People Round-Up, Early September 2023

PEOPLE

Alison Lazarus, executive VP, director of sales, is retiring and will leave Hachette Book Group next month. She joined Hachette in 2018 after having been at Macmillan for more than 20 years. Lauren Monaco will be joining Hachette on October 2 as executive VP, director of sales. She was previously at Penguin Random House.

Nihar Malaviya, appointed interim CEO in January, has been made CEO of Penguin Random House. Bertelsmann chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe made the announcement.

SVP and publisher of Avery and Tarcher Perigee, Megan Newman, has taken PRH’s VSO package and will retire in December.  Rebecca Smart, Co-CEO of DK will move into a new role as a dedicated internal leadership and talent coach. Casey Hampton has joined Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group as senior designer.

 President and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, Suzanne Murphy will leave the publisher at the end of the month. Liate Stehlik, president and publisher of the Morrow Group will now add the title of president and publisher of Children’s Books.  Shannon Welch returned to Harper One on September 7 as VP, editorial director, reporting to President and Publisher, Judith Curr. She was most recently at Harmony

Anne Shone joins the Tundra Book Group as editorial director. She was previously at Scholastic Canada

Priyanka Krishnan joined William Morrow/Avon as executive editor. She was most recently at Orbit.

Sean Buckley is joining the independent sales team as telesales account manager at Simon & Schuster

Joseph Montagne has joined Abrams ComicArts as associate publisher.

Daphne Durham joined Putnam as an executive editor after previously being at MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Kevin F. Watson has been named chief financial officer at Barnes & Noble Education

Carisa Hays has launched PR company Carisa Hays Public Relations. The company will offer services to authors, publishers, and non-profit organizations.

At Sourcebooks, Zuha Mohammed has joined as accounting associate. Zoya Boskovic has joined as digital marketing associate. Charlie McGroarty has joined as graphics designer.

Alex Vlahov joins Cornell University Press as a publicist. 

Naomi Falk joins powerHouse Books as production manager. 

In Agency news:  Jane Chun has joined Transatlantic Agency as literary agent. . . . Mary C. Moore has joined Aevitas Creative Management as an agent. She was previously at Kimberley Cameron & Associates. . . .Aiden Siobhan has joined Laura Dail Literary Agency as associate agent.. . .Mara Cobb has joined Martin Literary and Media Management as junior agent. 

At Zibby Books, Imanee Magee joins as editorial associate. Katie Teas joins as publicity manager. Gabby Capasso joins as senior associate editor. Tracy Massaro joins as chief marketing officer. Karen Menzie joins as director of sales. Erinn McGrath joins as head of corporate communications. Katie Song joins as editor of Zibby Mag. Samantha Marks joins as publishing associate. Samantha Gregory joins as head of marketing and community for Zibby’s Bookshop.

Adriann Ranta Zurhellen has joined Kevin Anderson & Associates as senior editor. She was previously an agent at Folio Literary Management.

Cristina Garces has joined Ten Speed Press as executive editor.

Rachel Gilman has joined Feminist Press as sales and marketing coordinator. She was most recently at Grove Atlantic.

Bree Martinez has joined Crown Publishing Group as senior publicist and Mary Moates has joined as associate director of publicity.

Desiree Wilson has joined Looking Glass Literary & Media as an agent. 

 

PROMOTIONS

At Random House, Ben Greenberg was promoted to VP, Editor-in-Chief. Hilary Redmon was promoted to VP, editorial director of nonfiction. At Penguin Publishing Group, Jordan Aaronson has been promoted to assistant director, marketing and Andrew Taets has been promoted to marketing associate.  At Ballantine Bantam Dell, Kara Cesare has been promoted to vice president, editor in chief. Hilary Teeman has been promoted to editorial director. Anne Speyer has been promoted to executive editor. Jesse Shuman has been promoted to editor. Shauna Summers has been promoted to editorial director for Dell. Caroline Weishuhn has been promoted to associate editor. Mae Martinez has been promoted to assistant editor.

At Crown Publishing Group, Derek Gullino becomes senior vice president, executive director, bookmaking. Serena Sigona has been promoted to production director. Andrea Lau has been promoted to art director.  Gwyneth Stansfield becomes executive publicist. Stacey Stein has been promoted to publicity manager.

At Harper Children’s, Elizabeth Agyemang and Sara Schonfeld have been promoted to editor. Erika DiPasquale has been promoted to associate editor.

Jacqui Young has been promoted to associate editor at Grand Central. At Hachette Book Group, Nancy Kriz has been promoted to senior manager of account marketing and Alexis Kuzma has been promoted to senior retail strategy manager. 

At Abrams, Mary Marolla was promoted to associate director, children’s publicity and Anneliese Merz was promoted to publicist, children’s publicity.

At Sourcebooks, Gabbi Calabrese has been promoted to assistant editor, kids and YA. Angela Navarra has been promoted to senior art director.

Jackie Teoh was promoted to acquisitions editor at Cornell University Press. 

Amy Nielsen was promoted to associate literary agent at The Purcell Agency

Joy Bean has been promoted to editorial director at Arctic Books USA

Michele Mortimer and Eric Amling have been promoted to agency associates at Darhansoff & Verrill Literary Agency

At Portfolio/Penguin, Noah Schwartzberg has been promoted to executive editor.

Dani Segelbaum has been promoted to VP, literary agent, and subsidiary rights director at Carol Mann Agency

Timothy Travaglini has been promoted to senior agent at Transatlantic Agency

At Feminist Press, Lucia Brown has been promoted to director of community engagement. Nadine Santoro has been promoted to publicity and events coordinator.

At Mushens Entertainment, Rachel Neely has been promoted to agent and Kiya Evans moves up to associate agent.

Amanda Bullock has been promoted to senior artistic director at Literary Arts

At Princeton University Press, Bridget Flannery-McCoy has been promoted to executive editor. James Collier has been promoted to assistant editor. Whitney Rauenhorst has been promoted to assistant editor. Eleanor Smith has been promoted to international rights executive. Taylor Sumereau has been promoted to IP & contracts associate.

Nathan Rostron has been promoted to associate publisher at McNally Editions

 

DULY NOTED

Co-founder and president of Abbeville Press, Robert E. Abrams, 80, died on August 28.

Translator Edith Grossman, 87, died on August 28. She translated acclaimed editions of Love in the Time of Cholera and Don Quixote.

Sarah Young, the author of Jesus Calling, which sold more than 45 million copies, has died at 77.

Author and journalist Gita Mehta, 80, died on September 16. She was the widow of longtime Knopf editor-in-chief Sonny Mehta.

Jenna Bush Hager will launch a podcast starting on September 24, with Colleen Hoover and Javier Zamora as her first guests.

 

EVENTS

September 19 – September 21
PNBA Fall Tradeshow
Portland, OR

September 28 – October 7

Riyadh International Book Fair

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

September 30 – October 3
Toy Fair
New York, NY

October 4 – October 7
FallCon
Denver, CO

October 18 – October 20
Heartland Fall Forum
Detroit, MI

October 20 – October 23
Helsinki Book Fair
Helsinki, Finland

International Bestsellers, August 2023

Every month, Publishing Trends runs fiction international bestsellers lists from four territories–France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This month, our four regular territories are joined by two more: Australia and Poland. Those books that have been published in English are listed with their official English-language title. All others are translated as literally as possible from the original. Where applicable, the US publisher is listed after the local publisher, separated by a “/”. The lists are taken from major newspapers or national retailers, which are noted at the bottom of each list.

Download the full list as a PDF here.

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 9/11- 9/15

Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

How did audiobooks turn into a billion-dollar industry?

How have independent publishers pushed for Latinx books for kids?

Why are Donald Trump books back in the headlines? 

How has Moms for Liberty responded to recent criticism?   

Why is Millie Bobby Brown’s new book igniting debate? 

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 9/4- 9/8

Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

How did English become a South Asian literary language?

Why were two letters by Ernest Hemingway sold for $237,055? 

Who did Ron DeSantis include in his Florida state ethics commission

Why would writers use different pen names across genres? 

What makes short books special?

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 8/28- 9/1

Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

What is BookmarkED and how will it help libraries? 

Why did MPs in the UK criticize AI copyright policy?

Who are the finalists for the Kirkus Prize? 

How did obscenity laws almost prevent Lolita from being published? 

What is the Fanfiction-to-Romance pipeline? 

 

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 8/21- 8/25

Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

Can AI art be copyrighted?

Why are readers so interested in Colleen Hoover?

What should be the conversation regarding AI and authors?

What role do booksellers and bookstores play in book bans? 

How are schools embracing ChatGPT in the classroom?  

People Round-Up, Mid-August 2023

PEOPLE

At Twelve, Publisher Sean Desmond has left the company and will join HarperCollins as VP, executive editor in September. The news came in a memo from HCCB President and Publisher, Suzanne Murphy. EVP, operations at HarperCollins, Larry Nevins, has decided to retire at the end of the year after 22 years at the company.  VP, director of publishing for the Clarion Group, Mary Wilcox will leave the company on August 25, after over 20 years at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and then HarperCollins.

At Random House Publishing Group, EVP and executive director of publishing operations Lisa Feuer will retire in December after 22 years at the company. Seema Mahanian joins Pamela Dorman Books as senior editor and reports to Dorman. She was previously at Grand Central. After three decades at Random House, Benjamin Dreyer, VP, executive managing editor and copy chief, will retire in December. Wendy Wolf, VP & associate publisher; Paul Slovak, VP & executive editor; Rick Kot, executive editor, and Ben Petrone, associate director, publicity are set to leave Viking Penguin. Production editor Carol Naughton will retire on December 15 and production manager Ellen Reed will retire on December 1. 

Jim Milliot, who has been editorial director of Publishers Weekly since 2014, will be retiring at the end of the year. Jonathan Segura has been named editorial director. David Adams has been appointed reviews director. Andrew Albanese has been promoted to executive editor. Current director for columns and special projects Rachel Deahl has been named director of branded content. As a result of Deahl’s move, current director of special editorial projects Adam Boretz will become senior editor overseeing features as well as author profiles and the Soapbox column. 

At Scholastic, President of education solutions Rose Else-Mitchell will leave to pursue other interests. Effective immediately, Beth Polcari becomes president of education solutions. She was previously president of international. CFO Ken Cleary will leave his current role when a successor is named and become president of international. 

At Orbit Books, Kayleigh Webb joined as a marketing manager.

Philomena Polefrone has joined ABA as advocacy associate manager. She was previously a bookseller and a lecturer at Columbia University.

At Library Journal, Prepub Alert editor Barbara Hoffert will retire after 37 years. 

Hayley Steed will move over to Janklow & Nesbit UK as a literary agent after seven years at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency.

At Doubleday, Director of interior design  Maria Carella will retire. She started as an interior designer for Bantam Books. SVP and creative director John Fontana will retire after 23 years as part of the company’s VSO offer.

Peter Turner has joined Hierophant Publishing as VP, associate publisher. He was previously associate publisher for five years at Red Wheel/Weiser (which distributes Hierophant).

Marissa Koors has joined The Curious Minds Agency as a literary agent. She was previously associate editor at Basic Books and Seal Press.

At MIT Press, Brent Oberlin has rejoined the press as CFO. Bill Smith now has an expanded role as director of marketing and sales. Jessica Pellien takes on the newly created role of head of communications.

Beth Colón has joined in the new position of acquisitions editor for Africana Studies at University of Virginia Press. She was previously at UT Austin.

Alan Hirsch has been appointed regional sales director at KNK Software

Franklin & Siegal Associates have been appointed North American scouts for adult books for Italian publisher Piemme and for Egmont Croatia.

At Sourcebooks, Stefanie Stocke has joined as senior director of human resources.

Nicole Sklitsis joined Blackstone Publishing as a publicist. 

At Cornell University, Meagan Levinson joins as editorial director of Three Hills. She was previously at Princeton University Press

 

PROMOTIONS

At Viking Penguin, Terezia Cicel has been promoted to senior editor. Nidhi Pugalia has been promoted to editor. Camille Leblanc has been promoted to associate editor, reporting to Allison Lorentzen. Allie Merola has been promoted to associate editor, reporting to Lindsey Schwoeri. Jenn Houghton has been promoted to publishing associate, reporting to Brian Tart. At Penguin Life, Amy Sun has been promoted to senior editor and Nina Rodriguez-Marty has been promoted to editor, both reporting to Meg Leder. Nico Medina has been promoted to VP, director managing editorial & production editorial at Penguin Children’s taking over as Gerard Mancini prepares to retire. Medina will report to Catharine Lynch, who heads the new companywide Bookmaking teams.

At HarperCollins, Liz Velez has been promoted to assistant editor for Harper and Harper Perennial. Ellie Anderson has been promoted to publicist at Morrow Group

Margaret “Maggie” Cannon has been promoted to publicist, James Patterson, and will direct all of Patterson’s publicity efforts at Little, Brown

At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Bezawit Yohannes has been promoted to assistant marketing manager for Aladdin, Boynton Bookworks, Little Simon, Simon Spotlight, Simon Pulse, and Margaret K. McElderry Books. Kimberly Capriola has been promoted as production editor for Simon and Schuster Children’s and Paula Wiseman Books. She was previously a copy editor for Pioneer Valley Books.

Hallie Rich has become editor-in-chief at Library Journal. She was previously chief communications & external relations officer at Cuyahoga County Public Library.

Tori Simpson has been promoted to rights associate at Scholastic

Julia Steffy has been promoted to assistant project editor at Sourcebooks

Zhengdao Song has been promoted to SVP, data analytics at Open Road

Brett Duquette has been promoted to editorial director at Little Bee Books and Yellow Jacket Books

Ellen Wright has been promoted to publicity director at Orbit

Cathie Hedrick-Armstrong has been promoted to senior literary agent at The Purcell Agency. Vicky Weber has been promoted to literary agent.

Julia Steffy has been promoted to assistant project editor at the MIT Press

Kira Weiner has been promoted to associate marketing manager, events at Catapult, Counterpoint, and Soft Skull Press

Chris Baggett was promoted to chief marketing officer at David C. Cook

 

DULY NOTED

Adrienne Vaughan, president of Bloomsbury Publishing USA, died on August 3 in a boating accident on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. She was 45. Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury chief executive, called Vaughan’s death a “terrible blow” and “devastating for everyone at Bloomsbury.” A memorial service has not yet been announced.

Wall Street Journal books editor Christopher Carduff, 66, died on August 14 following a recent illness. Before going to the WSJ Carduff had worked in book publishing and had been John Updike’s editor for several years.

 

EVENTS

August 24 – 27
Fan Expo Canada
Toronto, Canada 

August 30 – September 3
Bouchercon
San Diego, CA 

August 30 – September 3
Moscow International Book Fair

Moscow, Russia 

September 15 – 17
Edmonton Expo
Edmonton, Canada 

September 30 – October 3
Toy Fair
New York, NY

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 8/14- 8/18

Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

How is Chat GPT being used for the purpose of censorship? 

Why are booksellers asking the justice department to investigate Amazon?

Why is the New York Times considering a potential lawsuit against OpenAI? 

How are AI-written books spamming online bookstores?

Why was the Internet Archive blocked from sharing copyrighted books?   

International Bestsellers July 2023

Every month, Publishing Trends runs fiction international bestsellers lists from four territories–France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This month, our four regular territories are joined by two more: Greece and Taiwan. Those books that have been published in English are listed with their official English-language title. All others are translated as literally as possible from the original. Where applicable, the US publisher is listed after the local publisher, separated by a “/”. The lists are taken from major newspapers or national retailers, which are noted at the bottom of each list.

Download the full list as a PDF here.

Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 8/7- 8/11

Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know.

Why did Amazon remove books from their site?

What are book sanctuaries and where have they been set up? 

How have publishers reacted to the book rating system established in Texas?

What does the sale of Simon & Schuster mean for the industry? 

What does PEN America say about book bans and ‘booklash’?