As summer wanes, change remains the constant: Former Simon & Schuster President of Sales and Distribution Larry Norton has joined Borders as SVP, Merchandising and Distribution, reporting to EVP Anne Kubek. Norton will lead the merchandising team and will work out of his Connecticut home. Earlier it was announced that Dave Marsico has been named VP, Midwest at Borders. He had been Market Director at online discounter Meijer. John Melnick has been named VP, Northeast. He had been Zone VP at Michael’s Stores. Mike Steele has been named VP, West Coast. He had been Director, Store Operations.

Longtime Baker & Taylor sales executive Bill Preston, SVP for retail and international, has left the company. He may be reached at wpreston1311 [at] aol.com.

CEO of Reed Business Information USA Tad Smith has joined Cablevision as President of Local Media, a new division that will organize local media and programming assets under one business unit, reporting to COO Tom Rutledge.

Jim Joseph has officially been named President and Publisher of Globe Pequot Press after serving as interim President following the departure of Scott Watrous, and previously as COO. Lawrence Dorfman has also been promoted to VP, Sales. He was Executive Director of National Accounts. Following the departures of Michelle Lewy and John Groton last month, Gene Brissie, erstwhile EIC of Lyons Press, has returned to his own literary agency, James Peter Associates, and may be reached at gene_brissie [at] msn.com. A search has begun for an Editorial Director.Andy Ward, Executive Editor of GQ Magazine, has accepted the position of VP, Executive Editor of the Random House imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, reporting to Susan Kamil, RH Editor-in-Chief/Editorial Director of Dial.

Yulia Borodyanskaya, who left Kaplan earlier this summer, has gone to McGraw-Hill as International Rights Director in the Higher Ed division.

After a brief hiatus, Julie Bennett is rejoining Ten Speed Press as Editorial Director, reporting to Publisher Aaron Wehner. She previously worked for the publisher for nine years. Dawn Yanagihara joins the company as Senior Editor. She worked in a number of roles at Cook’s Illustrated and was most recently Senior Editor at Weldon Owen.

Lauren Weidner has been named Associate Sales Manager, Latin America/ Caribbean at Simon & Schuster. She comes from HarperCollins, where she was International Coordinator. Meanwhile, Jessica Wiener has been named Marketing Director for HarperStudio. She was with Hyperion. She replaces Sarah Burningham, who has left the company to concentrate on her writing and launch her freelance PR, marketing, and branding firm, Little Bird.

Jacqueline Murphy has been named in-house Subsidiary Rights Director at FinePrint Literary Management. She had been Executive Audio Editor at HarperCollins. Laura Wood, previously Associate Publisher of Council Oak Books, and Ward Calhoun, Senior Editor at Hylas Publishing, have also joined the agency.

Teresa Fogarty has been named a partner in the Los Angeles–based BookstoFilm.tv. Fogarty was most recently Marketing and Publicity Manager for IBPA (formerly PMA). She joins Rocky Lang, as well as the newly arrived Scott Barker.

PEN American Center, the largest branch of International PEN, announced the appointment of Steven L. Isenberg as Executive Director. For the past six years, Isenberg was a Visiting Professor of Humanities at the University of Texas (Austin). Isenberg succeeds Michael Roberts, who resigned in June after 11 years, to pursue a new career interest.

Mark Greenberg, Editor-in-Chief of Getty Publications, has left the museum, which has begun a search for his successor.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Kristin Fassler has been named Deputy Director, Marketing Department, Ballantine and Bantam/Dell, reporting to Sanyu Dillon. Fassler joined RH in 2004. Carolyn Schwartz has been appointed VP, Director of Ad/ Promo, reporting to Stacey Witcraft. She was Deputy Director of Creative Marketing at Bantam. Jennifer Smith will return to Ballantine as Editor, reporting to Libby McGuire. Smith began her publishing career at ICM in 2003 and came to RH in 2007 as Associate Editor.

At S&S, Tracy Nelson has been named National Account Manager for Barnes & Noble. She was responsible for selling and marketing the entire adult list to bn.com and will also continue to sell and market e-books on bn.com. Additionally, Christine Weag has been promoted to Associate National Account Manager. She joined the company in 2008. Megan Noyes has been named Manager of Digital Operations, Supply Chain at S&S. She had been Database Operations Analyst. Bill Kinneman has been named Director of Business Intelligence, Supply Chain. He had been Associate Director of Business Analysis. Veronica Lee has been named Sales Manager, International Sales. She had been Regional Associate Manager, Asia Pacific.

At Holt, Helen Atsma has been promoted to Senior Editor. She moved from Little, Brown in 2007 as an editor.

DULY NOTED

For over a decade, publishing houses have been a mainstay of Everybody Wins!, a literacy and mentoring organization. Power Lunch, EW!’s flagship program, pairs volunteers from local businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations with students in nearby public elementary schools for weekly lunchtime reading and conversation. EW! currently partners with four publishing houses: RH, McGraw-Hill, Penguin USA, and Scholastic. They are seeking new partners in publishing who can offer volunteers, book donations, in-school author events, and other language arts–related activities. Interested parties should contact Tom Schroeder: tschroeder [at] everybodywinsNY.org or (212) 965-2291.

HarperCollins is publishing invisible I, the highly anticipated first book in The Amanda Project series, at the end of September, to tie in with the just-launched website. (PW starred review here.) T.A.P. is the brainchild of Fourth Story Media’s Lisa Holton, who created the multiplatform media company after leaving Scholastic, where she was President of Trade Publishing and Book Fairs.

The search for Michael Healy’s successor as Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group is underway. Send nominations and applications in strict confidence to search consultant Angela Henry at BISGedsearch2009 [at] gmail.com.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Kassia Krozser of Booksquare.com and agents Jenny Bent and Richard Curtis are some of the featured speakers at the annual Writers Digest conference, September 18–20 at NYC’s Marriott Marquis.

The New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP) will present “The Next Chapter in Publishing” October 2 at its headquarters (20 W. 44th St.). Speakers will include Jeff Rivera of GalleyCat, Chris Kenneally from the Copyright Clearance Center, Mark Coker of Smashwords, and Fran Toolan of Netgalley.

A is for Antitrust, B is for Book, C is for Copyright, and D is for Digitize: A Conference on the Google Book Search Lawsuit will be held at New York Law School, 57 Worth St., October 8–10, 2009. Academics and practitioners will examine the settlement through the lenses of copyright, civil procedure, antitrust, the publishing industry, information policy, and literary culture. The conference is timed to coincide with the rescheduled fairness hearing in the Google Book Search case, which will be held October 7. E-mail infolaw [at] nyls.edu for more information.

The Goddard Riverside Community Center’s Gala will honor Josh Marwell, HarperCollins President of Sales, on October 26 at the Loeb Boathouse.

CLMP’s annual fundraising Spelling Bee will take place October 26 at Diane von Furstenberg’s studio. Spellers include Michael Cunningham, Jonathan Burnham, and Francine Prose.

Broadway’s Editor-in-Chief Stacy Creamer will join Simon & Schuster as VP and Publisher of Touchstone Fireside, reporting to Free Press Publisher Martha Levin. The two lines “will have independently functioning editorial and publishing staffs,” according to the announcement….Current T/F Publisher Mark Gompertz takes on the new role of EVP, Digital Publishing. He and Ellie Hirschhorn, EVP, Chief Digital Officer, who was hired last year, both report to CEO Carolyn Reidy.

There have reportedly been a number of layoffs at Phaidon in the US and UK, including Executive Managing Editor Nancy Grubb.

Gretchen Koss and Meghan Walker have announced the formation of their company, Tandem Literary, a full-service firm that combines all aspects of book marketing with PR under one umbrella. The two worked together at Random House until late 2008, Koss as the Director of Publicity for Spiegel & Grau (the principals of which endorse their former employees on the Tandem website), and Walker as Spiegel & Grau’s Director of Marketing.

Michael Healy, Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), will also reportedly head the Book Rights Registry, if the proposed settlement of the Google lawsuit is eventually accepted.  Before coming to the U.S. in 2006, Healy was Director of Nielsen Book Services in the UK.

Lorna Owen has joined Other Press as Senior Editor. She was at Nan A. Talese/Doubleday for eight years.

John Mendelson will join Candlewick Press in mid-May as SVP, Sales and Digital Initiatives. He is currently Director of Trade Sales at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where he has worked for more than a decade in a variety of sales positions.

As reported in the New York Observer, following the merger of the William Morris and Endeavor agencies, Richard Abate’s literary department appears to be the first casualty. In other agency news, Writers House has set up a small London operation. Writers House UK will be under the direction of Angharad Kowal, who joined the agency in 2008 following eight years with S&S, most recently as Rights Director for the Children’s Division, as well as for Simon Spotlight Entertainment….Kirsten Neuhaus has started her own eponymous literary agency. She was most recently an agent and foreign rights manager at Vigliano Associates. Michael Harriot was also at Vigliano, where he represented his own clients and co-agented deals with David Vigliano, and has now joined Sanford J. Greenburger Associates as an agent.

Liza Pulitzer Voges has opened her own literary agency, Eden Street LLC. She will represent authors and illustrators of children’s books, and can be reached at lvoges [at] edenstlit.com. Voges was with Kirchoff Wohlberg for 25 years. The website is not yet operational.

Kathy Warren has been named National Accounts Manager at Dover Publications, which is owned by Courier. Warren previously worked for Sellers Publications in Portland, ME. According to Publishers Lunch, Courier took a non-cash $15.6 million charge related to performance at Dover, representing 100% of Dover’s goodwill.

Lloyd Jassin resigned as chairman of the New York Center for Independent Publishing executive committee, citing differences between his vision for NYCIP and that of the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen. NYCIP Executive Director Karin Taylor was laid off in February. The NYCIP is being overseen by interim director Leah Schnelbach.

Matthew Lore has launched The Experiment, LLC, a new trade publishing company focused on practical nonfiction. The company publishes its inaugural list this fall, with six books. Lore is joined by Peter Burri as general partner. The Experiment’s adviser and principal investor is Richard Gallen, who has been a co-founder or investor in more than a dozen companies, including Tor.

Sarah Reidy has joined Pocket Books as Associate Director of Publicity. She was at Soho Press, where she was Director for the past two years. Justin Hargett has rejoined Soho as the new Director of Publicity, after working at Ohio University Press, Other Press, and Oxford University Press.

Feminist Press Editorial Director Amy Scholder has hired Jeanann Pannasch as new Managing Editor. She was Managing Editor for Spin and Ms. magazines. Drew Stevens, who has produced titles for Knopf, Chanticleer, Scholastic, Sterling, Chronicle, and Random House, has been hired as Production & Design Manager. Newly hired Administrative Manager Deonne Kahler was a business consultant and is a blogger and freelance writer. Publicity Manager Rachael Rakes was Marketing Director at AK Press.

S&S Children’s announced that Sy Sumg has joined the children’s subsidiary rights group as Assistant Manager. He was at Random House.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

David Levithan has been promoted to VP, Editorial Director for Scholastic Trade Publishing. He had been Executive Editorial Director for Scholastic Press fiction, multimedia publishing, and PUSH.

Random House Publishing Group’s Sanyu Dillon announced that in addition to her current role as VP, Director of Marketing for the Bantam/Dell imprints, Carolyn Schwartz will now also oversee the marketing efforts for Ballantine, with the title of VP, Director of Marketing, Ballantine/Bantam/Dell.

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Josh Harwood has been promoted to National Sales Director in the NYC office, replacing John Mendelson, who has gone to Candlewick (see above). He was a sales rep covering New York and New England. Beth Ineson has been promoted to Director of Field Sales and Distribution Clients. She was previously a distribution client manager.

Oren Teicher, COO of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), has been named CEO, replacing Avin Domnitz, who is retiring. Separately, ABA announced that Books Inc.’s Michael Tucker is up for election as President of ABA in June.

DULY NOTED

Agent Ira Silverberg has negotiated an imprint, to be called Igniter, within Carrie Kania’s new HarperCollins imprint, It. Igniter will be managed by Silverberg’s client Neil Strauss and co-editor/publisher Anthony Bozza and will focus “on the margins of pop culture.” The first title will appear this fall.

comScore, Inc. released the results of a study of vertical ad networks, which target ads to specific audiences online according to demographic or category content. The study showed that the collective reach of such networks has increased from 21.5% of the total U.S. internet audience in March 2008 to 57.1% in March 2009. The most popular categories were gaming, entertainment, community, news/information, and health.

Publishers Weekly’s list of publishing’s unemployed continues to grow and includes many familiar names. Though only loosely alphabetized, it is a good resource.

The Stanford Publishing Courses for Professionals announces the first “Amazon ’09 Innovation Scholarship,” awarded to “a book or magazine publisher who has demonstrated particular innovation either in using new technologies to deliver content or in developing new business models to sustain and promote publishing in a digital age.” The Scholarship covers full tuition, lodging, and travel costs for one publishing professional to attend the course. The deadline is May 15.

UPCOMING EVENTS

PEN’s World Voices Festival finishes May 3 with “Henry Hudson 400 Years: Amsterdam and New York City,” featuring Ian Buruma, Geert Mak, and Russell Shorto talking about the influences of Holland on New York, and vice versa.

New York City’s New School is hosting a series of forums on writing for children, hosted by editor Deborah Brodie. The next forum takes place May 5 from 6:30–7:30 p.m. and features Leonard S. Marcus, book critic and children’s book historian. Tickets cost $5 and can be ordered from the New School by calling (212) 229-5488.

The French-American Foundation’s Translation Prizes will take place on Tuesday, May 26 at 6 PM at the Century Association (7 W. 43rd St.).

In the Random House reorganization, which moved Bantam to RHPG, Irwyn Applebaum has left, as has Bantam Dell Group SVP, Director of Creative Marketing, Betsy Hulsebosch. She may be reached at (914) 772-1022. Barb Burg, SVP Executive Director Publicity and PR, will also be leaving, after 24 years, on January 30. She may be reached at barbburg [at] gmail.com. Meanwhile, reportedly a total of over 40 (out of about 120) people have left Doubleday and Broadway, including Nicole Dewey in publicity and Becky Cole in editorial.

Claire Tisne, who was RH Sub Rights Director under Gina Centrello, is leaving, as is Sharon Swados from the Bantam Dell Sub Rights group; their duties will be taken over by Rebecca Gardner, who had been with Doubleday. Gardner, who reports to Sonny Mehta, heads the sub rights department that includes Lisa George from Bantam, Rachel Kind from Ballantine, and Joelle Dieu from Little Random.

A note of cheer comes from the announcement that Susan Kamil has accepted the position of SVP and EIC of the RH imprint of RHPG while continuing as Editorial Director of the Dial Press. She will be in charge of the Random House Editorial department and SVP Editorial Director Jennifer Hershey now reports to her. Kate Medina, EVP, Executive Editorial Director, and Associate Publisher of Random House, and Bob Loomis, EVP and Executive Editor, continue to report to Centrello.

Herb Schaffner has left McGraw-Hill Professional, where he was Publisher of Business and Finance, and may be reached at schaffnerh [at] gmail.com.

Many changes in children’s publishing: Rick Richter and Rubin Pfeffer have left S&S Children’s; earlier Ginny Seo had resigned from S&S Children’s. Meanwhile, Mary McGrath has joined as Director of DSRM, Children’s Sales, reporting to Mary Marotta. She had been at Random House for 17 years and was most recently Director of Sales, adult mass merchandise.

Bill Boedeker has left Chronicle, where he was Publishing Director, Children’s Books.

Kathy Dawson joined Penguin’s Dial BYR in the new position of Associate Publisher, reporting to Lauri Hornik. Dawson was formerly Editorial Director at Harcourt Children’s.

At Holt, President and Publisher Dan Farley will oversee the new Macmillan Children’s Group as well. Jean Feiwel and Simon Boughton have been both appointed SVP Publishing Directors of the group, with Feiwel running Feiwel and Friends, Square Fish, Priddy Books, and Holt BYR, and Boughton running FSG BYR, Roaring Brook Press, and First Second. Michael Eisenberg, co-publisher of FSG BYR, has left the company, as have Melanie Kroupas and her imprint.

FSG Sub Rights Director Michael Hathaway has left, as the rights department is being merged with Holt’s under Denise Cronin, and their production team will be integrated into a much larger central unit. Among those cut out of the editorial department are Associate Publisher Linda Rosenberg, who oversaw both the classics line and the paperback operation, and Senior Editor Denise Oswald, who started at the company as an assistant.

Selina Cicogna Meere has left Crown to become Associate Director of Publicity at Workman.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt SVP and Publisher of Adult Trade Becky Saletan has resigned. There was no further comment beyond confirmation from the company.

Erin Canning has joined Quirk Packaging as Editor. She was previously senior sales analyst at Random House.

Craig Virden, a former President and Publisher of RH BYR, will officially join his wife at the Nancy Gallt Literary Agency as of January 1. Virden will spend most of his time in the “back office” business of contracts and royalties.

Melanie Donovan has been named Senior Acquisitions Editor at Recorded Books. She had been Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books.

Former Rodale Books President Tami Booth Corwin has joined SparkPeople.com (part of Steve Case’s Revolution Health Network) as EVP of Publishing and Content, just as the company has struck its first book deal with Hay House.

Agent Elise Proulx notes that her new job will be Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for the eScholarship Publishing Group at the California Digital Library, University of California.

Lori Burke has moved over from DK to Penguin YRG in the dual role of Director of Licensing for Grosset & Dunlap/PSS and US Brand Manager for Warne, managing the merchandise relationship with licensing agents Chorion and Wildflower. She had been Director of Marketing for DK Children’s Books and Licensing.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Dan Halpern announced that Rachel Bressler, Associate Publisher of Ecco, has been named Vice President.

At Tor, Phyllis Azar has moved up from ad/promo Director to Executive Director of Marketing; Patty Garcia from Associate Director of Publicity to Director of Publicity; Brian Vaughan from Marketing Manager to Director of Publishing Operations; Joseph Bendel from Assistant Sales/Marketing Manager to Manager of Publishing Operations; and Jennifer Kaufler from Marketing Coordinator to Marketing Manager.

At RH Audio, Rebecca Waugh has been promoted to senior acquisitions editor for Listening Library.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Two NBCC events in 2009: On January 24 at 7 p.m. at the Housing Works Bookstore Café, announcers Sam Anderson (winner of the 2007 Balakian Award), Bill Henderson of Pushcart Press, Mary Jo Bang (winner of the 2007 Poetry award), Harriet Washington (winner of the 2007 nonfiction award), Alex Ross (winner of the 2007 criticism award), and others will announce the NBCC Awards finalists. The event will be hosted by NBCC President Jane Ciabattari. The night before, also at Housing Works, there will be a Poetry in Translation panel, “Has the U.S. Lost Touch with World Literature?” For more information, go to www.bookcritics.org.

The 4th Annual San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Writers’ Conference & Literary Festival takes place from February 20 to 22, 2009. For more information, go to www.sanmiguelauthors.com and www.sanmiguelworkshops.com.

The American Book Producers Association BookBuilding 2.0 seminar has been rescheduled for March 10, 2009 from 9 a.m. 6 p.m. at The Players. The morning session will focus on the essentials of developing and producing books, and the afternoon will feature two panels: “The Internet and Electronic Publishing,” moderated by Carolyn Pittis of HarperCollins, and “What’s Next?: Trends in Publishing,” moderated by Barbara Marcus of Penguin Young Readers Group. For more information, e-mail office [at] abpaonline.org.

Hachette Book Group has hired Kenneth Michaels as Chief Operating Officer. He succeeds Beth Ford, who left in September, and will join the company on January 5. He was most recently SVP of Global Business Process Management for the McGraw-Hill Companies.

Marie Coolman will join Hyperion as Executive Director of Publicity, taking over the position recently vacated by Beth Gebhard, who left to relocate to LA to work for the new Oprah Winfrey Network. Coolman had been Director of Publicity and Marketing for Hudson Street Press, and was previously West Coast Director of Publicity at Random House….Tina Andreadis announced that Kate Blum joins HarperCollins Publicity as Associate Director. She spent her eight-year career at Random House….Samantha Choy joins the Crown publicity department as Senior Publicist. She comes from W. W. Norton.

Lots of changes internationally: Quercus CEO Mark Smith announced that Anthony Cheetham has relinquished his role as Executive Chairman after two years, becoming Non-Executive Chairman immediately. The announcement comes in the wake of former Macmillan MD David North’s appointment as Managing Director….Michael Moynahan has been named HarperCollins’s new CEO for Australia and New Zealand. Moynahan was MD, Random House India, and chairman, Random House New Zealand.

Webster Younce has joined Henry Holt as a Senior Editor, reporting to Editor-in-Chief Marjorie Braman. He was most recently Senior Editor at Houghton Mifflin.

In children’s books: Corinne Helman will become VP of Digital Publishing and Business Development for HarperCollins Children’s Books. She was most recently VP Business Development at Scholastic. Sarah Shumway has joined the Katherine Tegen Books imprint at Harper Children’s as Senior Editor, acquiring primarily middle-grade and YA fiction. She had been at Dutton Children’s….Namrata Tripathi will join Atheneum Children’s as Executive Editor. She was most recently Senior Editor at Hyperion Children’s. Additionally, Associate Editor Lisa Cheng will move from Margaret K. McEldery to Atheneum, reporting to Tripathi….Greg Ferguson, formerly of HarperCollins Children’s Books, will join Egmont USA as Editor, reporting to Publisher Elizabeth Law. Nico Medina joined as Managing Editor. Most recently, he was Production Editor at Viking Children’s and Puffin.

Camille March has been appointed to the position of Editor at Black Dog & Leventhal, reporting to Elizabeth Van Doren. Most recently, March was at Weinstein Books as Associate Director of Publicity.

Carrie Thornton will move to Dutton on December 1 as Executive Editor. She was most recently Publishing Manager and Senior Editor at Crown/Three Rivers Press….Don Weise has been named Publisher of Alyson Books. He had been Senior Editor at Carroll & Graf….Matt Weiland has joined Ecco as a Senior Editor. He has been Deputy Editor of The Paris Review for the past two years and is the co-author of State by State (Ecco).

Langenscheidt has named Nel Yomtov as Executive Editor of Hammond, reporting to Langenscheidt’s chief Sales and Marketing officer Michele Martin. Most recently, he was Editorial Director at the Rosen Publishing Group. He will also work on a new series for Langenscheidt.

Amanda Tobier has joined Little, Brown as Marketing Manager. She was most recently marketing director for Avery and Viking Studio.

Among the recent Rodale layoffs was Andrew R. Malkin, VP, Trade Book Sales. He may be reached at armalkin [at]  gmail.com.

Bookspan parent company Direct Brands announced that Senior Director of Communications Paula Batson has left the company to pursue other opportunities. She will continue to consult for them. Melinda Meals has taken her place.

Michael Schluter has been named Senior Director of Sales at Palgrave Macmillan. He was previously Director of Library Sales at Sage.

Laura Ross has joined Jill Grinberg Literary Management. Jenny Rappaport is leaving the L. Perkins Agency to start the Rappaport Agency. Lori Perkins will continue with her agency and has promoted Marsha Philitas to senior agent.

Betty Wong has been hired as an editor at Clarkson Potter’s Potter Craft. She was at Melcher Media.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Kim Hovey was named Associate Publisher of Random House Trade Paperbacks, reporting to Jane Von Mehren and continuing to report to Libby McGuire, Associate Publisher of Ballantine. Sanyu Dillon, as Director of Marketing, will now oversee the marketing/advertising/promotion efforts and staff for RHPG, continuing to report to Tom Perry, Deputy Publisher.

Elda Rotor has been promoted to Editorial Director at Penguin Classics. Rotor arrived at Penguin in 2006 from Oxford University Press.

Philip Patrick announced that Jay Sones has moved from Crown to Three Rivers Press as Marketing Manager, reporting to Donna Passannante. Kira Walton has been named Associate Marketing Director for Harmony and Shaye Areheart Books. Vicki Tomao has been named Advertising and Promotion Manager. She started as Patrick’s assistant in 2004. Jennifer Reierson has been named Senior Designer. She joined the company in 2000. Sarah Breivogel has been named Publicity Manager for Shaye Areheart Books and Selina Cicogna has been named Publicity Manager for Clarkson Potter.

Kevin Callahan has been promoted to Associate Director of Marketing at HarperCollins.

Michelle Brower has been promoted to Agent at Wendy Sherman Associates.

DULY NOTED
Nielsen BookScan announced that beginning in the first week of 2009, Hudson Group will join BookScan’s reporting panel. Hudson Group will report sales from their Hudson News and Hudson Booksellers locations in airports and train and bus terminals. Sales data will appear under the “retail” store strata.

UPCOMING EVENTS
The 21st Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair will take place at their headquarters on 20 W. 44th Street, New York, NY on December 6 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and December 7 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, go to http://www.nycip.org/bookfair.

Two NBCC events in 2009: On January 24 at 7 p.m. at the Housing Works Bookstore Café, announcers Sam Anderson (winner of the 2007 Balakian Award), Bill Henderson of Pushcart Press, Mary Jo Bang (winner of the 2007 Poetry award), Harriet Washington (winner of the 2007 nonfiction award), Alex Ross (winner of the 2007 criticism award), and others will announce the NBCC Awards finalists. The event will be hosted by NBCC President Jane Ciabattari. The night before, also at Housing Works, there will be a Poetry in Translation panel, “Has the U.S. Lost Touch with World Literature?” For more information, go to www.bookcritics.org.

The 4th Annual San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Writers’ Conference & Literary Festival takes place from February 20 to 22, 2009. For more information, go to www.sanmiguelauthors.com and www.sanmiguelworkshops.com.

The American Book Producers Association BookBuilding 2.0 seminar has been rescheduled for March 10, 2009 from 9 a.m. 6 p.m. at The Players. The morning session will focus on the essentials of developing and producing books, and the afternoon will feature two panels: “The Internet and Electronic Publishing,” moderated by Carolyn Pittis of HarperCollins, and “What’s Next?: Trends in Publishing,” moderated by Barbara Marcus of Penguin Young Readers Group. For more information, e-mail office at abpaonline dot org.

JUST FOR FUN

Webster’s New World® College Dictionary announced the top five candidates for the 2008 “Word of the Year,” which will be selected by editors and researchers at Webster’s and announced during a national radio satellite tour on December 1. The top candidates are overshare, leisure sickness, cyberchondriac, selective ignorance, and youthanasia. Vote at www.newworldword.com.

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.

Tracy Carns, who had been Publishing Director at The Overlook Press before going briefly to Reganbooks, has launched The Rookery Press, in association with Overlook (and in Overlook’s offices). For more information, email Tracy@therookerypress.com.

Sterling Publishing announced that Marisa Bulzone has joined the company as Editorial Director, Hearst Books. Bulzone was Executive Editor at Stewart, Tabori & Chang.

Harriet Bell is leaving HarperCollins November 16. She may be reached at harrietbell@verizon.net. Rakesh Satyal has moved to Harper as an editor reporting to Jonathan Burnham. He was an associate editor at Doubleday Broadway, working for Gerry Howard.

In sales, Greg Anastas, Director of Customer Operations is leaving S&S to join Perseus Publishing as VP of Sales Operations. . . . Jim Conlin is joining S & S as National Account Manager for Books for Young Readers and other imprints. He will share the selling responsibilities for B&N with Elena Blanco. Prior positions were at Disney Publishing Group, Scholastic, and thirteen years as a buyer at Borders. . . . Stephen Sussman has been named VP Sales for print products at LearningExpress. He was mostly recently at Barron’s. LearningExpress is distributed through PGW. . . . Kevin Hunt has taken a position at Sylvan Source as VP, Sales. He had been VP of Sales at Klutz, located in California. His email is khunt@sylvansource.com . . . . Peter Ackroyd has been named VP of Sales and Marketing at Quayside Publishing/Quarto. He reports to CEO Ken Fund, working out of the Gloucester, MA office.

John Oakes will be joining Atlas Books as Executive Editor, the position Jesse Cohen held until earlier this summer. (He may be reached at jesse.cohen5@verizon.net.) Oakes was most recently at Avalon, which had purchased the company he co-founded, Four Walls Eight Windows, in 2004.

John Fedor Publisher, Books at the American Diabetes Association, has gone to the Thomson Corporation in their Career and Professional division.

Following the sale of Trafalgar Square to IPG, Managing Director, Paul Feldstein will stay on till the end of the year and will continue to consult for them through June of next year from various points on both sides of the Atlantic while he ponders his next move.

Adam Korn has moved from Villard to Kensington, as an Editor. . . . Allison Dickens has moved to Plume as Senior Editor, acquiring for both trade paperback original and hard/soft with Dutton. She had been at Ballantine. . . . Dedi Felman has joined the S&S imprint as Senior Editor, reporting to Alice Mayhew. She had been at Oxford University Press for the past seven years, and is editor of Words without Borders, an online magazine for international literature in translation.

Kristen Giorgio has joined DK as Marketing Manager. She has been Marketing Manager for Scribner and Touchstone Fireside. . . . Ronnie Gramazio has joined Globe Pequot Press as Executive Editor for the Lyons Press imprint, relocating from Australia, where he worked at Wiley most recently.

Kathy Daneman has left her position as Publicity Director of Soho Press to become Publicity Manager at FSG. Colleen Lindsay has taken over her position at Soho. She has worked as an independent publicist and Assistant Director of Publicity at Ballantine.

Morgen Van Vorst has joined Public Affairs as an Editor. She had been at Norton.

Laura Pillar joins Goldberg McDuffie Communications as Associate Director on November 1. She was Publicity Manager at Doubleday.

PROMOTIONS

Richard Sarnoff, President of Random House’s Corporate Development Group and Random House Ventures LLC, has added responsibilities as head of Bertelsmann‘s newly established international venture capital fund, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments.

Lindsay Jones has been promoted to Editor at Public Affairs. She had been Associate Editor.

At Avery and Viking Studio, Lucia Watson has been promoted to Senior Editor and Jeff Galas is moving over from Dutton, continuing as Editor.

At S&S, Frank Nunez, currently Director of Financial Planning and Analysis in the S&S Children’s Division has been promoted to the position of Director of Customer Operations, previously held by Greg Anastas.

LATE OCTOBER EVENTS

The CLMP Spelling Bee – “A Better Bee,” is back on October 30 at Exit Art, 475 Tenth Avenue. MC: Bob Morris; Judge: Jesse Sheidlower. Spellers include Lev Grossman defending his crown; Alex Kuczynski, Patrick McGrath, Sara Nelson and many more. Go to www.clmp.org/invite for information.

NOVEMBER EVENTS

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses will host the first Literary Writers Conference at The New School in New York City (LWC/NYC) November 2 – 9. Attempting to go beyond “how to get an agent,” the conference is aimed at post-MFA fiction writers and poets, and brings together a who’s who of publishing pros (including Sonny Mehta, Morgan Entrekin and Jonathan Burnham) to help them navigate the marketplace effectively. For more info, visit: www.clmp.org/lwc.

The Thurber Prize for American Humor will be presented on Monday, November 6 at the Algonquin. Henry Alford, who won last year’s prize, will host the evening’s reception and ceremony. For further information email sjaffe@ thurberhouse.org.

Also on November 6, The Mercantile Library announces the John Sargent Sr. first novel prize, and honors Gary Fisketjon and Robert Coover at its awards dinner at the New York Racquet and Tennis Club. For information go to www.mercantilelibrary.org.

Barbara Lowenstein, ably abetted by many publishers and colleagues, has organized the Village Health Works Benefit on November 8 at 88 Crosby Street in SoHo, from 6-8. Donations help build and maintain a medical center in Burundi. Join Paul Farmer, Tracy Kidder and others, or send a check to The Hitchcock Foundation, c/o Barbara Lowenstein, 1025 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10028.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, NYU’s Master of Science in Publishing program presents How to Lead and Succeed in a Brave New Media World, moderated by NYT’s David Carr, with panelists Steve Murphy, Carolyn Reidy, Yahoo’s Daniel Rosenzweig and Conde Nast’s Tom Wallace. The event takes place Wednesday November 8 at 6:30 at the Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South. Space is tight, but if interested in attending, email Heidi.johnson@nyu.edu to check availability.

The 2006 National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner takes place on Wednesday, November 15 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. Fran Liebowitz is MC, Adrienne Rich is honored, and The New Yorker’s David Remnick will present the Literarian Award to Robert Silvers and, posthumously, Barbara Epstein, co-founders of The New York Review of Books. For information go to www.nationalbook.org.

The Small Press Center’s Annual Benefit and Cocktail Reception honors Alice Walker, on Friday, November 17, 2006, 6:00-8:00pm. Call 212.764.7021 or email or info@smallpress.org for information.

Meanwhile, the 19th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair will be held December 2nd & 3rd, at the Small Press Center. 3,000 to 4,000 attendees are expected, with over 100 independent presses taking part. Got to http://www.smallpress.org, for further information.

Peter Workman is the honoree at “An evening of Fond Tales and Gentle Roasts,” a benefit for Goddard Riverside. The gala takes place at Tavern on the Green on November 20. Call 212 873 4448 or email bookfair@goddard.org. The 20th Annual New York Book Fair takes place November 17-19.

DULY NOTED

Robert Stone, speaking at the Whiting Awards on October 25th: “Writing is not an indulgence; it’s a service.” On the same night, the publishing industry bade farewell to William Morris’ Owen Laster at the Four Seasons. Judy Blume, Suzanne Gluck, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and Dominick Dunne were among the speakers.

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.

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.