1. This month, the press itself is moving from the university’s Bronx campus to the Manhattan campus, near Lincoln Center.

Write On, Amazon’s answer to Wattpad, will be shutting down on March 22.

Next year’s Winter Institute will be held on January 22-25 in Memphis, TN.

The German Book Office New York has renamed itself Frankfurt Book Fair New York. Thomas Minkus takes the title of President and Riky Stock is Vice President.

On February 21, Abrams will publish Why I March, a collection of images from last month’s Women’s March. All royalties will go to “nonprofits affiliated with the march.”