Steve Rubin, former Doubleday Broadway President and Publisher, who began at Bantam Books in 1984 and was most recently Random House Publisher-at-Large, has been named President and Publisher of Henry Holt, reporting to Macmillan CEO John Sargent. Dan Farley will now focus exclusively on his other job as President and Publisher of the recently formed Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, also reporting to Sargent.

Paul Von Drasek has been named Trade Sales Manager of Capstone Publishers. He was Executive Director of Sales at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Mikyla Bruder has been named Associate Publisher at Timber Press, which was acquired by Workman in 2006. She was previously Executive Editor in the Gift division at Chronicle. Meanwhile, Chronicle announced that former Ten Speed Press Publisher Lorena Jones has taken over as Publishing Director. Jones will begin a digital food and drink publishing program and oversee Chronicle’s food and drink list as a whole. She left Ten Speed in November 2008, prior to Random House’s acquisition of the company.

Former Pantheon Publishing Director Janice Goldklang has joined Globe Pequot Press as Executive Director of Editorial, responsible for all trade programs. Steve Culpepper has the same title and is responsible for the regional travel and outdoor recreation programs.

Crown Executive Editor Heather Jackson announced that, having “thoroughly enjoyed nearly two decades in publishing,” she has resigned in order to “create and produce content in other media, as well as keep a hand on a few editorial projects each year.”

Brendan Cahill has moved to Jane Friedman’s Open Road Integrated Media as VP Publisher. He had been a Senior Editor at Gotham before attending Wharton, where he received his MBA. Most recently, he was at Boston Consulting Group.

Nick Trautwein has been hired as Senior Editor at the New Yorker, succeeding Emily Eakin. He was an editor at the Penguin Press.

Will Pesce, President and CEO, and Steve Smith, EVP and COO, of John Wiley announced the retirement dates and successors for Steve Kippur, EVP and President, Professional/Trade (retirement date July 31, 2010; successor Mark Allin); Eric A. Swanson, SVP, Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly (retirement date October 31, 2010; successor Steven Miron); and Bonnie Lieberman, SVP & General Manager, Higher Education (retirement date April 30, 2011; successor Joseph S. Heider). Heider will be promoted to the role of VP and COO of global effective May 1, 2010 and will continue to report to Lieberman.

Andrews McMeel has hired Linda Jones as SVP of its calendar and greeting card and Accord Publishing divisions, reporting to CEO Hugh Andrews. Jones was SVP Merchandising at Borders.

Abrams has hired Veronica Wasserman as License and Brand Manager for Children’s and Amulet Books. Wasserman previously worked in the Penguin Children’s licensing department.

Diane Bailey is joining HarperCollins as SVP of Human Resources, replacing Jim Young, who left earlier in the year. She will oversee all Human Resources functions for HarperCollins worldwide and sit on the executive committee. She was most recently at Heineken USA.

George Bick has joined the Doug Grad Literary Agency as an Associate Agent. He was most recently SVP, Director of Sales and Associate Publisher at HarperCollins.

Mary Grey James, a former book buyer for Ingram, has joined East/West Literary Agency as a partner agent. James serves as VP and President-elect of the Women’s National Book Association.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Simon & Schuster EVP, Operations Dennis Eulau has also been named CFO. Eulau takes over from David England, who has resigned. The company has hired David Byrnes in the new position of VP, Finance and Strategic Planning, reporting to Eulau. Elsewhere at Simon & Schuster, Kerri Kolen and Sarah Hochman have been promoted to the position of Senior Editor.

Ben Sevier has been promoted to Executive Editor at Dutton.

Julie Will has been promoted to Executive Editor at Rodale.

John Freeman, former president of the National Book Critics Circle, has officially been appointed Editor of Granta. He was appointed Acting Editor in May after the departure of Alex Clark and will be based in New York and London. His book The Tyranny of Email was published by Scribner in October.

Alison Donalty has been promoted to Executive Art Director in HarperCollins’s Children’s division. She began at HarperCollins in 1994 as an Assistant Designer.

At Dial Press, Noah Eker has been promoted to Editor.

DULY NOTED

Beginning in March 2010, American Vampire, a comic from Vertigo (DC Comics), will be released each month, including two stories: one by short story writer Scott Snyder and the other by Stephen King. King will write about Skinner Sweet, a bank-robbing, murderous cowboy of the 1880s who becomes a new breed of vampire. Snyder’s half will tell the story of a vampire in America during the 1920s. Both stories will be drawn by Rafael Albuquerque, who will continue the series with Snyder after King’s story ends.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The first Self-Publishing Book Expo will be held Saturday, November 7. The press release quotes Bowker figures claiming that the number of books self-published in 2008 increased 132% over the prior year. With a total of 285,394 titles, on-demand publishing surpassed traditionally published books for the first time. The Expo will feature panels and over 25 exhibitors, including authors, self- publishers, and POD companies, and was created by Diane Mancher and Karen Mender.

The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction honors Gerry Howard and announces the recipient of the First Novel Prize on November 9.

“The Wall in Our Heads,” the 2009 Words Without Borders fundraiser, also takes place on November 9. The evening features readings from the group’s new anthology, The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain by Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, and Peter Schneider. You can buy tickets here.

“Reading in a Digital Age,” a panel discussion moderated by Bill Goldstein and featuring, among others, New York Magazine’s Adam Moss, the NYPL’s Ben Vershbow, and Fourth Story Media’s Lisa Holton, takes place November 11 at CUNY.

Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, has been named the 2009 winner of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The Workshop will hold a cocktail reception and gala dinner in Mehta’s honor on November 13, at At Vermilion. Mehta will receive the award from the Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The dinner marks the beginning of Page Turner: The Inaugural Asian American Literary Festival, a two-day event showcasing award-winning authors reading together at the powerHouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

The Independent Booksellers of New York City (IBNYC) unite to celebrate Independent Bookstore Week, “a citywide event highlighting the diverse cultural contributions made by indie bookshops across the five boroughs,” November 15–21. The week will kick off with a party at powerHouse Arena and will conclude on America Unchained Day. A special poster designed by New Yorker cartoonist Bruce McCall will be on display in participating shops and available for sale. The IBNYC is an alliance of booksellers working together to promote the cultural, literary and economic benefits of shopping at New York City’s over 60 independent bookstores.

Deb Futter has moved to Grand Central Publishing as VP, Editor-in-Chief. She was VP, Deputy Editorial Director at Doubleday. Michelle Rapkin has joined Hachette’s Center Street imprint as Executive Editor, reporting to Rolf Zettersten. She had been VP, Director of Doubleday Religion before leaving there in 2005. Amy Pierpont has been named Editorial Director at Forever and Senior Editor at Grand Central. She had been at Clarkson Potter.

Reed Boyd VP, Sales Director International and Special Sales, has left Random House but may still be reached at rboyd[at]randomhouse.com.

Daisy Kline has been named Director of Marketing and Brand Management at Scholastic Media. Ann Forstenzer has joined Scholastic as Director, Cross-Channel, reporting to Jazan Higgins, VP, Cross-Channel Strategy. She had been at Learning Resources. Chris Stengel has joined Scholastic as Associate Art Director.

Douglas Pocock, EVP Egmont USA, which will launch in January 2008, has hired Elizabeth Law as VP and Publisher. She was previously at Simon & Schuster. Egmont will be distributed by Random House.

Angela Bole is moving to John Wiley & Son’s Professional & Trade division as Events Manager. She was previously at BISG. She may be reached at angelabole[at]gmail.com. Karen Forster, previously at SPi Publishing, succeeds her.

Following Neil Bogaty’s desparture for Adobe, Michael Smith has been named Executive Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Prior to joining the IDPF Smith was at Harlequin Enterprises where he managed eBook and book production services.

Deb Brody has been named Executive Editor at Harlequin. She had been most recently at McGraw-Hill. . . . Furaha Norton has moved to The New Press as Editor. She was most recently an editor at Vintage/Anchor. Joseph Williams is the new CFO of The New Press. He previously held positions at The New York Times Company, the Reader’s Digest and McGraw-Hill.

After 21 years, Nancy Hall closed her business last summer but has reopened as The Book Shop, Ltd., offering full-service book development. Contact info@thebookshop ltd.com or 917-388-2493.

Kevin Hamric has been named VP Sales & Marketing for the Quayside Group. He was at The Taunton Press. Mike Hejny has left Motorbooks, which was recently acquired by Quayside.

Darcy Cohan has joined Chronicle Books as Director of Publicity. Cohan was most recently Publicity Manager for Avalon Publishing Group and, prior to that, ran her own publicity firm. She replaces Andrea Burnett who is returning to her own pr firm.

Judy Pray has moved to Clarkson Potter as an Editor. She was at Black Dog & Leventhal. . . . Ann Treistman has joined Skyhorse Publishing as Senior Editor. Most recently she was a freelancer at STC and Abrams Image.

Scott Lubeck has joined NewsStand as VP and General Manager of its newspaper and magazine digital publishing service division. He was most recently at Harvard Business School Publishing.

Alex Clark has been named Deputy Editor at Granta. She had been Deputy Literary Editor at the New York Observer.

Krupp Kommunications (K2) announces that Tiffany Alvarado has joined the agency as Senior Account Executive. She comes to the agency from Planned Television Arts.

PROMOTIONS

HarperCollins announced that Larry Nevins has been promoted to the newly created position of Chief Supply Chain Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Digital Operations. He joined the company in 2001 as SVP of Operations and Supply Chain and established the Digital Publishing Services department in 2005.

Sanyu Dillon, Associate Publisher and Director of Marketing at Random House, has been named VP.
Rachel Bender has been promoted to Director of Consumer Products at Scholastic. Abigail McAden has been promoted to Publishing Director, Paperbacks for Scholastic Paperbacks and Point. She was previously Editorial Director for Point. Cheryl Klein has been promoted to Senior Editor, Arthur A. Levine Books. She was previously Editor. AnnMarie Harris has been promoted to Senior Editor, Licensed Publishing. She was previously Editor.

Lizette Serrano has been promoted to Associate Director for Trade Conventions, Conferences, Events and Author Programs at Scholastic. She was previously Senior Manager. Barrie Reinhold has been promoted to Associate Manager of Sales and Marketing Operations. She was previously Assistant Manager.

Beryl Needham and Kathryn Popoff have both been promoted to VP, Merchandising, at Borders, reporting to EVP Merchandising and Marketing, Rob Gruen.

Michael Homler has been promoted to Editor at St. Martin’s, reporting to Charlie Spicer. . . . Erica Sanders-Foege has been promoted to Senior Editor, books at The Taunton Press. She had been Editor.
Laura Pillar has been promoted to Director of Publicity at Goldberg McDuffie. In addition to continuing to work on general non-fiction and fiction titles, she now heads up GMC’s Business Division.

Leslie Hulse has been named to the new role of VP, Digital Business Development at HarperCollins. Rachel Chou has been named to the position of VP, Online Product Development and Operations. Both report to Carolyn Pittis. And Mumtaz Mustafa has been promoted to Art Director of Avon Trade and Rayo. Milan Bozic has been promoted to Art Director of Harper Perennial and Harper paperbacks.
Michael Campbell has been named Director of Sales and Marketing at Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company. He was Corporate and Specialty Sales Manager and replaces Mike Jones who’s moving to Keen Communications, LLC.

Recorded Books announced the promotion of Scott Williams to President. He replaces David Berset, who has left the company “to pursue other interests.” Williams joined Recorded Books in 1992 as a Public Library Sales Representative.

Promotions at American Booksellers Association include: Jill Perlstein has been named Director of Member Services; Kristen Gilligan has been named Director of Meetings and Events; Mark Nichols has been promoted to Senior Director of Publishing Initiatives; Dan Cullen has been named Senior Director, Editorial Content; Meg Smith has been named Chief Marketing Officer; Len Vlahos has been named Chief Program Officer, and will continue to oversee BookSense.com.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The 20th Independent and Small Press Book Fair will take place on December 1-2 at the New York Center of Independent Publishing (NYCIP), at 20 West 44th Street. More than 100 presses from the U.S. and abroad will exhibit. For more information contact the NYCIP at 212-764-7021, visit www.nycip.org, or e-mail Christopher de la Torre at christopher[at]nycip.org.
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In conjunction with the Book Fair, the New York Center for Independent Publishing hosts its first Mini-Rights Fair on Friday, November 30th at 2pm. This event is designed to provide publishers with information regarding sub-rights and foreign rights sales. Activities include an educational panel and a keynote address from Pat Schroeder, President of the American Association of Publishers.
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On December 13 from 6-8 Peter Mayer and The Overlook Press will be honored at the NYCIP Annual Benefit. Ed Victor will present the Poor Richard Award and Sara Nelson will host. Please contact nycip@nycip.org for further information.
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Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Eat, Drink & Be Literary program starts again in January, with George Saunders talking on January 17, and Deborah Eisenberg on February 7th. For details go to: http://www.bam.org/ events/readings.aspx

DULY NOTED

What has briefly been called Direct Group North America will now be known as Bertelsmann Direct North America.
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A memorial service for Jane Pasanen will be Friday, November 30 at 3:00pm, at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street, New York City. Pasenen was founder of the Chelsea Forum.
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And from Workman comes The Bad President Countdown Calendar. It contains 488 days of quotes and quips that will make you laugh and/or cry right through January 20, 2009, when George W. Bush vacates the White House. If you’d like a free copy, send an email to James Wehrle (james[at]workman.com).