Jonathan Karp is now settled in as EVP and Publisher of the Simon & Schuster trade imprint. Karp, who succeeds David Rosenthal, came from Twelve, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group that he founded in 2005. A new Publisher for Twelve is actively being recruited.

Isabel Swift, who was Editor Emeritus at Harlequin, has launched her own media and communications company, Swift Global Media, and will consult on literary projects and programs. She may be reached at isabel [at] swiftglobalmedia [dot] com.

Suzanne Murphy has started at Disney Publishing Worldwide as VP Publisher, reporting to Jeanne Mosure. She had been VP, Publisher of Trade Publishing and Marketing at Scholastic. Coincidentally, Ellie Berger, Scholastic’s President of Trade Publishing, announced that Miriam Farbey has been hired to the newly created position of Global Publisher, Nonfiction, for the Trade Publishing division. Meanwhile, Cecily Kaiser, who was Editorial Director in the trade division for Cartwheel and Little Scholastic, joins Abrams in the new role of Publishing Director of books for kids under five.

Denise Cronin, VP and Director of Random House Subsidiary Rights, announced that Toby Ernst has been hired as the Random House Publishing Group Domestic Rights Manager. She was previously at Sterling.

Sheryl Stebbins has joined Kaplan on a permanent basis as Executive Director of the editorial group. She had been a consultant for the company. Previously, she was Director of Author Marketing Solutions at Author Solutions.

Judith McCarthy, Publisher, Consumer Group at McGraw-Hill, has left the company to attend Rutgers University School of Law. She had been at McGraw-Hill since 2005.

Helen Boomer has been named VP, Director of Subsidiary Rights at Penguin Children’s. She had been Executive Director of Subsidiary Rights at HarperCollins. Nancy Conescu will join Dutton Children’s as Executive Editor on July 6, reporting to President Lauri Hornik. Most recently, she was Senior Editor at Little, Brown Children’s.

Macromark, Inc., an “acquisition, retention, and monetization media agency,” announced that Brian Murphy has become its new Director of Interactive Technology. He was a Web Development Manager at Scholastic.

John Wicker has been named head of the publishing segment for the North American Consulting Media & Information Services group of Tata Consultancy Services. He was most recently EVP of Sales at Klopotek.

Continuum’s Sales & Marketing Director, Ken Rhodes, has taken on global oversight of sales from the UK. Thomas Willshire, US VP Sales, has left the company and may be reached at twill44 [at] verizon [dot] net.

Susan Renouf, VP and Associate Nonfiction Publisher at McClelland & Stewart, has retired. She plans to focus on freelance consulting and editing and may be reached at susan [at] abanakiconsulting [dot] com.

Lauren Wohl is stepping down as Associate Publisher of Roaring Brook Press/Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers/First Second, but will continue to consult for Macmillan. She may be reached at llwohl [at] aol [dot] com.

Peternelle Van Arsdale has left Putnam to become a freelance editor and ghostwriter. Her new company is called pva books, inc., and she may be reached at pva [at] pvabooks [dot] com.

In other editorial news, Catherine Onder has been named Senior Editor at Hyperion. She had been an editor at HarperCollins. . . . Niki Papadopoulos has moved to McGraw-Hill from Public Affairs. . . . Holly Halverson has been named Senior Editor at Howard Books. She was an editor at Hachette. . . . James Jayo has joined Globe Pequot as an editor at Lyons Press. He had been an associate manager of foreign rights at Crown. Anna Bliss is also joining Lyons Press, as an editor-at-large. She previously held positions at Overlook, HarperCollins, and Sobel Weber Associates.

Hachette has hired two new senior-level employees in its New York office. Kate Hartson is now Senior Editor for the Center Street imprint, and Andrea Glickson is Marketing Director for the FaithWords and Center Street imprints. Both report to SVP Rolf Zettersten. Hartson most recently owned her own company, Yorkville Press. Glickson was most recently Director of Publicity and Marketing for Octopus Books USA.

Other Press has hired Sarah Reidy as Director of Publicity. She had been an Associate Director of Publicity at Gallery/Threshold Editions/Pocket.

Literary agent Paul Fedorko has left Trident and joined the N. S. Bienstock Talent Agency.

Allison Korleski is joining Interweave as Acquisitions Editor for the book division, a new position. She was a book buyer at Barnes & Noble.

Adrienne Schultz, who was an editor at Penguin’s Portfolio imprint, has left to become a freelance editor.

Recent departures for as yet unnamed greener pastures are Denise McGann from Rodale, where she was Director of Rights Acquisition, and Judi Powers from DK, where she was Director of Marketing and Public Relations.

Promotions and Internal Changes

Borders’ Mark Bierley has become COO and continues as CFO. He started at the company in 1996.

As is appropriate given the ethereal nature of the job, Penguin is moving Dan Ruffino, who is based in Australia as Marketing and Publicity Director, to New York to assume the position of Group Digital Director for Penguin Group Worldwide, and reporting to John Makinson, who is based in London.

Crown VP, Digital and Marketing Strategy and Publisher, eBooks, Philip Patrick announced that Donna Passannante has been named Deputy Marketing Director, Crown Publishing Group, responsible for the marketing of Clarkson Potter, Potter Style, Potter Craft, Watson-Guptill, Monacelli Press, and paperback programs. Jay Sones takes on expanded responsibility as Marketing Manager for Three Rivers Press and Broadway paperbacks and eBooks. Jacob Bronstein is now Digital Marketing and New Product Development Director, and Patty Berg is Marketing Director, Crown Publishers and Broadway Books. Meredith McGinnis was appointed Marketing Director, Crown Archetype and Crown Business.

At Hachette Digital, Neil DeYoung has been promoted to Executive Director, Liz Kessler moves up to the new position of Digital Managing Editor, and Alessandra Aliquo becomes Digital Operations and Client Services Coordinator.

At NBN, Catherine Forrest Getzie has been promoted to Director of the newly created Electronic Publishing Department. She was Fusion Services Manager.

Jon Ackerman has been named Sales Director at Adams Media. He had been National Accounts Sales Manager.

Megan Wilson has been promoted to Senior Publicity Manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Heidi Graynor has been named VP of Sales Administration at Penguin. She had been Director of Sales Administration. Camilla Sanderson has been named VP Digital Business Development at Penguin Children’s, from VP Subrights.

Christina Amini has been promoted from Senior Editor to Executive Editor, Formats, at Chronicle. Beth Weber has been promoted to Associate Publishing Director, Custom Publishing, from Publishing Manager.

Carrie Swetonic has been promoted to Associate Marketing Director at Dutton. Krista Marino has been promoted to Executive Editor at Delacorte.

Viking Penguin has promoted Liz Van Hoose to Editor. She has been at Viking since 2008.

Matt Schwartz, VP, Director of Digital Marketing & Strategy at Random House Publishing Group, announced that Lisa Turner has been promoted to Digital Project Manager. She has been Associate Managing Editor for Ballantine and its imprints since 2007.

Christine Gillespie has been promoted to VP, Associate Publisher for Knopf, Pantheon, and Schocken, continuing to report to Patricia Johnson.

Frank Nunez has been promoted to VP, Business Operations at Simon & Schuster, reporting to Joe D’Onofrio.

DULY NOTED

Ex-Random House CEO and current CEO of AKS Marketing & Media, Markus Wilhelm, wins the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation’s Vision Award.

Congrats to Shelf Awareness, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this month.

SHERRY ARGOV VS. F+W MEDIA

Sherry Argov, author of Why Men Love Bitches, accused F+W Media (parent company of the book’s publisher, Adams Media) of underreporting her book’s sales and tracking royalties incorrectly, especially royalties from translation rights deals.

Arbitrator Herbert Abrams ruled that for the six-month domestic royalty period ending on June 30, 2005, F+W withheld the materials necessary to conduct a royalty audit from Argov’s accountant (Argov believes that over half her foreign rights statements are still missing). The ruling also stated that F+W interoffice e-mails “manifest[ed] an intense dislike of Ms. Argov in her attempt to obtain a royalty audit” and upheld Argov’s unfair practices claim.

Abrams found that Argov had not proven that she was owed money, but he awarded $25 in statutory damages, $200,000 to cover legal fees, and $9,000 in arbitration fees. She is still free to seek underreported domestic royalties for periods after June 2005, as well as all foreign royalties.

David Nussbaum, President of F+W, defended the company. He said the employees accused of unfair practices are no longer working at F+W, and that F+W will cooperate fully with all of Argov’s future foreign rights royalties inquiries.

You can buy the “Uncut” audio version of Why Men Love Bitches, entitled Why We Love Bitches: Uncensored—Men Tell All exclusively on Sherry Argov’s website.

BOOKLOCKER.COM VS. AMAZON.COM

In late March, Amazon announced a new policy requiring publishers of POD titles to use BookSurge, an Amazon subsidiary, for printing. Those who refused would have their “buy” buttons disabled. The Authors Guild e-mailed its members saying, “Once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the ‘long tail’ of publishing…We suspect this maneuver by Amazon is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels….We’re reviewing the antitrust and other legal implications of Amazon’s bold move.”

In May, Bangor, ME–based POD publisher BookLocker.com filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon, calling the company’s moves “highly suspicious.” The Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) voted to support BookLocker in the lawsuit and has posted a petition on its Web site.

In July, Amazon filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying, “Booklocker.com has not alleged an unreasonable restraint of trade.” BookLocker filed a counter-motion. The judge has not yet ruled on the case’s dismissal.

“Once things hit the courts, they start to crawl, as you probably know,” BookLocker co-owner Angela Hoy told Small Press Blog. “While we’ll have to wait awhile, I’m confident that either Amazon will come to its senses and withdraw their ridiculous plans to take over the printing of POD books, or that, despite Amazon’s pretty verbiage, the court will see the company’s recent actions for what they really are.”

S&S VS. FOXY BROWN AND LIL’ KIM

On July 24, Simon & Schuster filed two separate lawsuits against rappers “Foxy Brown” (real name: Inga Marchand) and “Lil’ Kim” (real name: Kimberly Jones). Lil’ Kim received $40,000 for a novel to be released in 2004. Foxy Brown received $75,000 for her memoir Broken Silence, to be co-written with Kim Osario and released in Fall 2006. Neither manuscript was delivered. Both women spent time in jail (for unrelated offenses); Lil’ Kim was released in 2006 and Foxy Brown was released last April.

Brown’s attorney, Laura Dilimetin, told Web site AllHipHop.com that her client never reneged on the deal, and that S&S agreed to put the project on hold while she underwent surgery for hearing loss. After Brown’s recovery, Dilimetin claimed that S&S decided not to go forward with the book. “I find it suspect that after all of these years of silence, Simon and Schuster pick now to bring this meritless action when they were the ones to halt the project,” she said, but added that Foxy Brown would still love to publish her book with S&S.

No comment yet from Lil’ Kim, and her MySpace page hasn’t been updated since April.

THE LACE READER’S SCORNED PUBLICIST

The scandal here is not that The Lace Reader isn’t a very good book. It’s that Kelley & Hall, the publicity firm for the originally self-published novel, thinks it deserves more recognition for the book’s success than it has received. In an August 14 letter to GalleyCat, Jocelyn Kelley wrote, “We want you to know that we are thrilled with the attention that THE LACE READER is getting…Our only regret is that we have received virtually no recognition for our significant part in these events.” Kelley goes on to say that K&H were instrumental in the book’s eventual sale to William Morrow—they secured a distributor, got the book a starred review in Publishers Weekly, sent 500 galleys to independent bookstores, and were in touch with author Brunonia “Sandy” Barry and her husband daily. Once Morrow bought the book, Kelley writes, Barry “proceeded to hire Stephen King’s accountant, Nicholas Sparks’ attorney and placed all of her publicity needs in the hands of William Morrow. After a year of virtual silence and ignored requests for a quote about the great work we had done, we were invited to the ‘all the little people who helped us’ party…You can see that without us, THE LACE READER would not have achieved the stratospheric success that it ultimately obtained.”

Most GalleyCat commentators agreed that K&H shouldn’t air its grievances publicly. “The whole idea behind a publicist’s job is to promote the book and author, not the publicist,” one wrote; another said Kelley had “shown potential clients that she can harness the power of the media to complain about them.”

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL VS. HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS

Back in April, a Connecticut investment group bought the copyright to the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand. The books had been distributed by the Deerfield Beach, FL–based Health Communications, which retains the license to the older titles. (Simon & Schuster was announced as the series’ new distributor in July.) Health Communications owner Peter Vegso refused to turn over the distribution to the older titles, telling the Miami Herald, “It wasn’t a good proposition from my point of view.”* Series creators Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen and the new Chicken Soup owners, William Rouhana and Robert Jacobs, filed a suit against Health Communications for “interfering with the sale of the publishing and distribution rights” and for trademark infringement. That case has settled, and the owners are now suing HCI over royalties that weren’t received. Vegso has responded with a countersuit, saying the new Chicken Soup titles are “very similar to what we’ve done.” He claimed new titles, including Chicken Soup for the Soul: Loving Our Dogs: Heartwarming and Humorous Stories About Our Companions and Best Friends, “cherry pick and . . . take the best stories [from older editions].”

Health Communications is launching its own Chicken Soup–esque “Ultimate” series this fall, and previous Chicken Soup books are still featured prominently on its Web site.

Meanwhile, the new Rouhana/Jacobs group is called Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing. IMG is handling their licensing, and will be developing, in the words of IMG EVP Tim Rothwell, “eco-friendly, compelling lifestyle and consumer products that complement Chicken Soup’s core values of hope, inspiration, compassion and love.”

*This is a Google cached version of the article, which has been removed from the Miami Herald’s Web site.

RIELLE HUNTER AND JAY MCINERNEY

John Edwards’s mistress, Rielle Hunter, a.k.a. Lisa Druck, dated Jay McInerney in the late 1980s, inspiring the character of Alison Poole in McInerney’s 1989 Story of My Life. “I don’t feel my questions have been answered with regard to Edwards,” McInerney told the New York Daily News. He also said that he was surprised to hear of Edwards and Hunter/Druck’s involvement: “She’s not attracted to conventional guys, and Edwards, with his haircut and all, is a conventional guy.”

After the Edwards/Hunter scandal broke, Story of My Life gained lots of new readers. Vintage ordered an additional printing of 2,500 copies. At press time, the book was out of stock on Amazon.

In unrelated news, McInerney will appear on the CW show Gossip Girl this fall. He will be playing the mentor to the character Dan.

RANDOM HOUSE CANCELS THE JEWEL OF MEDINA

Sherry Jones’s The Jewel of Medina was sold as A’isha, Beloved of Muhammad to Ballantine in spring 2007, in a two-book deal, for a reported $100,000. At the time, Publishers Marketplace described the book as “the story of the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad, recreating her marriage at the age of nine, her struggle for personal freedom in a society where women had few rights, and her dedication to The Prophet’s vision of a true faith.” The book was supposed to be published this summer, but Random House canceled it in May. The story broke in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, “You Still Can’t Write About Muhammad,” by Asra Q. Nomani.

Nomani’s article identified Denise Spellberg, Associate Professor of Islamic History at the University of Texas in Austin, as the “instigator of the trouble.” Spellberg received a copy of the galley for review and was extremely upset by it. She told the WSJ that the book was “a very ugly, stupid piece of work. . . . You can’t play with a sacred history and turn it into soft core pornography.”

After reviewing the galley, Spellberg, a Knopf author, called her editor, Jane Garrett. After the phone call, Garrett sent an e-mail to Knopf executives, writing, “[Spellberg] thinks [the book] will be far more controversial than the satanic verses [sic] and the Danish cartoons. Does not know if the author and Ballantine folks are clueless or calculating, but thinks the book should be withdrawn ASAP.”

Spellberg also called a UT guest lecturer, Shahed Amanullah, about the galley. Amanullah e-mailed a listserv for grad students about the book, and his e-mail was later posted on a site called Husaini Youths, along with ideas on how to respond to the book. The ideas, reports GalleyCat, included monitoring and responding to media coverage and arranging media blasts.

Random House Publishing Group Deputy Publisher Thomas Perry said that RH received “from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment” and that RH “postpone[d] publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel.” Jones signed a termination agreement with RH so that her agent could shop the book to other houses.

On August 9, the WSJ printed a letter from Spellberg. She wrote that she did not have the power to “single-handedly stop the book’s publication. Random House made its final decision based on the advice of other scholars, conveniently not named in the article, and based ultimately on its determination of corporate interests.” She also said, “As an expert on Aisha’s life, I felt it was my professional responsibility to counter this novel’s fallacious representation of a very real woman’s life.”

Amanullah told the Austin American-Statesman that he opposed the book’s cancellation, and , and Salman Rushdie told the Associated Press, “This is censorship by fear, and it sets a very bad precedent indeed.”

On her blog*, Jones wrote, “You won’t hear from me again until ‘The Jewel of Medina’ is out, and you have had a chance to read it.” She got one last word in, though, in a guest post on the Washington Post blog Islam Advance.

“So far, discussion has centered around my not-published book, which almost no one has read,” she wrote. “Soon, I hope, we will address the text itself, in published form, and my ideas, derived from research and experience, of moderate Islam as a religion of egalitarianism and, yes, peace.”

*As of press time, Jones’s blog had been taken offline. The link above is to a cached version of the page.

HarperCollins announced a new management structure following Jane Friedman’s June 4 resignation and the appointment of Brian Murray as President and CEO HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide. Michael Morrison was also promoted to President and Publisher, U.S. General Books and Canada, and Victoria Barnsley has been promoted to CEO and Publisher HCUK and International, overseeing the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa.

Bob Miller, whose new publishing venture is called HarperStudio, has hired Debbie Stier from Morrow as SVP, Associate Publisher, though she will also be Director, Digital Marketing Development for General Books at HC. Julia Cheiffetz has been hired as Senior Editor. She was previously at Random House.

Steve Black has been named Director of Sales for Oxmoor House, in the New York office.

Matt Schwartz has joined Random House Publishing Group as Director, Digital Strategy and Business Development, reporting to Andrea Sheehan. He was most recently Director of Online Marketing for the Children’s Publishing division at Simon & Schuster. Meanwhile, Christina Pecorale has moved from Random House to S&S, where she’s the new Director of National Accounts.

Felicia Frazier has been named SVP, Director of Sales at the Penguin Young Readers Group. She had been VP, Sales Director for national accounts at Random House.

Tim Mak is returning to Random House. He will be joining the Academic Marketing Department as Marketing Coordinator on July 7. He was most recently at H20 Associates. Prior to that, he was at HarperCollins and Ballantine.

Karen Cooper is the new Publisher of Adams Media, having left the book division of parent company F+W.

Taline Najarian has been named Director of Special Sales for Scholastic.

Layoffs at HarperCollins Children’s Books: Anne Miller Attanas, Ruth Katcher, Melanie Donovan, Claire Hutton, Adriana Dominguez, and Mary Albi.

Tom Stewart has left Harvard Business School Press, where he was Editor of the Harvard Business Review.

John Nee, SVP of Business Development at DC Comics, is leaving the company. However, David Hyde, DC Comics VP of publicity, declined to confirm the report and said that DC Comics does not comment on personnel matters.

Leigh Haber has stepped down as VP Editorial Director at Rodale’s Modern Times imprint. As a result of Haber’s departure, Rodale will close the Modern Times imprint after publishing all the titles currently signed up under it.

Ann Campbell has left Broadway, where she was a Senior Editor. She plans to take on freelance editing and writing starting in September and can be reached at annwcampbell08 [at] gmail.com. The company is looking for her successor.

Joy de Menil has been named Executive Editor of Viking, reporting to Clare Ferraro. She joins the company from The Atlantic Monthly, where she was a senior editor, and will work from both Washington and New York.

Genoveva Llosa has joined Ten Speed Press as a Senior Editor acquiring business, career, mind-body-spirit, and parenting books. She was previously at Collins, Crown, and HBS Press.

Beryl Needham has left Borders, where she was mostly recently VP, Merchandising.

Emily Carleton has joined McGraw-Hill Professional as an editor in the Consumer group. She was an Associate Editor at Wiley.

Anne Savarese has been named Executive Editor of Princeton University Press.

Phoenix Books has hired Gray Peterson as VP Sales and Marketing. He headed special/mass market/trade sales for Scholastic and was most recently VP of sales at Dalmatian Press.

Until Labor Day, when she officially starts at Amazon.com in Luxembourg, Madeline McIntosh can be reached at madeline.mcintosh [at] gmail.com.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Bill Thomas, SVP, Editor-in-Chief, has been promoted to the additional position of Publisher, General Adult Books, Doubleday Publishing Group. Thomas named Stacy Creamer, Deputy Editorial Director, Broadway Books, as Editor-in-Chief, Broadway, and Charles Conrad, Broadway’s Editorial Director, Paperbacks, as the new Deputy Editorial Director for Doubleday.

Author Solutions, Inc. has appointed Diane Gedymin to the position of Executive Editorial Director. Gedymin will oversee editorial for all ASI’s author services brands, including AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and Wordclay. Gedymin had previously worked for iUniverse.

Katie Rose has been named VP Director of Marketing for adult books at Houghton Mifflin Trade & Reference. She was VP of Marketing for the college division.

Arthur A. Levine has been named VP Publisher, Arthur A. Levine Books. He was previously VP and Editorial Director of the imprint.

Grand Central Publishing Executive Editor Rick Wolff has added the title of Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Business Plus imprint, while retaining his current position within GCP. Natalie Kaire is a newly named Senior Editor at Grand Central Publishing.

Paul Taunton has been promoted to to Editor at Random House. Paul will be focusing on ESPN Books in his new position.

Roger Labrie has been promoted to Senior Editor at S&S.

John Fagan has added another title. He is now Marketing Director of eBooks as well as VP and Director of Marketing for Penguin Books and Executive Director, Academic Marketing and Sales, Penguin Group.

Mike Spring, who joined John Wiley & Sons when Hungry Minds was acquired in 2001, is retiring as travel publisher but will become Director of Special Projects and work closely with Wiley’s travel publishing team. Ensley Eikenburg has been promoted to Associate Publisher/Associate Marketing Director of the travel program at Wiley. She has been Associate Marketing Director of travel and reference publishing. She continues to report to Claire Griffin.

Richard Rhorer is taking on the new position of Director of Digital Business development for Macmillan. He has been Director of Marketing for the Henry Holt adult imprints.

More HC news: Kathy Schneider has been promoted to SVP. Seale Ballenger has been promoted to VP, Group Publicity Director, for William Morrow, Morrow Cookbooks, HarperEntertainment, and Eos. Dee Dee De Bartlo has been promoted to Senior Director of Publicity and new initiatives for Morrow, HarperEntertainment, Eos, and Morrow Cookbooks. Richard Ljoenes has been promoted to Vice President, Senior Art Director at Collins.

Baker & Taylor has promoted David Cully to President, Retail Markets. He will add domestic and international retail book and entertainment sales to his merchandising, purchasing, and Baker & Taylor Marketing Services responsibilities. Bill Preston, SVP Books, and Frank Wolbert, SVP Entertainment, now report to Cully.

Michael Connor has been named senior editor of the Quality Paperback Book Club, and he will continue to have editorial responsibility for InsightOut Books. QPB executive editor Gary Jansen has left the company.

DULY NOTED

The American Bookseller Association’s marketing cooperative, Book Sense, has changed its name to IndieBound. Member stores no longer have to pay a separate fee to participate, but just have to be ABA members. Authors can be affiliates of the Book Sense/IndieBound website and earn similar affiliate fees as with Amazon or Powell’s.

The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that “540 press directors, editors, digital technologists, marketing and business specialists, and other interested parties, including representatives from Google and Amazon.com” attended the AAUP’s annual meeting in Montreal from June 26–29. Topics covered included the move toward open access, problems of over-publishing, Amazon and POD, and, of course, returns. Google Book Search seemed to be one of the few areas where (almost) everyone involved was happy to be so. The 2009 Annual Meeting will take place from June 18–21 in Philadelphia.

UPCOMING EVENTS

On July 31 at 6:30 PM, Mad. Sq. Reads, Madison Square Park Conservancy’s free series of summer readings, presents The Wisest, Kindest Voice: A Celebration of the Work and Life of William Maxwell, featuring Christopher Carduff, Benjamin Cheever, Edward Hirsch, Daniel Menaker, and Stewart O’Nan.

Following the recent news of Houghton Mifflin‘s planned acquisition of Harcourt, Gary Gentel has been appointed Interim President of the Trade and Reference Division, effective immediately. HM Chairman, President and CEO Tony Lucki told employees that “Gary will lead the division’s strategic direction with the support of the Trade and Reference management team, who will report directly to him. He will also be an instrumental part of planning the integration of Harcourt Trade with Houghton Mifflin Trade and Reference.” Gentel has served as the division’s Corporate VP, Director of Sales for the past four years. Prior to joining HM, he was VP of Trade Sales at Scholastic, and had previously worked at Candlewick Press as President, and at DK and Random House.

Separately, it was announced that George Hodgman is moving to Houghton Mifflin Adult Trade as VP, Senior Executive Editor, starting in the New York office in early September and reporting to Publisher Janet Silver. He had previously been Executive Editor at Holt.

Will Balliett, former Publisher and Editorial Director of Carroll & Graf Publishers and Thunder’s Mouth Press, is joining Hyperion as Editorial Director, as of August 8 and reporting to SVP Editor in Chief Will Schwalbe. Meanwhile Katie Wainwright, Executive Director of Publicity and Associate Publisher of Trade Paperbacks at Hyperion, has joined Crown as VP, Executive Director of Publicity, reporting to Jenny Frost. She succeeds Tina Constable, who last month was named VP and Publisher for Crown Publishers, Crown Business, and Crown Forum.

After two months at Hilsinger-Mendelson, Brian Belfiglio is leaving to take Elizabeth Hayes‘ place as VP Publicity at Scribner. He starts in mid-August. Hayes – who had moved over from S&S to Scribner six months ago, is leaving to work in the film industry, as a producer.

Pamela Cannon will join Ballantine as Editor at Large on September 10, acquiring and editing lifestyle books, and reporting to Libby McGuire, SVP and Publisher. She will work from her office in Connecticut, where she previously ran Cannon Literary Services, specializing in editorial, publicity and marketing services for authors, agents and publishers including The New York Times and Bon Appétit.

Garrett P. Kiely, President of Palgrave Macmillan, has been named Director of the University of Chicago Press. He succeeds the retiring Paula Barker Duffy, who is moving to the East Coast. Kiely will begin on September 1; Deputy Director Chris Heiser is serving as interim director as of July 1.

Lots of movement in sales and marketing circles:

Greg Brandenburgh has become Sales and Marketing Director of Hampton Roads Publishing. Earlier he worked for Thorson/Element, Tuttle Publishing and HarperOne. . . . Unbridled Books has hired Steven Wallace as Sales Director. He was a field rep and then Divisional Director for Field Sales at Random House for more than 18 years. . . . Mike Rohrig has gone to Dalmatian Press in Atlanta, as Senior Director of Sales. Most recently he had been at Scholastic. Michelle Patterson has left Globe Pequot and is now Senior Director of Marketing at Kaplan Publishing. Yulia Borodyanskaya has also gone to Kaplan, as International Sales and Rights Manager. . . . Phaidon has hired Sharon Huerta as North American Sales Manager. She was Director of Field and International Sales at HNA/Abrams. Meanwhile, HNA has hired Julia Coblentz as Director of Marketing. She was at Broadway Books/Random where she was most recently Associate Marketing Director. Justin Nisbit has joined HNA as Director of Digital Initiatives and comes from Workman Publishing where he was Web Manager. Both report to VP of Sales, Mary Wowk who now officially takes on the responsibility for marketing in addition to sales. . . . At Harper, Campbell Wharton will join the company as Associate Director of Publicity. He had been at Publicity Manager for Crown Forum.

The Ingram Book Group has hired Skip Prichard as its COO. He was formerly president and CEO of ProQuest Information and Learning.

Following on the resignation of Ric Vanzura, EVP emerging business and technology, chief strategy officer, Teresa Wright was appointed VP, Merchandising, Paperchase U.S. Division and Myles Romero was named VP, Strategic Marketing and Entertainment Alliances.

Bill Nasshan, SVP of trade books at Borders Group, has left the company. Rob Gruen, EVP, merchandising and marketing, will assume his duties.

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd announced the appointment of Oliver Gadsby as Chief Executive of its worldwide publishing business. His previous role was as Director of Strategy & Acquisitions with Informa PLC, which includes Taylor & Francis and Routledge. Continuum also announced the appointment of Bob Marsh as Chief Financial Officer of the group reporting directly to the Gadsby. He had been the CFO of the North American business of Continuum and prior to that of Morehouse Publishing. Ed Suthon has left the company and may be reached at edsuthon@aol.com.

Helen Atsma has joined Holt as Editor, Adult Trade. She has been an associate editor at Little, Brown. . . . Counterpoint has hired both Sharon Donovan as Publishing Director, reporting to CEO and Publisher Charlie Winton, and Abbye Simkowitz as Publicity Manager. They will work from the company’s new Berkeley, CA office and be responsible for both the Counterpoint and Soft Skull imprints. Donovan was Publishing Manager at the Foundation for Deep Ecology and previously worked at Conari Press and Sierra Club Books. Simkowitz was a publicist at St. Martin’s.

In children’s books: Susan Yeager has been appointed Associate Director of Mass Merchandise sales for HarperCollins Children’s Books. For the past 15 years, she worked for Borders Group in inventory, category management and buying/merchandising. She will oversee Tim Synek and Mikki Plaskett. . . . Melanie Chang is joining Little, Brown Children‘s in the new position of Executive Director, Publicity and Communications, reporting to Associate Publisher, VP Marketing Andrew Smith, starting on August 20. Chang will both oversee the publicity team and direct the PR strategy and overall communications for the division. She has been Director of Publicity at Random House Children’s. . . . Meanwhile, Carl Raymond has completed his consulting assignment at Scholastic and may be reached at craymondny@aol.com. Anica Rissi has also left Scholastic for Simon Pulse, where she is an Editor.

Laurie Parkin, VP and Publisher of Kensington Publishing announced that Karen Auerbach joined the company as Director of Publicity and Public Relations. Previously Auerbach was the Senior Director of Publicity at Avalon Publishing Group.

PROMOTIONS
Following Jeannie Emanuel’s departure for Candlewick, Adams Media announced that Phil Sexton has been promoted to Sales Director.

Rica Allannic was promoted from Editor to Senior Editor at Clarkson Potter. Her promotion is effective immediately. She will continue to report to Doris Cooper.

At S&S, George Hedges has moved to the BGI sales team as a National Account Manager for Atria and Pocket.

At Random House Children’s Books, Erin Clarke has been promoted to Senior Editor, and Jack Lienke has been promoted to assistant editor.

Sean Yule, Domestic Rights Director at Knopf, announced that Thomas Dobrowolski has been promoted to Assistant Manager, Domestic Rights for the Knopf Publishing Group.

AUGUST EVENTS

Poets Billy Collins and Paul Violi will read from the works of Frank O’Hara (who was awarded the National Book Award for Poetry posthumously in 1972), as well as from their own works, on August 2nd at Madison Square Park. Poet and critic Craig Morgan Teicher will moderate. On August 9, dogs and their owners are invited to attend a reading and talk by Mark Doty, author of DOG YEARS: A MEMOIR (HarperCollins, 2007). Doggy treats will be provided.
For a complete listing of Mad. Sq. Reads events, visit www.madisonsquarepark.org.

DULY NOTED

Susan Naythons left PGW/AMS in 2005, and, as she now tells PT, “I went off to Italy and the rest is history,” or more accurately, her future job: Naythons launched eyeItalia.com last month to celebrate (and sell) all things Italian. “Some friends have teased me a bit about offering books on the site (“who are you kidding by trying to compete with Amazon?” etc.) , but to not offer books as a complement to the site would be anathema to me,” she writes from her house near Volterra.

Biographer James McGrath Morris (Rose Man of Sing Sing and the forthcoming Joseph Pulitzer) has recently launched a free monthly newsletter and website for writers and readers of biography that will serve as a great resource for publishers, authors, bookstores, librarians, and readers. It’s called The Biographer’s Craft, www.thebiographers craft.com.

The BISG offices are still not habitable, but the website is operational, and everyone can be reached on their regular emails: Michael@bisg.org, Angela@bisg.org, Sara@ bisg org.

MAZEL TOV

Mazel tov to the proud parents of William Francis Held born 7/16/07. Proud dad Ivan tells us that he joins Margaret, 2 and George, 4, who’s “declared him “cute,” which is accurate.”

In a reorganization of the books group, Linda Cunningham, Editorial Director at Meredith has been laid off along with 15 other people. She can be reached at 215.752.2664, or at lindacunningham1@hotmail.com.

HarperCollins has hired Steve Ross as President and Publisher, Collins, reporting to Brian Murray. He had been Publisher of Crown. George Bick, SVP Director of Sales and Associate Publisher, Collins, is leaving the company and may be reached at gdbick@gmail.com or 212 861 5144.

At Crown, Andrew Schultz has been named VP Director of Random House Custom Media, reporting to Jenny Frost. He succeeds David Arcara, who left earlier this year. He had been VP General Manager at Hanley Wood, a media company and custom publisher for home plans.

Lots more editorial moves this summer:

Patty Gift has left Sterling for Hay House, where she is opening its New York office. She may be reached at PGift@Hayhouse.com. (See below for other Sterling changes). Eamon Dolan is moving to Penguin Press as VP, Editor-in-Chief, as of July 9. He held the same position at Houghton Mifflin. Scott Moyers has left Penguin for The Wylie Agency, as a Director.. . . Amy Einhorn is also moving to Penguin, where she is starting the Amy Einhorn Books imprint for Putnam. She will be VP and Publisher, reporting to Ivan Held and also begins July 9. She had been hardcover Editor-in-Chief at Grand Central.

Senior Editor Liz Stein has left Free Press and may be reached at elizabethstein@yahoo.com. . . . Random House Publishing Group SVP and Executive Editor-in-Chief Daniel Menaker has left, to give “more time to his own writing and to teach.” The company also announced that Kate Medina will add the role of Associate Publisher for RH hardcovers (where she is already Executive Editorial Director), and Associate Publisher for the Random House Group Tom Perry has been promoted to SVP, Deputy Publisher. Random imprints Editorial Director Jennifer Hershey has been promoted to SVP. And Susan Mercandetti and Will Murphy have both been promoted to Executive Editor. Kurt Andersen is joining the group as Editor-at-Large.

Avalon has closed its offices and those who are staying on as Perseus or DaCapo employees are moving to the office at 387 Park Avenue South. Meanwhile, Anne Sullivan has accepted the position of Publicity Director at The New Press, taking over for Ina Howard’s position. She was a Publicity Manager at Avalon. Betsy Steve, Senior Publicist at Avalon, has gone to NYU Press as Publicity Manager.

Dinah Dunn has been hired as Editor for Tess Press, Black Dog & Leventhal’s Proprietary and Special Projects Imprint. She spent 13 years with Byron Preiss. She may be reached at Dinah.Dunn2@comcast.com. Maureen Winter, who has been with BD&L for three years, is taking on the role of Sales Supervisor for Tess Press. She had previously been handling sub-rights and foreign sales. (Maureen@blackdogandleventhal.com)

Jackie Everly, SVP, Associate Publisher and Executive Director of Marketing at Doubleday Broadway, has left the company after more than three decades (beginning at Doubleday). She may be reached at jme2@optonline.net.

As part of the Broadway Doubleday reorganization, Suzanne Herz has been promoted to Executive Director of Marketing, while continuing to serve as Publisher of her Flying Dolphin imprint. Marnie Cochran is going to Ballantine as Executive Editor. She had been at DaCapo.

Kathyrne Sagan has joined Pocket Books as Senior Editor. Most recently, she was online Executive Editor at Womansday.com and previously at Family Circle magazine. . . .

Mark Ouimet has joined Ingram Publisher Services as VP of Client Acquisitions, the title also held by Janet McDonald, and both report to Phil Ollila, SVP, Publisher Services of Ingram Book Group. Ouimet has most recently been the Associate Publisher and Director of Sales and Marketing at North Atlantic Books. Previously he was the EVP of Marketing at PGW. He will be located in the IPS office in Berkeley, California.

Founder Troy Williams is leaving Questia. Questia claims to be one of the 1000 websites in the US with over 350,000 paying customers in over 210 countries and territories to date and $12 million in sales last year. Tim Harris, Questia’s long-time COO, has taken over as CEO and is available at tharris@questia.com.

Jeannie Emanuel has moved from Adams Media to Candlewick as VP of Sales for the U.S. and Canada. She succeeds Jon Ackerman, who left earlier this year.

Tom Gesking is going to Scholastic Book Fairs as CFO. He was most recently at Disney Retail Stores in Europe, based in London and will be relocating to Orlando, Florida.

Blackwell Book Services has hired David Swords as the new VP of Sales and Marketing. Swords was previously at YBP Library Services, where he was VP of International Sales.

Mark McVeigh has joined S&S’s Aladdin as Editorial Director, reporting to Ellen Krieger. McVeigh has worked since 2004 at Dutton Books for Young Readers.

Siobhan Ciminera will be joining Simon Scribbles as Senior Editor. Ciminera comes from Grosset & Dunlap/Penguin, where she edited titles for a variety of properties, including Franny’s Feet, Littlest Pet Shop, and Nancy Drew.

Also at S&S, Terri Harker was appointed Director, Children’s Sales, DSRM (Distributor Sales and Retail Marketing), overseeing the mass merchandise club and major supermarket sectors. Previously, she was Director of Sales, Wholesale and Mass Merchants at S&S Canada. She reports to Anne Zafian.

PROMOTIONS

Following Steve Ross’s departure, Tina Constable was appointed VP and Publisher of Crown. She has relinquished responsibilities as Executive Director and a successor will be found. Marketing Director Philip Patrick was named VP and Publisher of Three Rivers Press and Publisher of Ebooks and Digital Content for the Crown Publishing Group. He continues as Director of Marketing.

Peter McCarthy was named Director, Direct-to-Consumer Sales & Operations, Random House, Inc. He succeeds Amanda Close, who has joined the RH Sales Group as VP Director, Adult Online Sales. Meanwhile, Peter Kay has left the company.

Marty Shamus is retiring as SVP Business Dev. from Sterling, on July 31. Carlo De Vito has been promoted to VP Editorial Director, including the Hearst imprint, puzzles and games. Philip Turner has been promoted to VP Editorial Direct for non-illustrated titles. Michael Fragnito will take on illustrated categories.

Talia Ross has been promoted to Library Marketing Director, adult trade, at Holtzbrinck. She joined the company in 2004. . . . At FSG Janine O’Malley has been promoted to Senior Editor.

Susan Batcheller has been promoted to Executive Director of sales operations at Candlewick. She has been with the company six years, most recently as Director of Sales Administration.. . . . Bethany Buck has been promoted to VP and Associate Publisher of Simon Pulse.

Bruce Nichols has been named Executive Editor at Free Press. Wylie O’Sullivan has been promoted to Editor.

Jared Kieling, Editorial Director of Bloomberg Press has been named Publisher. Mary Ann McGuigan goes from Executive Editor to Editorial Director.

Katherine Beitner has been promoted to Director, Publicity for the Harper imprint. Gideon Weil has been promoted to Executive Editor of HarperOne. Rachel Bressler is the new Associate Publisher for the Ecco imprint. She had been the Barnes & Noble National Accounts Manager for Ecco, along with the Harper, HarperOne, Amistad and Harper Perennial imprints. Amy Baker has been promoted to Marketing Director for Harper Perennial.

At Rodale, Beth Lamb has been promoted to Senior Marketing Director for trade books.

JULY EVENTS

On Thursday, July 12 / 6:30 p.m. Mad. Sq. Reads, The Madison Square Park Conservancy’s free readings series, offers Humor, with Roy Blount Jr. reading from Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South and Cathleen Schine reading The New Yorkers. The July 19 event focuses on sports, and July 26 is devoted to Patrons and Philanthropists, with the doubleheader of Frances Kiernan and Martin Duberman. For details go to www.madisonsquarepark.org.

The Bookseller sponsors Closer to Consumers, its first full-day conference this year which takes place on July 12 at the Royal Society of Arts, and “has been planned in collaboration with some of the world’s most influential commentators on consumer behaviour and retail trends.” Presentations will cover the new shape of people’s leisure time, economic trends, and an analysis of book sales patterns from a wider consumer perspective. Go to http://www.thebookseller.com/seminars.html.

IN MEMORIAM

Jan Nathan, Executive Director of PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association (http://www.pma-online.org/) since its beginning in 1983, died on June 17 after a year-long battle with cancer. She was 68. PMA now represents 4,200 book, audio and video publishers.

Susan Reich is re-joining PGW where she had worked as VP Marketing from 1990 to 1995, in the role of President. Most recently she served as the President and COO of Avalon Publishing Group, one of PGW’s clients. She reports to David Steinberger. Reporting directly to Reich are Kevin Votel, Eric Kettunen, Roaxanne Schwartz, Sean Shoemaker and Kim Wylie (who will also have a dotted line reporting relationship to Matty Goldberg). In an unrelated announcement, Charlie Winton’s new publishing venture, Winton, Shoemaker & Co., LLC has acquired Soft Skull Press. The company will be renamed Counterpoint, LLC when the Soft Skull and previously announced acquisition of Counterpoint close in June. Soft Skull’s Publisher Richard Nash will be an Executive Editor at Counterpoint and Editorial Director of the Soft Skull imprint. Nash will be based in New York City. Meanwhile, Trish Hoard, Co-founder and Associate Publisher of Shoemaker & Hoard which was acquired by the group earlier this year, will now join SkyHorse Publishing as Managing Editor.

Peter Clifton, currently President & CEO of Ingram Periodicals Inc, International, Ingram Library Services, and Tennessee Book Company and Senior VP of Ingram Book Group, is leaving the company at the end of June. He can be reached at 615-424-4645 (cell), or 615-352-8038. His email address after June 30 is pclif@comcast.net.

HarperCollins has appointed Brenda Bowen to the newly created position of VP Publisher of a yet to be named imprint at HC Children’s Books. Bowen will report to President and Publisher Susan Katz.

Brian Belfiglio has joined Hilsinger-Mendelson East as Publicity Director. Most recently he was Marketing Director at Workman.

Although Hachette’s U.K.-based Octopus Publishing Group has acquired selected assets of MQ Publications, MQP Founder and Publisher Zaro Weil, who owns the MQP name and logo, plans to move to MQP’s New York office. Carol Judy Leslie, a former Publisher of Bulfinch Press, will join her at MQP USA.

Among the 280 people made redundant at Bookspan after Bertelsmann took over and merged it into its BMG division (see PT April, May 2007), is Christine Zikas (christinezikas@ yahoo.com), Executive Editor of Madison Park Press. Prior to joining Bookspan, Zikas was a Senior Editor at Berkley.

Rebecca Oliver has joined Endeavor’s New York book division as a literary agent. She will oversee foreign and domestic subsidiary rights and work alongside Richard Abate. Oliver had been at Grand Central as Associate Director of Subsidiary Rights. . . . Emmanuelle Alspaugh has joined Wendy Sherman Associates as an agent. She was previously at The Creative Culture.

With the departure of Co-founder, Editor and Publisher, Shay Totten for Chelsea Green, The Vermont Guardian announced it had published its last edition.

Carol Roeder has been named Director of Publishing at Lucas Licensing. Previously she was VP, Consumer Products for VIZ Media, and prior to that she worked for S&S Children’s Publishing. . . Meanwhile Heidi North has accepted the position of Art Director for Simon Scribbles. She worked most recently at Sterling Publishing.

At Entertainment Rights, Deborah Dugan will have overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of the U.S. operations (including Canada), which encompasses Entertainment Rights U.S., Classic Media and Big Idea. Dugan was most recently at Disney.

Del Rey has hired Liz Scheier as Senior Editor. She was previously at NAL/Penguin. . . . . Holtzbrinck has hired Jaime Ariza as VP, Special Markets. He was most recently Director of Custom Publishing at S&S.

Simon Dessain, COO of Publishing Technology (formerly known as Vista) and former CEO of Ingenta, has announced his departure from the company, following the merger of the two companies earlier this year.

Mark Eastment has been named Publications Director at the V&A in London. He was Director of Sales and marketing for Antique Collectors’ Club in the UK and before that held a similar position with the Tate Gallery.

Zondervan announced its president and CEO, Doug Lockhart, has stepped down from his position effective June 1, 2007. Former long-time president and CEO, Bruce Ryskamp, who retired from Zondervan in 2005 but has remained in a consulting role, will return to serve as interim president and CEO.

Avalon Publicity Director Karen Auerbach is leaving at the end of June but will continue to freelance for Perseus through the end of the year. She can be reached at karenruthauerbach@ gmail.com.

Gary Krebs has joined Globe Pequot as Group Publisher, responsible for editorial functions across all imprints. He was brought in by former Adams Media colleague Scott Watrous.

Kathy Kiernan has left Black Dog & Leventhal. Judy Courtade recently went to BD&L as Sales Director. . . . Scott Haidle has joined Creative Publishing International as National Account Sales Manager in the home improvement channel.

Nicole Bond, previously at Random House, has been named Associate Director, Foreign Rights for Grand Central Publishing.

Liz Van Doren who left Harcourt during its recent cutbacks may now be reached at LEETS215@aol.com.

PROMOTIONS

Brian Murray has been promoted to the newly created position of President of HarperCollins Worldwide. In this new role he will work closely with Jane Friedman “identifying and directing the company’s worldwide growth.” Also at HarperCollins, Emily Takoudes, who came from S&S in May 2005, has been promoted to Senior Editor. She has edited for Ecco. Jennifer Brehl announced that Diana Gill has been promoted to Executive Editor for the Eos and William Morrow imprints. Christine Boyd, Director of Marketing for Harper, has been promoted to VP Marketing.

Sonny Mehta announced that Andrew Miller, Senior Editor at Vintage/Anchor, has been named Senior Editor at Knopf.

Tim Ditlow is giving up his position as VP and Publisher of Listening Library to become VP and publisher at large for Random House Audio Group, reporting to Madeline McIntosh. Amy Metsch has been promoted to the new role of Editorial Director for the Random House Audio Group.

At Free Press, Heidi Metcalfe has been promoted to Publicity Manager.

At S&S Children’s Brooke Linder has moved to Little Simon as Editor. Kimberly Lauber has been promoted to Marketing Associate, Education & Library. Greg Stadnyk has been promoted to Associate Art Director. Orli Zuravicky has been promoted to the position of Editor, Simon Spotlight.
Ashley Gordon at Lightning Source, Inc. will take on the role of Director of Channel Development, moving on from various positions in executive sales.
And at St. Martin’s, Nancy Trypuc has been promoted to Senior Director of Creative Services. Previously, she was Director of Advertising and Promotion.

JUNE EVENTS

The National Book Critics Circle has two events at BEA: Friday, June 1 in Room 1E06 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. “Ethics in Book Reviewing: The More Things Change…?” Carlin Romano moderates Christopher Hitchens, John Leonard, Francine Prose, Sam Tanenhaus, and David Ulin. On June 3 in Room 1E11 10:00 -11:00: “The Crisis in American Book Pages; Newspaper book reviews are in a state of change. Where are we going? Where have we been?” Also check out http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/

DULY NOTED

Bloomsbury announces the launch of Bloomsbury Press, whose first list debuts in January 2008. Peter Ginna (who was previously at OUP), is its Publisher and Editorial Director, and its mission is to publish “the best serious nonfiction being written today.”
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The Small Press Center launched its new name and logo: “Our new name more accurately describes who we are,” said Lloyd J. Jassin, Chair of the New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP) Executive Committee. Karin Taylor remains as Executive Director. Go to www. Nycip.org for details. Phone, fax and email will remain the same.

ON THE MOVE

As a result of WRC Media parent company’s acquisition of The Reader’s Digest Association, Weekly Reader and its sister companies have been merged into Reader’s Digest and its offices will be located at 1 Reader’s Digest Road, Pleasantville, NY 10570. . . . Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) has moved to 370 Lexington Ave. (between 40th and41st) Suite 900 New York, NY 10017. . . . Disney Publishing Worldwide is moving to White Plains. The publishing division, currently in offices at 114 Fifth Avenue in New York, is relocating 175 of the division’s 225 employees to the new location. Twenty editorial staffers from Disney Press, Hyperion Books for Children and Disney Editions will remain in Manhattan relocating to a “midtown location near Grand Central.” The move is scheduled to get underway in October and be completed by December. . . . Archipelago Books has moved to 232 Third Ave. #A111, Brooklyn NY 11215. The phone and fax will remain the same, Phone: (718) 852-6134, Fax: (718) 852-6135. .

Sales was where the action was this past month, with big changes at Random House, S&S, Abrams and elsewhere. Mary Wowk, Director of World Wide Sales at Black Dog & Leventhal, has been appointed VP, Sales of HNA, which includes Abrams, STC and distributed lines. In a separate announcement, Katrina Weidknecht has been appointed Executive Director of Publicity for HNA. She was formerly Senior Director of Public Relations at Rodale.

David Rosen, former VP, Editor-in-Chief of Bookspan‘s Community Clubs, and most recently at Abrams, becomes Editor-in-Chief of Progressive Book Club (PBC), a new online book-club service to be launched later in the year. Contact: drosen@progressivebookclub.com. Also moving to PCB is Michelle Berger, another Bookspan alum.

Robert Baensch, who has long been involved in NYU’s publishing program, announced his retirement. Andrea Chambers continues as Director of both the MS and non-degree programs.

Editorial exits from Rodale include: Mariska van Alst, who is staying home after maternity leave, and Amy Super, who is moving to Pittsburgh.

Lisa Levinson has been appointed to the newly created position of Sales and Marketing Director for Time Out Guides, overseeing North America and Latin America. She was previously at S&S, most recently as Director of National Accounts. She can be reached at lisal@timeoutny.com. Time Out Guides are distributed by PGW. And speaking of S&S, Simon & Schuster Children’s, Justin Chanda has been named Associate Publisher, replacing Elizabeth Law and reporting to Rubin Pfeffer.

Julie Christopher has been hired as Associate Director of Marketing, for S&S Children’s, moving from Harper Children’s. Meanwhile, Mark von Bargen, National Accounts for children’s books at S&S has left the company. He may be reached at vonbarm@comcast.net. Lynn Smith, also previously at S&S Children’s, has joined Scholastic as Director of Licensed Publishing, reporting to Ellie Berger, SVP and Publisher. Corinne Van Natta has joined Scholastic as Director of Mass Market and Special Sales, reporting to Alan Smagler, VP of Sales. She too was previously Director of Mass Market Children’s Sales for S&S.

Also moving to Scholastic are Nisha Chakravarty, as Director of Finance, reporting to David M. Ascher VP, Finance. She was previously at Time Inc. Kathleen Rose has joined Scholastic as Marketing Coordinator, reporting to Lizette Serrano. She was previously at the Nielsen Media Company.

Ex-RH Dave Delano has moved to Toppan America’s New York sales office as an account executive. He can be reached at 212-489-7740 x514.

Luisa Weiss is leaving Bettina Schrewe to become a cookbook editor at STC. Anna Cory-Watson is leaving Franklin & Siegal for Harvey Klinger, where she will be building her own list.

Courier has hired Chris Kuppig in the new position of VP of Business Development, Publishing. He has spent the past 10 years as President of management consulting firm Stone Studio.

At Random House: Don Weisberg has left, where he was EVP and COO. Deputy Chairman Edward Volini was appointed to the additional corporate position COO, overseeing the RH Sales Group and Random House of Canada, as well as Financial, Legal, Administrative, and Human Resources areas.

Now reporting to Volini from the Sales Group are Jaci Updike, VP, Director, RH Adult Sales; Joan DeMayo, SVP, Director, RH Children’s Sales; George Fisher, VP, Director, Adult Mass Merchandise Sales; John Bohman, VP, Director, Sales Operations and Planning; Reed Boyd, VP, Director, International, Special Markets and Sales Services; and Dave Thompson, VP, Director, Sales Analysis. His new direct reports from RH of Canada are Brad Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer, and John Neale, Chairman.

Current VP and publisher of RH Reference and Value Publishing Sheryl Stebbins will be leaving the RH Information Group at the end of June.

Sales marketing manager Susan Hettleman will be responsible for RH Value Publishing, and publisher of Princeton Review and Living Language, Tom Russell, will take over the running of RH Reference. RH Proprietary Publishing will be led by Doubleday Broadway VP, sales director Janet Cooke. Kathy Weiss is leaving RH International.

iUniverse, has hired Kathryn Gordon as Director of Author Marketing, responsible for designing and launching a new business unit dedicated to providing marketing services to iUniverse authors. Most recently, Gordon founded The Book Hook, a company that provides freelance marketing services for authors and publishers. She was previously Editorial Director of S&S Online.

Editorial exits from Rodale include Mariska van Alst and Amy Super.

Gotham Senior Editor Erin Moore has relocated to London as her husband takes a new position there, though she will continue to edit and acquire for the imprint.

Dan Verdick, formerly Director of National Accounts and e-commerce at MBI is moving to ABDO as Director of Marketing.

Steve Quinn, formerly BGI Account Manager at Adams Media, has moved to Phaidon to head special sales.

Stephen Roxburgh has been named publisher of Boyds Mills Press, the trade publishing division of Highlights for Children, effective immediately.

Janet Palfreyman has been named Publisher of Allen & Unwin. She was Publisher at RH Australia and left the company in 2006.

Maureen O’Neal, who left ReganBooks last month, may be reached by email at mrnoneal@aol.com or by phone at 310-601-6235.

PROMOTIONS

At Rizzoli, Pam Sommers has been promoted to Executive Director of Publicity. Gerard Nudo, formerly Rizzoli bookstore manager, has joined the publishing side of the business as Sales and Marketing Manager, distribution clients.

Kim Wylie, who has been Director of PGW client sales, will remain in that position following its acquisition by Perseus.

ICM has promoted Sloan Harris to co-head of publications. Harris will share that title with Esther Newberg. Binky Urban, previous co-head, will focus on running the agency’s international book business, especially the London office.

Janet McDonald has been named VP of Client Acquisitions for Ingram Publisher Services. She joined Ingram in 1999 as VP and GM of Spring Arbor Distributors.

At HC, Josh Marwell promoted Kathy Smith to SVP, Sales Administration.
Alexandra Cooper has been promoted to editor at S&S Books for Young Readers; and Jordan Brown, to Associate Editor.

At Scholastic, Anne Henderson has been promoted to Director, Business Planning. She was previously Director, Planning and Analysis. Adrienne Vaughan has been promoted to Senior Manager, Pre-Publication Planning. She was previously Manager, Frontlist Planning. Yanira Castro has been promoted to Manager, Frontlist Planning. She was previously Sales Analyst.

At RH Children’s, Chris Angelilli has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Golden Books.

SVP and Publisher David Dunham announced the promotion of Joel Miller to VP Publisher for the Business and Culture book group at Thomas Nelson.

At Llewellyn, Bill Krause has been promoted to Publisher and Acquisitions Manager.

MARCH EVENTS

As part of the celebration of Small Press Month, New Press publisher Andre Schiffrin will appear at the Small Press Center on March 15 at 7 pm to discuss his new memoir, A political Education (Melville House), in a “public conversation” hosted by former NYTBR Editor John Leonard. Small Press Month is launching its first annual National Small Press Month Reading Marathon, to take place on Friday, March 16, 2007, from 6:00-11:00 PM, at Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction, located at 34 Avenue A in New York. Presses include: Soft Skull Press, Akashic Books, City Lights, Litmus Press, and Seven Stories Press. For more information visit www.smallpressmonth.org, and click on the “events” section, or call the Small Press Center, at 212-764-7021.

DULY NOTED
The Frankfurt Book Fair is inviting young publishers from around the world to apply for its Frankfurt Fellowship Program, under which 18 people spend two weeks in Germany visiting key publishing cities. The program takes place September 29 – October 14 and ends with attendance at the fair, October 10-14. The deadline is April 30. For further info email: wolffdecarrasco@book-fair.com

Bookseller+Publisher‘s Weekly Book Newsletter reports that Australia and New Zealand both have new, dedicated online bookselling sites with the launch of TheNile.com.au and TheNile.co.nz. “The Nile aims to provide Australian and New Zealand consumers with domestic alternatives to Amazon,” Director Jethro Marks tells WBN. ‘Amazon may be considered the world leader in online bookselling, but they’re 10,000 miles away and do nothing for the local trade. We estimate that overseas sites may be taking hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales out of the local industry every year.” Next up: LaSeine.fr?
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Congrats to former publishers Bill Rosen and Juliet Nicolson for earning starred Kirkus reviews for their debut books, respectively, Justinian’s Flea and The Perfect Summer.

Beth Davey has gone to Rodale as VP Director of Public Relations. She was at Inkwell Management and before that, at Little, Brown. Andrew Malkin has left Ingram International to return to NY and Rodale, where he will be VP, Trade Book Sales, working closely with Holtzbrinck as their distribution client. And, Leigh Haber takes on a new imprint, Modern Times.

Also in sales, Stacey Ashton has gone to Reader’s Digest as VP of Sales & Marketing working for Harold Clarke. She had run the New York office of MQ Publications. Jon Ackerman has been named National Accounts Manager for Adams Media. He was VP of Sales at Candlewick. . . . Mary Beth Thomas will be joining HarperCollins in the position of VP, Director of Client Services reporting to Josh Marwell, and overseeing the day-to-day sales relationship with distribution clients. She had been at S&S. PW reports that Stephanie Fierman, SVP of Sales & Marketing at DC Comics, has left the company. She had been at Zagat previously.

Tim McGuire, gone to Norton, heading its production and manufacturing operations. Most recently he has consulted, and was previously VP of Production & Manufacturing at S&S.

Melanie Fleishman has taken a new position at Symphony Space as Business Development Manager, working with the Selected Shorts Series. Most recently she managed 192 Books.

Kendra Poster is leaving FSG after fifteen “wonderful years,” to join Workman Publishing as Director of Foreign Rights, reporting to Director of International Publishing, Kristina Peterson.

Colleen Lindsay has been hired at Abrams (HNA Publishing) as Director of Marketing Operations. She was briefly at Soho Press as Publicity Director; prior to that she ran her own consultancy (Independent Marketing Consultancy). Maggie Kneip is leaving Abrams and will be available for consulting (mkneip@optonline.net, 917.846.4010).

David Arcara has left Random House Custom Media to become General Manager of Imaginova Corp., which owns numerous websites including space.com.
Peter Alfini has been hired as Director of Sales at Sourcebooks. He was the President of Dogs in Hats Children’s Publishing. Tom Galvin joins the company as a National Accounts Manager for Borders. He was at HCI, and Marty Wronkiewicz has been hired as National Accounts Manager in the mass market and gift segment. She was at Avalanche.

The Trident Media Group has hired veteran book publisher Dan Harvey to the newly created spot of Director of Marketing. Harvey had most recently been SVP and Publishing Director of the Putnam Publishing Group. Meanwhile, at Penguin, Laureen Rowland has resigned as Publisher of Hudson Street Press, and Luke Dempsey has been named Editor-in-Chief. He comes from Crown where he was Senior Editor. And Mitch Hoffman has left Dutton to move to Warner Books as an Executive Editor. Senior Editor Ben Sevier who had just moved to Touchstone Fireside from St. Martin’s will take his place. Moving to Plume as Senior Editor is Cherise Davis who was also at T/F. Meanwhile, Sulay Hernandez who came from Kensington is now an Editor at T/F.

The Sobol Awards disappeared, and with it several positions, including those held by Kate Travers (katemtravers@ gmail.com) and Brigitte Weeks (brigittew@ aol.com). Sue Pollock had left earlier and may be reached at pollocksue@aol.com.
HarperCollins announced the closing of its Regan office in LA as of March 1 and an interim logo, HC, will appear on all books published through summer ‘07. Cal Morgan and several senior members of the LA office including Executve ME/Senior Editor (and his wife) Cassie Jones; Marketing Director Gregg Sullivan and Senior AD Richard Ljoenes, return to the HC NY office. Suzanne Wickham stays on as Publicity Director based in LA. Maureen O’Neal has left the company.

Jerome Kramer has left the Book Standard where he was MD of VNU’s now Nielsen’s US Literary Group (jerome_kramer@mac.com).

Bethanne Patrick, Editor of Books Channel was laid-off from AOL, and is now contributing editor at PW while looking for a full time position. She may be reached at TheReadingWriter@aol.com.

Don Linn has left Consortium and may be reached at 651.468.9038 or don@donaldlinn.com.

Mark Fortier has left Goldberg McDuffie to launch Fortier Public Relations which will specialize in business authors. He can be reached at mark@fortier.com.

Tracy Brown has left his association with Wendy Sherman to form his own agency (tracy@brownlit.com).

Paula Duffy has announced that she will leave University of Chicago Press – where she is Director overseeing books, journals and distribution – at the end of this academic year. She has been at the Press since 2000 and was previously Publisher of Free Press. A formal search for a new director will commence in early 2007.

Brooke O’Donnell has been named Publishing Director of Trafalgar Square
Publishing (TSP). She will work with TSP publishers to develop their U.S. lists and will coordinate sales strategies with IPG staff. Jeff Palicki has joined IPG from Sourcebooks, as Trade Sales Manager. Meanwhile, Oren Silverstein has been named Business Development Executive with Getty Images, working on the publishing end, with S&S, Norton, and B&N as some of his accounts. He had been at Proe & Proe until Trafalgar Square’s sale to IPG. He may be reached at OSilver@optonline.net. At Scholastic‘s trade publishing division, Jessica Schein joins the company as Senior Marketing Manager for paperbacks and Cartwheel. She came from S&S Children’s. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Law, Associate Publisher of S&S Children’s, will leave the company at the end of March “to pursue other opportunities in publishing,” but will continue to serve as a consultant on “a number of her on-going projects.” Rubin Pfeffer will take over day-to-day responsibility for the imprint until a successor is named.

Beau Friedlander and Constance Creed are the most recent departures from Chelsea Green.

Ingram Library Services announced the appointment of Joseph P. Reynolds as VP General Manager of the company. Reynolds, who reports to Peter Clifton, was most recently President of J.P. Reynolds & Assocs. Chooseco, publishers of Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA), announced the appointment of Jason Geller to the position of National Sales Director. Geller comes from America’s Test Kitchen where he led the book division for the past five years.

Michael Burkin has gone to Mochila as Director of New Business Development.

PROMOTIONS

At WRC Neal Goff will become President of School Publishing. In this role, he will be responsible for managing Weekly Reader and Gareth Stevens Publishing. He also assumes responsibility for World Almanac Education.

Patricia Kelly has been promoted to VP, Sales at Ten Speed where she went last year as head of Specialty, Educational and Mass Merchandise sales. She had been at NBN.

Steve Tager has assumed the role of Publisher for Abrams. He was VP Sales & Marketing.

Elizabeth Hayes has been promoted from Publicity Director at S&S to VP Director of Publicity at Scribner.

Bob Spizer has been named Group Director, Domestic Rights for HC. Michele Corallo has been promoted to Director, Domestic Rights. At Harper SanFrancisco, Associate Publisher Claudia Boutote and Editorial Director Mickey Maudlin have been promoted to VP.

Stephanie Kloss has been promoted to Director of Advertising at Knopf.

At Scholastic Taline Najarian has been promoted to Associate Director, Special Sales. She was previously National Account Manager. Caren Elias has been promoted to associate marketing manager, paperbacks.

At Little, Brown, Liz Nagle has been promoted to Senior Editor, Heather Rizzo is now Executive Publicity Director, Heather Fain has become director of publicity. Michelle Aielli is Assistant Director.

Diane Gedymin, Editorial Director at iUniverse, has been promoted to VP.

Marian Lizzi has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief at Perigee, reporting to Perigee/HP/Prentice Hall Press Publisher John Duff.

At RH Children’s, Jennifer Arena has been promoted to Executive Editor; Diane Landolf has been promoted to editor. At Ballantine, Charlotte Herscher has been promoted to Senior Editor.

At Berkley/NAL‘s Ace and Roc science fiction lines, Ginjer Buchanan has been promoted to Editor in Chief.

At Harcourt, Michelle Blankenship has been promoted to Publicity Director taking over for Jennifer Gilmore.

DULY NOTED

The Books for Better Life Awards will take place on February 26 with Meredith Vieira once again MCing. For more information, contact jpowers@msnyc.org.

Word is that Fred Ciporen is actually “quite heavily involved” in a new version of The Book Standard, which will more closely resember a U.S. version of The Bookseller. Both are owned by Nielsen. Meanwhile, more changes afoot at PW online TBA.

Congratulations to Peter Mayer and Overlook on its 35th anniversary!

IN MEMORIAM

Rodney Friedman, Founder of Rebus Publishing, died on January 1st, after a long fight with cancer.

HarperCollins announced Justin Loeber has been appointed SVP, Executive Director of Marketing and Publicity for Regan Media, beginning on January 3, 2006, and reporting to Judith Regan. He was VP and Director of Publicity at S&S for Atria Books and Washington Square Press. PR Director Paul Crichton recently left. Atria’s VP, Deputy Publisher, Karen Mender is also leaving at the end of the year to explore new avenues of interest. She may be reached at 212.879.2928 or kmender1@nyc.rr.com

Michelle Lewy has been named Director of Trade Sales at Globe Pequot. She was most recently at Spier NY and previously VP of Sales and Marketing for the Mass Market division at Scholastic. Michelle Patterson has been hired as Director of Marketing. She had been at Random House and Wiley.

Louise Burke has named Anthony Ziccardi as VP, Deputy Publisher of Pocket Books, replacing Liate Stehlik, who went to Avon as SVP Publisher. He was SVP Director of Sales and Marketing for the Random House Publishing Group. Following Stehlik’s move, Darlene DeLillo has left Avon, where she was Associate Publisher.

Brian Belfiglio has been named Marketing Director at Workman. He was Publicity Director at Crown. Yuji Takeda has been named CEO of Random House Kodansha, effective January 1, 2006. He was Managing Director of the Tuttle-Mori Agency and succeeds Yoshitaka Kenno.

Donna Passannante, Director of Author Promotions at B&N, has joined Random House as Director of Marketing for the Crown Publishing Group. She was at B&N sixteen years. Karen Patterson, also a veteran, left recently for Random to become VP, Director of Sales. In her new position she will be primarily responsible for the Barnes & Noble account.

David Rosen joins The Martinière Group as VP, Editorial Director for Abrams and Abrams Image, effective December 12. In this newly created position, he takes over the day-to-day management of the Abrams adult editorial group and is responsible for the shape and scope of the adult publishing list. Rosen was at Bookspan.

Public Affairs Publicity Director Gene Taft has left for Washington DC and may be reached, appropriately, at GeneTaftDC@aol.com.

In children’s publishing, Andrea Davis Pinkney joined Scholastic as VP, Publisher, Hardcover and Early Childhood; Pinkney was most recently VP, Publisher, Houghton Mifflin. Catherine Daly has joined as Editorial Director, Paperbacks, reporting to Craig Walker, who was recently promoted to SVP. . . HarperCollins Children’s Books has hired Sandee Roston as VP Executive Director of Publicity. Roston came from Avalon Publishing where she served as Associate Publisher.. . . Disney Publishing his hired former Miramax executive Lola Bubbosh for the cross-divisional position of executive editor, publishing and film … Karen Sargent has been named Executive Editor, Simon Spotlight. She begins her new position on December 1, 2005. Sargent comes to S&S from Sesame Workshop. Orly Sigal has joined S&S as Marketing Manager, Simon Spotlight Entertainment and Teen Paperbacks. She was previously at Atria Books.

Michelle Howry has joined Time Warner’s new lifestyle imprint Springboard Press — targeted to baby boomers in search of a high-quality lifestyle, self-satisfaction, reinvention of self and career and ways to look and feel younger — as senior editor. She was a senior editor at Perigee. . . . Central Park Media (CPM) has appointed Ali T. Kokmen as Director of Book Sales. Kokmen was formerly the Sales and Marketing Manager for HarperCollins’ Collins Design imprint. Prior to that, he served as Marketing Manager for Watson-Guptill.

Dana Adkins has joined the Santana-Tatsuuma Media International Literary Agency. She has over 30 years experience as a book editor at Viking Penguin, Houghton Mifflin, and Reader’s Digest.

At Adams Media, Jeanne Emanuel has been hired as executive director of sales, overseeing sales into the trade, wholesale, and specialty retail channels. She was Director of Business Development at Workman. Jennifer Kushnier has joined as single title Acquisitions Editor. She was at Rodale.

Plume Publicity Director Brant Janeway has left Penguin and Executive Editor Joe Blades is leaving Ballantine.

At Henry Holt, Sarah Knight has joined the company as Editor, adult trade. She was at Scribner. . . . At Thunder’s Mouth, Anita Diggs joined the company in mid-November as Senior Editor. Her most recent editorial position was at Ballantine’s One World Books, and she was an agent at The Literary Group.

Laurele Riipa, has moved to Rodale as Publishing Coordinator in the book division, reporting to VP Publisher, Liz Perl. Previously she was Managing Editor, Announcements at PW.

Peter Jovanovich, a Republican (and previously CEO of Pearson Education) lost his bid for Rye City Council in the November 8 elections.

PROMOTIONS

Sharyn Rosenblum has been promoted to Senior Director of Media Relations for William Morrow. She joined William Morrow 11 years ago.

Molly Stern has been promoted to Executive Editor of Viking Penguin. Earlier this summer, Stern was promoted to mother of Zachary Stern Mandel (father is Jay Mandel of the William Morris Agency) born on July 17.

Keith Wallman has been promoted from Associate Editor to Editor, Carroll & Graf.

Globe Pequot’s senior publicist Jane Reilly has been named publicity manager.

Sonali Fry has been promoted to Editorial Director, Little Simon and Little Simon Inspirations. She was formerly Executive Editor, Simon Spotlight. Julia Richardson has been promoted to Editorial Director, Paperback Books. Jen Klonsky has been promoted to Executive Editor, Paperback Books. Emily Fischer has been promoted to Senior Editor, Simon Spotlight. She was formerly Editor.

DECEMBER EVENTS

Meanwhile, the Eighteenth Independent and Small Press Book Fair will take place December 3-4 at The Small Press Center, 20 West 44 Street. There will be workshops, panels, and readings. Publishers can still register to exhibit. For information email info@smallpress.org or go to www. smallpress.org.

DULY NOTED

The Small Press Center’s 20th Anniversary Celebration and Benefit took place on November 30th . This year’s recipient of the Ben Award was given to Peter Workman, by Steve Riggio. CBS’s Mario Bosquez was the evening’s host.

Books for a Better Life announced its finalists on Nov. 30 (www.msnyc.org) and highlighted the list of those to be honored st its February 27 gala. At this tenth annual event Jane Brody, Larry Kirshbaum, Teri Garr, Suze Orman and Rodale will all be honored. Meredith Vieira will once again emcee and USA Today has signed on as a partner.

Also celebrating its tenth year, Borders announced the nominees for its 2005 Original Voices Awards on November 29. The awards will be announced on January 19. In addition to a $5,000 prize and a ceremony during the 2006 BookExpo America convention, the winners’ works will be prominently displayed in the more than 470 Borders Books and Music stores nationwide, with a mention in Borders This Month, the monthly shopping guide, which will offer a 20% discount the month the titles are featured.

And from The Colbert Report With Stephen Colbert:
“NASCAR has entered into a licensing agreement allowing Harlequin to publish steamy novels with racing themes, with titles like Into The Groove and Dangerous Curves. “This is a terrible idea. NASCAR is one of the final frontiers of male bonding, where the love of speed and horrible car accidents draws men together to drink beer and high-five. Hey Harlequin, we don’t drive racecars through your wildflower meadows. Don’t put Fabio in our firesuits.”

MAZEL TOV

Jane Dystel announced the healthy arrival of partner Miriam Goderich‘s baby, Henry James Farkas, born November 9 at 8:41 AM, weighing 6 pounds, 14 ounces.

IN MEMORIAM

There will be a memorial service for literary agent Fifi Oscard, who died on November 12, on Friday, December 9th at 4:00 at the Cosmopolitan Club. Donations may be made to the Mercantile Library, 17 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017.

Betsy Groban has been named VP Publisher of Children’s Books at Houghton Mifflin. She had previously been at WGBH and prior to that, at Little, Brown. Earlier this month Linda Magram was promoted to the new position of Director of Marketing for the entire children’s book group, adding responsibilities for such imprints as Kingfisher and Clarion. And Joe Monti, B&N‘s buyer for Young Readers and Teens joined HM as Children’s National Account Manager.

Oxford University Press announced that EVP, COO Barbara Wasserman, VP Publisher Ellen Chodosh (echodosh@nyc.rr.com) and VP Chief Sales Officer Michael Burkin (mburkin@nyc.rr.com) are leaving the company, following a restructuring that puts academic and trade under Niko Pfund. A new department responsible for all sales and marketing activities in OUP USA excluding Higher Ed) will be created, and a new Sales and Marketing Director appointed, according to the announcement.

Weldon Owen Publishing, newly acquired by Bonnier Publishing, has appointed Christopher Davis, formerly Publisher at Dorling Kindersley, as its Publisher-at-Large to help grow its international co-edition business.

In the AMS musical chairs, Gary Rautenstrauch has been named President and CEO, replacing Bruce Myers, who left last month. He was replaced as CEO at Blackwell by Susan Peterson, who was most recently running her own firm, Strategic Team Partners, and previously Baker & Taylor and Lightning Source.

Following Tami Booth‘s resignation from Rodale Books, and VP Publisher Liz Perl‘s assumption of her duties, Perl has also been given oversight of the international trade books and rights business. President of Rodale International, Gianni Crespi, has left the company.

Jennifer Griffin has left Workman, where she was Executive Editor, for a position as a literary agent at the Miller Agency. . . . Elisa Petrini joins InkWell Management after two years at Vigliano Associates.

Karen Mender has joined the group working with the Quills Literacy Foundation and on this year’s Quill Awards. She was most recently at Atria.

Triumph Books, recently sold to Random House Group, will continue to be based in Chicago. Jeff Rogatz has been named President, reporting to Bill Takes, who was just promoted to SVP, Executive Director, Business Operations and New Business Development.

At Scholastic, Elizabeth Whiting joined the company at the beginning of the month as national account manager for Borders and Walden. She was at Perseus.

John Siciliano has been named Editor of Penguin Classics. He was an associate editor at Vintage/Anchor, where he also acquired classics for the Everyman’s Library. Elda Rotor was recently named Executive Editor of Penguin Classics. She had been most recently Senior Editor at Oxford University Press.

Barrie Rappaport has left Ipsos and is now Director of New Product Development – Consumer Data RR Bowker, LLC.

Michele Jacob has left Free Press to become Director of Publicity at Basic Books following Jamie Brickhouse‘s departure. Meanwhile, ex-VP, Assistant Publisher, and Director of Publicity at PublicAffairs, Gene Taft has relocated to Washington, DC and set up his own public relations firm, GT/PR. He may be reached at GeneTaftPR@aol.com.

Peg O’Donnell has left NBN, to go to Chelsea Green Publishing, as Sales Director. Beau Friedlander also recently joined Chelsea Green Publishing as Marketing Director. He was most recently at ReedBusiness.

Robb Pearlman has been hired in the position of Senior Editor, calendars, children’s books, and licensing at Rizzoli. Pearlman was Associate Director, licensing and brand management at S&S.

Earlier this month Hachette Book Group announced various moves: Jill Cohen left Bulfinch, where she had been Publisher. Bulfinch and Springboard are now part of HBGUSA; David Ford, Publisher of Little, Brown’s children’s division resigned “to follow his dream of returning to London.” Associate Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Megan Tingley has taken Ford’s position. Andrew Smith went to LB children’s from Candlewick, taking over from Bill Boedeker as VP of Marketing and Associate Publisher.

Following Scott Watrous‘s move to Globe Pequot as President and Publisher, he has named Michelle Lewy as VP Sales. Lewy had been acting Sales Director. Meanwhile Adams Media announced changes following Watrous’ departure: Sara Domville, President of the book division of F+W, named Gary Krebs, Karen Cooper and Jeanne Emanual to a three-person executive team.

Laurie Chittenden joined Morrow as Executive Editor, reporting to Lisa Gallagher. She was previously at Dutton.…Sarah McGrath was appointed VP and Executive Editor of Riverhead Books. She was Senior Editor at Scribner. Also leaving Scribner is Lisa Drew, who started her own imprint at Macmillan/ Scribner in 1993. She retires June 30.

Elissa Altman has resigned as Senior Editor at Clarkson Potter to focus on freelance food/gardening/lifestyle editing and writing. She can be reached after May 25th at ElissaAltman@gmail.com.

Gregg Sullivan has been appointed Director of Marketing and Promotions for ReganMedia/HarperCollins. Sullivan, who came from St. Martin’s, reports to Judith Regan. Suzanne Wickham of Wickham-Beaird Public Relations has taken the position of Director of Publicity, Los Angeles for ReganMedia, following the departure of Justin Loeber (who has taken a PR job out of publishing).

This BEA, marks Lance Fensterman’s debut as Show Manager. He had been the store manager at R.J. Julia Booksellers in New Canaan, CT and reports to Courtney Muller, Group VP at Reed Exhibitions.

Earlier this month Farrin Jacobs was named Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, working mostly on teen fiction for Elise Howard. She was most recently at Harlequin and is autographing her new book (with Sarah Mlynowski) See Jane Write at Quirk’s booth at BEA.

Also at HC, May Wuthrich has joined the HarperMedia group as Editor. Greg Chaput, formerly at HC, has joined SparkNotes as Editor, reporting to newly promoted Editor in Chief, Laurie Barnett.

Kara LaReau joined Scholastic as Executive Editor, Scholastic Press. Most recently, she was a Senior Editor at Candlewick Press. Stacey Lellos rejoined Scholastic as Director of Licensed Publishing, reporting to Ellie Berger, SVP, Trade. Julie Amitie has joined Scholastic as Director of Retail Marketing and Brand Management. Most recently, Amitie was Director of Marketing for S&S Children’s Publishing, At S&S Children’s Mark Von Bargen was hired as Director of National Accounts. He had previously been Director of Merchandising for children’s books at Baker & Taylor. David Carroll also has joined S&S as Director, Distributor Sales and Retail Marketing, reporting to Anne Zafian. Most recently he was VP of Sales at Media Bay‘s Radio Spirits division. . . . Carol Lazare has been named Director of Subsidiary Rights at Other Press, working part-time. She was previously Director of Subsidiary Rights for Doubleday/Broadway.

PROMOTIONS

New Press has promoted Ellen Mastromonaco Adler to Publisher, and Mark Favreau to Editorial Director.

With John Glusman ensconced at Crown, Eric Chinski has now officially been named as the new editor-in-chief at Farrar, Straus. He has been an executive editor there since 2003.

Kathryn Court announced the promotion of Ali Bothwell Mancini to Editor for Penguin and Plume. She reports to Stephen Morrison.

Cecily Kaiser is moving from Scholastic Book Clubs to Scholastic Trade Publishing, effective May 15th, to become Executive Editor for Cartwheel Books and the Licensed Publishing Group, reporting to Ken Geist, Vice President, Editorial Director, Cartwheel Books and Orchard Books.

Many HC promotions: Adrienne DiPietro has been promoted to VP, Director of Marketing Avon Books. Carolyn Bodkin has returned to HC as Manager of Foreign Rights, reporting to Juliette Shapland. Rachel Bressler has moved from Morrow to National Accounts Manager for the Harper, Ecco, San Francisco, Amistad and Perennial imprints selling to B&N. Lynn Grady has been promoted to from Marketing Director to VP, Associate Publisher for the HarperEntertainment, Eos and Morrow Cookbooks lists. Jill Schwartzman has been promoted to Editor. She was previously Associate Editor, Michael McKenzie has been promoted to Director of Publicity of Ecco. Tracey Menzies has been promoted to VP, Creative Operations. Marjorie Braman has moved over to Morrow, acquiring for Morrow and Harper Entertainment and reporting to Lisa Gallagher.

Sue Fleming-Holland has been promoted to VP, Executive Director Consumer and On Line Marketing at S&S. She was VP, Marketing Director. At Scribner, Brant Rumble has been promoted to senior editor.

JUNE EVENTS

June 15th is the postmark deadline for Entry Form for the 2006 National Book Awards. Go to www. nationalbook.org for more information.

DULY NOTED

More than 135 million adults visited American public libraries last year, and students made 1.5 billion visits to school libraries during the school year, according to the first-ever “State of America’s Libraries” report from the ALA, released during National Library Week.

Among other findings: Almost 90% of Americans surveyed in a poll report are satisfied with their public libraries. Some 62% of adult Americans have library cards, and circulation of public library materials has climbed every year since 1990.