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.

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).

Andy Martin has left Sterling for St. Martin‘s and the Minotaur imprint where he will be VP, Publisher, reporting to SMP President Sally Richardson. Martin had been Publishing Director at Sterling.

Raquel Jaramillo, longtime VP Creative Director at Holt, is moving to Workman as Director of Children’s Books reporting to Susan Bolotin.

Peter Ginna has left OUP to join Bloomsbury as Publisher and Editorial Director of a new and as yet unnamed imprint. He starts at Bloomsbury in September.

Ann Binkley is returning to Borders Group (and Ann Arbor) as Director of Public Relations, a position she held until 2003 when she moved to New York to work for New York Is Book Country and subsequently Quills Foundation. Beryl Needham is leaving Random House to re-join Binkley at Borders as Director of National Events and Field Marketing. She is replacing Tracy Egan. Both Binkley and Needham will report to Michael Tam, Chief Marketing Officer.

HarperCollins announced that Jamie Brickhouse, recently at Basic Books, has been named Director, HarperCollins Speakers Bureau. He reports to Debbie Stier, SVP, Group Publicity Director. Julie Elmuccio, who is currently with the Speakers Bureau, has been promoted to Speakers Bureau Coordinator. Jennifer Sheridan will join HC as a sales Representative for the New York region, reporting to Jeanette Zwart. She worked for Bookazine and managed the Children’s Department for Unabridged Books in Chicago. Mary Albi has joined HarperCollins Children’s Books as Director of Marketing, reporting to Diane Naughton. Elizabeth Fithian has left the company. And Carrie Bachman (carriebachman@gmail.com) and Roberto De Vicq are leaving Harper in a reorganization of the cookbook area. Harriet Bell will go to a three-day work week.

ReganMedia, a division of HC, announced Elena DeCoste has been appointed VP of Television Development, reporting to Judith Regan. DeCoste, who comes from CAA, will be based in Los Angeles. . . . Justin Loeber has decided not to go with the PR company he originally planned on moving to after he left ReganMedia. He may be reached at just.emailme@earthlink.nt or 646 416 3046.

Rich Johnson, longtime VP for Trade Sales at DC Comics, is leaving the company. No details on his departure were given. He joined DC Comics in 1997. He may be reached at rjhnzn@yahoo.com.

Andrea Glickson‘s job at Stewart, Tabori, & Chang has been eliminated. She has left the company and may be reached at jimglicks@rcn.com. She was Director of Marketing.

Jesse Cohen has left Atlas Editions and may be reached at 212 888 1052 or jcohen@jamesatlasbooks.com. . . . Greg Constante has left Acanthus Press to move back to LA. He may be reached at gconstante@adelphia.net

Kevin Haas has been named VP of North American sales at Ryland, Peters and Small. He was with Quayside Publishing Group.

Jofie Ferrari-Adler has left Viking, where he was an editor. He may be reached at jofiefa@gmail.com

Daniel Moreton has joined Scholastic as Executive Art Director, Licensed Books and Cartwheel, reporting to David Saylor, VP, Creative Director. Most recently, Moreton was Creative Director for Nickelodeon’s Entertainment Products Group. He also is the illustrator of several children’s books. Paul Banks has joined Scholastic as Art Director, Licensed Books. Banks had been doing freelance art direction for Scholastic and for Macmillan/McGraw Hill and had previously been Global Design Manager for Disney Publishing Worldwide. He reports to Moreton.

Lucille Rettino has been named Director of Marketing SSE and Simon Pulse. Rettino came to S&S from Henry Holt, where she was Executive Director of Advertising and Promotion. Earlier Renee Fountain was named Licensing and Brand Manager for Children’s. She had been Harcourt.

Harry Kirchner National Accounts Director for PGW has joined the National Accounts team for Ingram Publisher Services.

And last, but certainly not least, Siobhan O’Leary, erstwhile Associate Director of Market Partners International, before moving to Berlin to study German, has been named Foreign Subsidiary Rights Associate at Crown, reporting to Karin Schulze.

PROMOTIONS

At HC, Andrea Pappenheimer has been promoted to the title of SVP, Sales and Associate Publisher of HC Children’s Books. Brian Grogan has been promoted to SVP, Sales for General Books. He formerly was SVP, Director of Distributor Sales. David Sweeney has been promoted to Senior Director, Mail Order, Retail and Wholesale. He joined Harper in 1996. Marie Hergenroeder has been promoted to Senior Director, Premium, Proprietary and Display Marketing. She joined Harper in 2000. Doug Menake has been named VP, Director of Inventory Management for the Adult Trade division. He recently took over management of the Overstock Sales initiative for the company. David Toberisky has been named VP, Director of Inventory Management for the Children’s division. He also participates in the Children’s Executive Committee. Diane Naughton announced the promotion of Cristina Gilbert, to Senior Director of Marketing at HC.

James Kimball was promoted to Vice President, Sales Director, Knopf Publishing Group, by Jaci Updike. He has been at Knopf since 1998. Ruth Liebmann has also been promoted to VP and named Director, Retail Field Marketing and Merchandising. She had been Director, Independent Bookselling.

Hilary Redmon has been named Editor of Penguin Books. Most recently an Associate Editor, she joined the company as an editorial assistant in 2002 and became an assistant editor for Viking in 2003. Alessandra Lusardi has been named Associate Editor. Most recently an Assistant Editor, she joined Viking in 2002 as an assistant to Clare Ferraro. She was promoted to Assistant Editor in 2003.

JULY EVENTS

Pete Hamill, Molly O’Neill, Kevin Baker and others gather in July at Mad. Sq. Reads, the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s new free series of summer readings by notable authors. Each Thursday evening program will be devoted to a different aspect of New York life and history. The readings will be presented at the foot of Augustus Saint-Gauden‘s Farragut Monument, located mid-park at 25th Street. Each program lasts about one hour except as noted. For information call 212 538 6667. Books will be available for sale at each reading courtesy of Borders.

Project Gutenberg, will hold an annual World eBook Fair beginning July 4th and running through August, during which 300,000 e-books will be available for free download, together with some classical music scores, recordings and films. The vast majority of the books are in the public domain, and the rights holders to the remainder have granted their permission. Though 20,000 titles are already permanently available from the site, the rest will be loaned for the month of the Fair from other e-book libraries, some of which normally charge, and some of the loans will remain after the end of the Fair. Project Gutenberg plans to increase the number of titles available during the Fair to 1 million by 2009. Over 100 languages will be represented for worldwide readers and that total is expected to increase. Go to http://www.gutenberg.org for further information and downloading.

DULY NOTED

Intellectual property or real property? Mary Hall Mayer seems to be working at both: While recently selling world rights in a six-figure pre-empt to Dr. Nicholas Dodman‘s What Every Good Dog Owner Should Know to Houghton Mifflin‘s Susan Canavan, she has also – as a broker with Halstead Property – just concluded the sale of a Tribeca loft for over $1.5 million and a high end rental also in Tribeca.

An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore‘s new book, produced for Rodale by Melcher Media, is printed on paper that is 30% “post consumer waste,” (which Chelsea Green doesn’t consider, mmm, green enough). However, according to the description in the book, it is the first book produced to offset 100% of the CO2 emissions generated from production activities with renewable energy. “By supporting a new Native American wind farm and a new family farm methane energy project through NativeEnergy, this publication is carbon neutral.” For more information – “and to offset your own carbon footprint,” go to nativenergy.com. For information on RH and other industry publisher initiatives, go to greenpressinitiative.org/

IN MEMORIAM

Lyle Stuart, founder of the eponymous publisher and later, of Barricade Books, died on June 24th, at the age of 83.

Two Random House appointments: Beryl Needham, previously Dir. of Marketing for Little, Brown, has been named VP Dir. of National Accts. Children’s Books. And Adene Corns has been named VP Dir. of clubs and AMS. She was previously at S&S. Corns comes to Random with her full team
. . . After 21 years and over 2000 titles, Jane Leventhal has left Jim Henson Productions, where she was founder, SVP, and Publisher of the publishing division. She may be reached at janelev@aol.com. The rest of her editorial department has also departed, including Susan Kantor, Trisha Boczkowski and Kylie Foxx. Shelley Sanderson, Associate Publisher, says they are turning to a licensing model where publishers will develop and execute the editorial subject to Henson approval
. . . Harold Underdown has left Charlesbridge Publishing to join Byron Preiss’s iPicture books as VP, Editorial. . . Perry Janoski, previously at The Nation, has joined Talk magazine as Accounts Director for Publishing. . . Malka Margolies is leaving BookSpan, where she has been VP Corporate Communications, to have some time off with her young son. No replacement named yet. . . The Board of Directors of the Book Industry Study Group announced that BISG would be hiring a new Executive Director since Sandy Paul, the first person to hold that job, moved to Florida as CEO of Ocean Books, a company that manages libraries aboard ocean liners (really). “I’ll continue in the role of Managing Agent/office until they replace me or 1/31/01, whichever comes first,” says Paul.

VIRTUAL PEOPLE

Peter Costanzo just joined Contentville as Director of Bookseller Marketing and Merchandising. He comes from Random House Audio and replaces John Conti, who left earlier in the Fall. . . OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), a vendor of e-book technology services for publishers, announced the appointment of Pamela Turner as Director of Content for its e-book aggregation, digital rights management, and distribution businesses. She was COO of Undercover Book Service.

MEDIA

Crain’s New York’s Nov. 27 issue looked at “Silicon Alley: Where Are They Now,” and publishing folk dominate the story, as seems to be happening all over the media lately: The NYT’s Nov. 29 Business Day — with articles on Stephen King, Jack Welch’s forthcoming book, and Amazon — looked like it should change its section heading to All Books, All the Time.

But we digress. Interviewed at length by Crain’s were Randi Benton, then (1995) head of Random’s new media department and now a consultant “to companies venturing into e-publishing.” She says she left when Bertelsmann took over because, according to the article, “There was no room for an aggressive new media risk taker.” Are we talking about the same Bertelsmann that has stakes in BN.com, Xlibris, Audible, etc.?

Back to Crain’s, which also profiles Byron Preiss, who founded Byron Preiss Multimedia in 1991 and has reinvented himself with each new iteration of new media. His current focus is ibooks, a publisher of p- and e-books, though he still runs his traditional packaging operation.

Finally, there’s Aleen Stein, ex-wife of Bob, and co-founder of Voyager Co. She’s now Director of International Licensing for Scholastic’s software and Internet group, which is located in the same building that Voyager once occupied in its heyday in the mid-90s.

• “Although the U.S. has never really been a nation of readers, it has always been a nation of writers. Walk into any coffeehouse or community college in the land, and you will find plenty of would-be authors complaining that their masterpieces have failed to grab the attention of some arrogant, dimwitted New York City editor.” Robert S. Boynton writing in Time Digital about the proliferation of vanity publishing online.

• “While the United States leads the world in e-book hype, the European market is starting to challenge America in digital publishing.” So says The Industry Standard’s Steve Zeitchik in an article on global e-book publishing. He looks at what indigenous companies are doing, as well as where American companies like Xlibris are making inroads, and discusses the different emphasis in the rest of the world — a more sophisticated mobile network.

EVENTS

PublishersLunch.com’s Michael Cader hosted his third subscriber luncheon on Nov. 29, at the Century Club. The topic, “Making Money Through Free Media,” drew a cross-section of publishing folk, including traditional publishers, (Bob Miller, Barbara Marcus, Steve Ross, etc.), e-companies (Lightning’s Susan Peterson, Xlibris’ Emily Heckman, etc.) and an impressive smattering of agents (Michael Carlisle and Emma Parry, Brian DeFiore, Kathy Paton, et al), and featured speakers Seth Godin, Mike Shatzkin, and horror writer Douglas Clegg, all three of whom have experience, expertise, and much to say on the subject. Godin offered to host a publishing seminar at his Westchester office, for those interested. Email sethgodin@yahoo.com if you want to know more.

• LiveReads, a new e-publisher founded by a group of publishing veterans, has just published a newly discovered novella by Jack Kerouac, Orpheus Emerged, that is “enriched by interactive elements that bring Jack and the Beat world to life,” according to Neal Bascomb, CEO and co-founder.

INQUIRING MINDS

More stories from the e-book frontier: In the endless debate over BN.com’s demand for a 55% discount for e-books, BN.com’s Tom Turvey and St. Martin’s Steve Cohen came to an amicable impasse. So the intrepid publisher made the following suggestion: Why not figure out how to view these dilemmas from each other’s perspectives by seeing how the other half lives? The idea was seized upon enthusiastically and Tom will now come and peer over Steve’s shoulder, while Steve will reciprocate till each has got the hang of each others’ M.O., which might lead to some business being transacted. “Besides,” says Turvey, “Steve is such a smart guy, I’m hoping sitting in his chair for two days will pay off in bonus IQ points!”

• Though there has been no announcement from Grove/Atlantic about purchasing Edinburgh publisher Canongate, the books are in PGW’s warehouse, and listed in Grove’s catalog. The deal won’t be official until Feb. 1. Meanwhile Grove/Atlantic Publisher Morgan Entriken is finishing up a month in Japan.

• When Neil Baldwin, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, materialized at the Microsoft e-book Awards in Frankfurt, the obvious question was, National e-book Awards? And the answer is a qualified Yes. Baldwin tells PT that his board, headed by Deborah Wiley, has asked him to come back to them with a plan and a timetable for integrating e-books into the awards in a manner that is “consonant and harmonious with the way we do things.” Baldwin stresses that there will not be a separate e-book category — and in fact there is no intention of adding any categories to the four existing ones: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children’s. But, he says, “the medium is here and we need to accommodate to the medium.” The plan will be delivered by Spring 2001, so that any decision can be reflected in the May guidelines for submissions.

DULY NOTED

For those interested in a mainstream genre selling outside the normal distribution channels, look no further than Guideposts, the organization founded by Norman Vincent Peale, which recently moved into the mystery market. The publishing arm has sold numerous books before, but most were more obviously inspirational. The “Church Choir Mysteries,” a continuity series edited by Michele Slung and marketed primarily by mail, online, and in the pages of Guideposts (which has a circulation of 2.6 million), has titles like The Highly Suspicious Halo, but Jessica Fletcher is clearly the main inspiration (and in fact, her name is invoked on the mailing package). There are currently five titles in print, three more in production, and at least another four planned. The first four shipped a total of 115,000 units, according to Brigitte Weeks, VP Editor-in-Chief of the Books and Inspirational Media Division.