But that is rapidly changing. Three relatively recent entrants into the market are the Codex Group, which surveys Borders customers to discover about genre, author, and jacket preferences (see our coverage here, here, and here); Bowker’s PubTrack, which partners with MarketTools, Inc. to conduct surveys; and the latest entrant, Verso Digital, which relies on its access to numerous “deep vertical” sites and is now rolling out a new service, tentatively called Verso Flight Plan.

Flight Plan makes Verso Digital’s survey technology available to publishers on a subscription or à la carte basis. It lets publishers carry out their own title-specific consumer research and pre-publication testing of book jackets, titles, and copy. They can analyze author awareness and audience size, run online focus groups, and delve into various vertical Reader Channels (such as Thought Leaders, Women’s Romance, and Science Fiction and Fantasy). The service will launch by the end of March; for more information, contact Business Development Director Jack McKeown at jack [at] versoadvertising.com.

Recently, Publishing Trends interviewed Bowker Director of Client Development James Howitt about PubTrack Consumer. Howitt, who previously worked at BookScan, said he realized four years ago that Bowker, which at the time was attempting to compete with Nielsen BookScan, should “move away from POS in the trade market and [instead] directly survey the consumer.”

In the past, “it was easier to get a consumer to buy your product,” says Howitt. “All you had to do was get it into Barnes & Noble or Borders. But now, with e-readers, publishers becoming vendors, and search sites becoming publishers, consumers can go anywhere to purchase a book. Traditional tracking of core channels no longer reflects the whole size of the market.” Though Bowker is known primarily for its core product, Books in Print, the company is increasingly becoming known for following the demand chain of the book process—beginning with ISBN registration and ending with PubTrack Consumer, for publishers.

PubTrack Consumer, released in 2007, provides publishers with data regarding consumers’ book purchases, demographic, and behavioral profiles. Some clients include Random House (the charter subscriber), DC Comics, Zondervan, BISG, K-Mart, and Direct Brands. The cost of access to the service varies by client, Howitt says. Some companies, with complete toolset access to the data, can analyze information any way they want. Other companies have to rely on Bowker to come in to present it.

To obtain its data, Bowker works with MarketTools, Inc. (MTI), an online market research firm, using its ZoomPanel tool. MTI has a pool of 10 million active names of people age 13 and up (they receive rewards points for participation). Bowker tracks 3,000 unique individuals each month.

“In the past, companies like this were either doing phone-based or diary-based surveys,” says Howitt. “But if you try to get hold of a 13-year-old, they don’t have a household phone, they have mobile. If you’re doing diary-based surveys, you’re relying on someone with good handwriting, someone who’s able to distinguish Harry Potter #1 from Harry Potter #7.” As for internet access, Howitt says that since nearly nine people out of ten in the U.S. have it, “that bias…doesn’t affect what we’re doing.” (MarketTools weights the sample to eliminate any remaining bias.)

Panel participants answer 65 questions about their book-buying behavior. A participant is first asked to report on all the books she has acquired in the past month, including books bought as gifts. She types in each book’s ISBN (a diagram shows her where to find it; the ISBN ties back to the Books in Print database), which pulls up the book’s format, author, etc. Next, she answers questions about each purchase, such as:

How much did you pay for this book, excluding tax?
How was the book displayed when you first saw it?
What other items did you buy at the same time as this book?

“For the first time, the industry can see a book’s real average selling price,” says Howitt. “One of the things POS is great at telling you is that a book sold 20,000 units last week, but it’s not designed to tell you if that 20,000 is made up of 18 to 29-year-old females.” Kelly Gallagher, VP Publisher Services, notes that Bowker can also go back to previous participants and ask them more in-depth questions. The company also launched a Cover Analysis service last year.

Publishers have always had trouble attracting advertiser interest, and Bowker’s research opens up the opportunity to determine correlations between book buyers and brands. Now publishers just have to sign up for the service and learn how to use it.

Rights to Jens Harder's Alpha are available in the United States.

“I don’t know why, but there are often naked persons in French comics,” said Sylvain Coissard of the Sylvain Coissard Agency. He was one of the panelists at the French Publishers’ Agency’s “From Bande Dessinée to Graphic Novel: Drawing Two Traditions Together,” which took place in November at NYU’s Maison Française. Coissard was speaking about some of the obstacles that French publishers face when trying to sell comic book rights to American publishers, but both sides agreed that there are also plenty of opportunities for the French and Americans to work together.

There are now 265 comic book publishers in France, said Thierry Groensteen, Comics Historian and Publisher of Actes Sud’s Editions de l’an 2, to the point that the market is “saturated.” 3,592 new comic books* were published in France in 2008. The market is divided into four different divisions: the traditional Franco-Belgian comics (of which Tintin is the best-known example, but 43% of the new comics published in France in 2008 were in this genre); manga (which appeared in France in the early 1990s and made up 40% of the new comic books published in 2008); graphic novels (10%); and U.S.-imported superhero books (7%). New Franco-Belgian titles, which are usually 48 pages long and focus on humor and adventure, are capable of selling 100,000 copies, and 50% of them sell between 50,000 and 100,000 copies. In 2008, humor comic Titeuf #12 sold 1,832,000 copies (bringing total sales since 1992 to over 20 million!).It’s almost impossible to imagine a comic book—part of a series, no less—selling nearly 2 million copies in the United States. Mark Siegel, Editorial Director of First Second Books, said that’s partly because comics are a central part of the culture in Western Europe and Japan—“everyone in France has a Tintin shelf”—but have been ghettoized in the United States. Dan Frank, Editorial Director at Pantheon, mentioned that the reason for this is the censorship of American comics in the 1950s. The Comics Code Authority was created in 1954 because of concerns about graphic violence and other inappropriate content in comics. Tenets of the code included “Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals”; “Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited”; and “Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.” Though publishers weren’t legally required to adhere to the code, many stores wouldn’t carry their products without the CCA’s seal of approval. Kurt Hassler (with whom PT conducted a separate interview; Hassler was not on the panel), Publishing Director of Hachette’s Yen Press and the former graphic novel buyer for Borders, agrees that differences in sales between the two countries “has more to do with the history of comics in the U.S. than anything specifically related to French comics in this market. The Comics Code “pushed comics underground and focused the content on a very small demographic. It’s really only in the last decade that the negative impression of comics and graphic novels in the States has changed.”

Other cultural differences remain. Paul Levitz, former President and Publisher of DC Comics, describes French comics as “fairly eclectic by comparison to the mainstream U.S. genre fiction material.” First Second published a French children’s comic, Sardine in Outer Space, this year, but because it contains a scene set in hell, six states refused to buy it with public money. Another title, Wake, is about the last person on earth; rights have been sold in 15 countries. “The two countries that wanted the breasts covered?” Coissard said. “China. And the USA.”

(We can’t help mentioning one instance in which the U.S. is less buttoned-up than France: Frank mentioned that in France’s largest bookstore chain, Fnac, the comics section is the only place customers are allowed to sit and read. Meanwhile, you can’t walk through Barnes & Noble without tripping over somebody reading—take that, FNAC!)

French packaging also offers a challenge to U.S. publishers. First of all, there’s the simple problem of language—American publishers are usually looking at untranslated materials, says Hassler, though this is obviously less of a problem for the comic format because of the major role of the art. Furthermore, the standard 48-page, oversized, hardcover French comics are “significantly shorter than what someone here would consider to be a typical graphic novel, and definitely not a standard trim size for a graphic novel in the U.S.,” Hassler says. “It’s definitely something stores would have trouble putting on shelves. Often when publishers license this material they will double up two or three or four of those French editions into a single book at a smaller trim size to make it more accessible.”

Coissard has ideas on how the countries can work together. He would like to visit American publishers more often. “They don’t travel very much,” he said, “We don’t see you at Frankfurt. If you don’t want to trouble, we should come to you.” Also, could American publishers please tone down their contracts, whose excessive terms are “at odds with the French notion of moral rights”? (Sorry, won’t happen, Siegel told him.) Mostly, Coissard stressed that American publishers should have “more faith in the capacity of the American reader to take interest in the world.” Turning to Frank and Siegel, he added politely, “I hope I didn’t shock you.”

Groensteen suggested one French comic book that should be perfectly relevant to American audiences, since it is about the history of mankind. Alpha, by German author and illustrator Jens Harder, tells the story of the history of life on earth, from the Big Bang to the first appearance of man. The book, which is the first volume in a series of three (the second title will cover the history of the past 5,000 years; the third will focus on the future), is, Groensteen said, “an ode to evolution and Darwin.”

Should be universally appealing, right? Well, a recent Gallup poll found that only 39% of Americans believe in evolution. But hopefully they’ll be the audience for this beautiful book. So far, the book has been published only in France. Rights are available in the United States. For more information, e-mail Actes Sud’s Isabel Alliel at i.alliel [at] actes-sud.fr.

*Confused about the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel? Hassler explains: “‘Comics’ is a medium, not a genre—which is where most of the confusion comes from. In the same way that film is a medium capable of covering any kind of storytelling or genre, comics is the same sort of medium, and although most people tend to associate it with the floppy superhero stuff, it also covers book-length material (graphic novels), manga, as well as works like Maus or Persepolis.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

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

Ben Sevier has been promoted to Executive Editor at Dutton.

Julie Will has been promoted to Executive Editor at Rodale.

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

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

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

DULY NOTED

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

UPCOMING EVENTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We also wanted to do something with consumers and young publishing professionals,” says Muller. Additionally, the board created three panels especially for consumers: Teens, Baby Boomers, and Book Club Facilitators. The panels will be led by board members  Carol Fitzgerald of Bookreporter.com and Neil Strandberg of Tattered Cover.

BEA VP Lance Fensterman highlighted other new events and changes to expect at the show this year:

• The BEA New Media Zone, showcasing ebooks, podcasting, lit bloggers, and digital video.
• Author Stages on the show floor, with fifteen events planned. Along with Pat Conroy and John Irving, one of the featured authors will be Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, on his first trip back to New York City and standing “literally of hundreds of feet from where he settled his plane down so perfectly and safely in the Hudson River,” Fensterman notes. Along with author badges, there are new badge categories to “eliminate the less desirable attendees and better identify desirable attendees.” Are you a desirable attendee? Guess you’ll find out when you see your badge. . .
• A new Young Adult Buzz Forum on Friday, in addition to the Editor and Bookseller Buzz Forums on Thursday. ForeWord Magazine is also running an Indie Buzz panel.
• Perseus will kick off its book publishing project, a collaborative challenge inviting “book people everywhere” to help create, publish, and market a book in 32 hours. The project will take place on Friday and Saturday.

However, cost-cutting strategies will also be in effect:

• Fewer publishers on the floor. Macmillan, HoughtonMifflin Harcourt, Globe Pequot, Kensington, Rodale, DC Comics, National Geographic, Shambhala, Melville House, and Taschen won’t have booths, though Macmillan, HMH, and Rodale have meeting rooms. Random House has cut its space by over 50%.
• Fewer ARCs. “While the the move is being made to save costs this year,” says Fensterman, “it does open the door to electronic galleys, better tracking by exhibitors of who they spoke with at the show (thus following up with a paper ARC), and an emphasis on new strategies to engage attendees.”

Little, Brown editor Reagan Arthur has received her own imprint, Reagan Arthur Books. Arthur’s title will be VP, Editorial Director, and she will continue to report to Geoff Shandler. The imprint’s first books will be published in Fall 2009.

Nancy Hancock has joined HarperOne as Executive Editor, reporting directly to Mickey Maudlin. Hancock was most recently the Executive Editor of Rodale.

Dick Robinson announced that Seth Radwell has decided to leave Scholastic following the sale of Scholastic at Home this past summer. He has served as President of eScholastic since joining the company in 2005.

Andrea Glickson has been named Director of Publicity and Marketing at Octopus USA, reporting to Jonathan Stolper. She was at Watson-Guptill.

Biagio Vignolo has been hired as CFO of Perseus Books Group. He was most recently at Topps. Tom Allen will continue on in a consulting role. Matthew Lore has resigned from his position as VP Executive Editor at Da Capo Press/Da Capo Lifelong books. He may be reached at matthew.lore.email [at] gmail.com. David Ouimet is returning to PGW as Director of National Accounts after two years at FSG. He will work from NYC, reporting to Sales VP Kim Wylie. Tim Sullivan has gone to Basic Books as Executive Editor. He was a senior editor at Portfolio/Penguin. Claudia Dizenzo has been named Publicity Manager at Basic Books. She was at Oxford University Press.

Markus Dohle announced the departure of Ed Volini as Deputy Chairman and COO at Random House. The positions of Deputy Chairman and COO will not continue. Hays Steilberg, VP, Director, HR, “has accepted an opportunity from our Human Resources colleagues in Bertelsmann’s corporate center.” Frank Steinert has taken over as SVP, HR, for Random House in the U.S. He comes from Bertelsmann’s Arvato. Robin Sutton, VP, Director, HR, reports to Steinert.

Ron Longe has joined Media Masters Publicity, which specializes in children’s books and graphic novels, as Account Director. He was Publicity Director at Workman/Artisan. He may be reached at ron [at] mmpublicity.com….Michelle Blankenship will join Bloomsbury as Associate Director of Publicity on October 13. She was Director of Publicity at Harcourt.

Beau Friedlander has joined Air America Media as its website EIC. He was most recently at Chelsea Green and Abrams Image. He may be reached at bfriedlander [at] airamerica.com.

Christine Aronson has been hired as Director of Publicity and Marketing at Dutton, reporting to Brian Tart. She was formerly Publicity Director for Crown. EIC Trena Keating is moving to Endeavor as an agent in the NY office with Richard Abate. Keating joined Penguin in 2001 as EIC and later Associate Publisher of Plume, and moved over to Dutton in 2006.

Pamela Clements has joined Hachette Book Group as Associate Publisher of Marketing for Center Street and Faith Words, focusing on publicity and promotions. She spent 16 years at Thomas Nelson, most recently as Publisher of the general interest & lifestyle division.

S&S has launched an in-house digital media studio to record and edit author interviews, headed by Charlie Corts, Director, Video Production and Development. Corts was previously in digital production at Yahoo! and CBS Interactive.

Mary McAveney has left S&S to become Director of Strategic Partnerships at Smilebox, a creative messaging photo-sharing service. She will develop partnerships with women’s media companies and brands; partners include Hallmark, Corel, and drugstore.com. Reach her at (718) 855-7347 or mary.mcaveney [at] gmail.com.

Parragon has hired Edward Benitez from Perseus as Sales Director for Latin America, domestic Spanish language sales, and special markets. Paul Kolkka is now Sales Manager for Mass and Discount Markets. He was National Sales Director for Playmore.

On the West Coast, Chronicle has hired Emily Haynes as Editor, specializing in pop culture, humor, and media tie-ins. She was at Plume….Helena Brantley has been named Associate Director of Publicity and Promotion at Nolo Press. She was Associate Director of Publicity at HarperOne, which has hired Julie Burton for that position. Burton comes from MacAdam/Cage, where she was Director of Publicity. Leslie Davisson joined the group as Publicity Manager from Chronicle. Kathleen Spinelli has been hired as Publisher of Custom Packaging at Walter Foster and will work from their new offices in Irvine, CA. E-mail kathleen [at] walterfoster.com. Rachel Geerlings has been named Product Manager at Silver Dolphin. She was Marketing Associate at Harcourt. Finally, Regan McMahon, who took over as book editor at the San Francisco Chronicle when Oscar Villalon took a buyout, is also leaving.

Melville House has hired Daniel O’Connor for the new position of Managing Editor. He spent ten years at Thunder’s Mouth. With Neil Ortenberg, he just co-produced and co-directed the documentary Obscene, a look at the life and work of Grove Press founder Barney Rosset. Clara Heyworth has been hired to head its publicity department. She has relocated to New York from the UK, where she was at Verso.

Sheryl Stebbins is joining Author Solutions in the new role of Director of Author Marketing Services. She was most recently at Random House.

Nancy Clements has been named Executive Managing Editor for the Collins imprints. She was most recently at Knopf and Holt.

Karen Rice has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Trade & Reference division as Senior Marketing Manager for adult books in the New York office. She has been at Random House, most recently as National Account Manager, Baker & Taylor for Knopf and Crown.

In children’s: Stephanie Lurie is leaving Dutton, where she was President and Publisher of the Children’s group, to become Editorial Director of the Disney-Hyperion Books imprint in late October….Francesco Sedita has been named VP and Publisher of Grosset & Dunlap and Price, Stern Sloan, reporting to Don Weisberg, President, Penguin Young Readers Group. Sedita was most recently Executive Creative Director at Scholastic. Nadine Topalian has been promoted to the role of VP, Associate Publisher of Grosset & Dunlap and PSS and Associate Publisher of Frederick Warne in the U.S. She reports to Sedita.

Agent Michelle Andelman has left the Andrea Brown Literary Agency to join Franklin & Siegal as a children’s scout. Her e-mail is michelle [at] fsainc.com….Dan Ambrosio has left Vigliano Associates to join Wiley as an Editor.

Tim Brazier has joined Kaplan Publishing as Publicity Director. He was Publicity Manager at Basic Books. Brett Sandusky has joined Kaplan as Marketing Manager. He was at Shared Marketing Services.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

In a move that puts Avery under Bill Shinker’s Gotham imprint, Lisa Johnson has been named VP Associate Publisher of both imprints and will head the publicity and marketing department. Lauren Marino runs the Gotham editorial group as VP, Editorial Director, and Avery Publisher Megan Newman becomes Avery VP, Editorial Director. All three report to Shinker.

At HarperCollins, Frank Albanese has been promoted to SVP, Supply Chain following the recent reorganization. He has been at Harper since 1994. At the HC Speakers Bureau, Jamie Brickhouse has been promoted to VP.

Lucia Macro has been promoted to VP, Executive Editor of Avon Books, where she has been for 11 years.

Derek Gullino has been promoted to Production Director for Potter, Potter Craft, and Potter Style.

Founder and President Jane Dystel and partner Miriam Goderich announced the promotions of agents Michael Bourret and Lauren Abramo to VP and Subsidiary Rights Director, respectively. And after a three-year stint in Cairo where she handled international rights sales for the American University in Cairo, agent Jessica Papin will rejoin the company.

Alysse Soll, formerly VP Marketing of the National Hockey League, has joined DC Comics as VP, Ad Sales & Custom Publishing.

Shanta Small has become Director of Publicity at Penguin Children’s. Most recently she headed marketing and publicity at Tarcher, after five years in publicity at RH Children’s. She takes over from Rhalee Hughes, who is starting her own PR and marketing firm.

Deborah Darrock has been named VP, Associate Publisher of Atria Books and Washington Square Press, reporting to Judith Curr. She moved over from the S&S imprint, where she was VP, Associate Publisher.

At HMH, Amanda Cook has been promoted to Executive Editor.

Andrew Hutchings has been appointed Blackwell Group CEO, with responsibility for Blackwell Book Services and Blackwell UK Ltd. He was CEO of Blackwell Book Services.

Allison Myers has been named Digital Content and Marketing Manager at Macmillan Audio.

At HarperOne, Cynthia DiTiberio has been promoted to Editor.

At Harlequin, Senior Editor Krista Stroever has assumed responsibility for the Silhouette Desire line.

Erika Imranyi has been promoted to editor at Dutton. She has been there since 2003.

At Hachette’s Orbit, Devi Pillai has been promoted to Senior Editor.

FOR FRANKFURT LOVERS

From Margaret Willes’s upcoming Reading Matters: Five Centuries of Acquiring Books (Yale University Press, 11/08), on the Frankfurt Book Fair:

Now it takes place in October, but in the sixteenth century it occurred twice a year, at Lent in spring and at Michelmas in autumn….The first week was spent buying and selling books and swapping the latest news, the second finalising and settling accounts, using Rhenish gold florins as the common currency or letters of credit and promissory notes, with credit being extended from fair to fair. There was even a special ‘Frankfurt rate’ organised between publishers as a special deal—a phenomenon still encountered by publishers at the modern Frankfurt Buchmesse….To have a book published at the time of the fair could be a great advantage. The sensation of the 1587 fair, for instance, was Fausten, which was translated into English in 1592 and became the basis for the play by Christopher Marlowe.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

CLMP’s annual Spelling Bee will take place on Monday, November 3 at Diane von Furstenberg’s studio. She will host the event. Contact jlependorf@clmp.org.

Esther Margolis, Founder and Publisher of Newmarket Press, will be honored with the New York Center for Independent Publishing’s Poor Richard Award at the Center’s Annual Benefit and Cocktail Reception. November 10, from 6 to 8 PM, at 20 W. 44th St.

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.

Richard Charkin has resigned from CEO of Macmillan to become Executive Director of Bloomsbury.

Amy Hertz is returning to Penguin as Editor-at-Large at Dutton, reporting to Brian Tartt. Most recently, she was the VP and Publisher of Morgan Road Books, an imprint she founded in 2004. Before deciding to run her own imprint, Amy had been an Executive Editor of Riverhead.

Gina Centrello announced that Nancy Miller, SVP Executive Editor at Random House, is leaving the company in October.

Charlotte Abbott is leaving Publishers Weekly but will remain as a contributing editor. She is available to pursue other freelance opportunities as a publishing consultant and writer. She may be reached at 718 619-6794 or at abbcha@gmail.com.

David Shanks announced the appointment of Jeff Gomez to the position of Senior Director of Online Consumer Sales and Marketing at Penguin, effective October 29th. Gomez was most recently the Director of Internet Marketing for Holtzbrinck Publishers and is the author of the forthcoming Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age.

HarperCollins announced Doug Jones has been appointed SVP, Director of Sales for the Collins Division, reporting to Josh Marwell, President of Sales. Jones had been VP Director of Marketing for the Putnam and Riverhead imprints at Penguin, and previously VP, Sales Director at Crown.

Steve Rotterdam has been named SVP Director of Sales and Marketing for DC Comics reporting to President and Publisher, Paul Levitz. He was SVP/Chief Creative Officer at the EastWest Marketing Group. Meanwhile John Nee has been promoted to SVP of Business Development.

After several years in nonprofit and educational space, most recently as Editor in Chief of Redleaf Press, Sid Farrar returns to Hazelden as Director Content Development and Product Management, overseeing acquisitions. He may be reached at SFarrar@hazelden.org.

Nick Bogaty, Executive Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum has moved to Adobe. He will be assuming the publisher relations responsibilities that Jim Alexander once held.

Lisa Berkowitz has left Meredith following Linda Cunningham’s departure earlier in the summer. She may be reached at lisaberkowitzpr[at] yahoo.com.

Kathy Wiess has been named VP, International Sales, for Ingram International. Wiess spent 16 years with Random House and most recently served as Senior Sales Director of the International division.

David Naggar announced that Robert Manger has joined the Crown Group as Director of Direct Marketing. He will oversee the existing Direct Marketing continuities programs, including the long-lived Louis L’Amour continuity, as well as the Direct to Consumer (D2C) business. Manger was most recently Senior Director of Customer Marketing for BMG Direct and Columbia House.

Shawn Coyne, former co-founder and publisher of Rugged Land Books has joined Endeavor in their New York book division as a literary agent, working with Richard Abate and Rebecca Oliver.

Michael Murphy has left the Queen Literary Agency to launch his own literary agency, Max & Co.: A Literary Agency & Social Club. Go to www.maxliterary.com or mmurphy[at]maxlit.com.

InkWell Management announced the arrival of Rose Marie Morse as Public Relations Strategist. She will oversee publicity and media planning for the agency’s clients. Prior to joining InkWell, Morse ran Morse Partners, a boutique public relations company. Inkwell’s previous publicity guru, Beth Davey, moved to Rodale earlier this year.

Haights Cross Communications, Inc. (HCC) announced that Peter J. Quandt, Chairman, CEO and President, has resigned. Quandt founded HCC in 1997. Paul J. Crecca, EVP and CFO, assumes the role of Interim-CEO/President.

Abrams’ newly named Art Director, Michelle Ishay-Cohen, was most recently Art Director at Hyperion Books, where she art directed and designed for three imprints including the visual branding for the newly launched imprint, VOICE.

Sterling announced that Dave Nelson has been named Executive Acquisitions Editor for Mind/Body/Spirit titles, as well as health and self-improvement. He reports to Philip Turner, VP and Editorial Director of Union Square Press. Nelson was Publisher of Beaufort Books.

Meanwhile, National Book Network announced that Marie Hergenroeder has joined NBN as Director of Special Sales. She was formerly Director of Premium Sales at HarperCollins and before that was director of special sales for Random House. Tracy Fortini has joined NBN as an Account Manager/Marketing Director. Fortini was most recently an account manager at PGW and was earlier a senior buyer at Waldenbooks and the Nature Company.

Anne Hollinshead DeCourcey has joined HarperCollins as Sales Rep, reporting to Jeannette Zwart and selling both Children’s and adult titles in the New England region. She was head of sales for Gibbs Smith.

PROMOTIONS
Random House Chairman and CEO Peter Olson has taken on the additional responsibility of overseeing Direct Group North America (which now will operate under the name Bertelsmann Direct North America), retaining his Random House day job.

Leigh Ann Ambrosi has been promoted to VP, Marketing & Publicity for Sterling & Lark Books. Ambrose joined Sterling in 2004 as Director of Publicity and was promoted to Director of Marketing & Publicity.

David Naggar named Jacob Bronstein Associate Director, Interactive Media for the Crown Publishing Group. In the Marketing Department Michael McGinley has been promoted to Creative Director, Advertising and Promotion.

Abrams, Inc. announced the promotion of Deborah Aaronson to Abrams Editorial Director. She reports to Steve Tager.

In the expanded Perseus sales organization, Matty Goldberg announced: Elise Cannon was promoted to VP, Field Sales, responsible for PGW, Perseus Books Group and Perseus Distribution sales into the independent channel. Clay Farr was promoted to Director, National Accounts, BGI; Keith Arsenault becomes Sales Manager, mass retail; and Peter D’Erasmo is now Director. Charles Gee is now a National Accounts Manager; Laura Robinson is now a Senior Sales Rep; Holly Demeter becomes Special Markets Manager.

At RH Children’s Books, Christine Labov has been promoted to Director of Publicity. Noreen Marchisi moves up to Publicity Manager, Kelly Galvin is joining the group as senior publicist, moving over from the Random House Audio group, where she was a publicist.

Jeanne Kramer has been named VP, Marketing for NBN. She has been with NBN for two years as Senior Director of Marketing and heads the account management team that works with NBN publisher clients.

Harper announced that Rachel Brenner has been promoted to National Account Manager for Baker & Taylor and Target. She will report jointly to Rhonda Rose and Jeanette Zwart respectively.

OCTOBER EVENTS
The Quill Awards are upon us, taking place on October 22 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Ann Curry and Al Roker host, with Stephen Colbert a “special guest.” Go to www.thequills.org for details.

To Bee or Not to Bee: The annual spelling bee to benefit the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses will be held Monday October 29. Bob Morris MCs, Jonathan Burnham, Sara Nelson, Alex Kuczynski, Patrick McGrath and others will spell, and Jesse Sheidlower will judge. Doors open 7.30pm, Bee 8pm. At Exit Art, 475 10th Avenue at 36th Street, New York. Check www.clmp.org for details and to buy tickets.

Also on October 29th, Goddard Riverside Community Center holds a “Festive Evening of Raucous Roasts and Snappy Toasts” honoring Random House Children’s Books’ Chip Gibson, at Tavern on the Green. Go to www.Goddard.org for details.

DULY NOTED
Bookspan has moved to One Penn Plaza, 250 West 34th Street, New York, N. Y. 10119. The phone number (212-651-7400) remains the same. And, after working 54 years at The Book-of-the-Month Club, Mary Idoni is retiring on October 12, 2007.

Tony Lyons launched Skyhorse Publishing in 2006, and will move his distribution from Sterling to Norton in 2008.

The 20th Independent and Small Press Book Fair will take place on Saturday, December 1 (between 10am and 6pm) and Sunday, December 2 (between 11am and 5pm) at the New York Center of Independent Publishing, at 20 West 44th Street. More than 100 presses from the U.S. and abroad will exhibit. Contact the NYCIP at 212-764-7021, www.nycip.org, christopher[at]nycip.org.

Congrats to Sourcebooks and its indomitable founder, Dominique Raccah, on the company’s 20th anniversary this month.

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.

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.

Liz Perl has been named VP Publisher of Rodale, reporting to Tami Booth Corwin. She was previously Associate Publisher of Penguin‘s Riverhead, Perigee, HP, Portfolio and Sentinel lines and Director of Marketing and Executive Director of Publicity for Berkley and NAL. Meanwhile, Marya Dalrymple has also gone to Rodale as a Senior Editor for cookbooks, reporting to Margot Schupf. She was previously at Rebus.

Andrews McMeel named Kirsty Melville as Publisher, succeeding Tom Thornton, who steps down at the end of the year. Melville was most recently Publisher of University Games, and previously Publisher of Ten Speed Press. She reports to President and COO Hugh Andrews, and will start at AMP September 2.

Susan Weinberg was appointed Publisher of PublicAffairs, succeeding Peter Osnos, who announced that he would assume the position of Founder and Editor-at-Large. Weinberg was most recently Publisher of the HarperCollins imprint.

After 30 years at Transworld, Patrick Janson-Smith will be leaving at the end of September to join the Christopher Little Literary Agency. Bill Scott-Kerr has been promoted to the role of Publisher, reporting to Larry Finlay.

Mary Ellen O’Neill has been named VP, Publisher, Collins Wellness and Lifestyle. Reporting to her will be Kathy Huck, Toni Sciarra, and Greg Chaput. O’Neill was most recently Executive Editor at Hyperion.

And more HarperCollins news this month, starting with ex-Harperites Cathy Hemming and Stephen Hanselman, former colleagues who have launched an “author services agency” called LevelFiveMedia. Meanwhile, HC’s Children’s Books announced that Adriana Dominguez has joined the company as Executive Editor. She was the children’s review editor at Críticas, and will manage Harper’s Spanish language children’s publishing program, working with Rayo Publisher Putnam, Rene Alegria.

Andrea Chambers has been named Director of the MS program in Publishing at NYU. A veteran magazine and book editor who has worked for Time, People, and Penguin Putnam, Chambers is currently an interim editor for Fairchild Publications and will join NYU in January of 2006. Heidi Johnson will continue as Associate Director and Robert Baensch will now manage the Summer Publishing Institute and focus on the non-credit portion of the Center’s offerings.

John Cunningham, Associate Publisher at St Martin‘s has been named VP, Director of Marketing at DC Comics. Also moving to DC and reporting to him is Nellie Kurtzman, from S&S Children’s…Thomas Willshire has been named Director of Sales & Marketing for Continuum Publishing. He was previously Director of Trade Sales for OUP.

NYTBR‘s Sam Tanenhaus announced that Eden Ross Lipson will retire as children’s book Editor. Julie Just, the NYTBR Deputy Editor, will succeed Lipson, and Bob Harris will succeed her as Deputy. Dwight Garner has been promoted to Senior Editor.

The Los Angeles Times has appointed author and literary critic David Ulin as its new book Editor. David Kipen, book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, was named Director of Literature at the National Endowment for the Arts. Kipen replaces former NEA literature director Cliff Becker, who died suddenly of a heart attack in May.

Sam Moore is moving up to chairman at Thomas Nelson and will be replaced by Michael Hyatt as CEO. He had been President and COO at Nelson. . . . Glen Moreno has been named chairman of Pearson replacing Lord Stevenson. He was CEO of Fidelity International.

Meredith is opening a NY office which will be headed up by Trade Editorial Director, Linda Cunningham, who is moving is back from Des Moines and will be working out of a Meredith office.

PW‘s Steve Zeitchik has moved to Reed‘s Variety, to cover media companies. And PW children’s book Editor Jason Britton has been hired to replace Allison Heiny at Barbara Tolley Associates.

Deborah Seager has been named Director of Publicity at Grove Atlantic. . . . Claire McKinney has gone to Houghton Mifflin as Director of Publicity. She was formerly at Miramax.

Farrin Jacobs’ replacement as Editor at Harlequin‘s Red Dress Ink is Selina McLemore. She was at Avon. . . . Renée Sedliar, formerly of HarperSanFrancisco, has joined Marlowe & Company/ Avalon Publishing Group, as an editor working out of the Emeryville offices. Sedliar will report to Matthew Lore, Publisher and VP of Marlowe.

Ruth Pomerance has left IDT, where she was Executive Producer, and may be reached at pomerancer@hotmail.com. Marcy Goot has left Inner Ocean to join TOKYOPOP in charge of marketing.

Ingram Publisher Services has named Kevin Moran, Sanford Hernandez, Edward Brazas and Mark Piasecki as Field Sales reps.

Doug Jones has gone to Putnam as VP, Marketing Director, for Putnam and Riverhead Books, part of the position recently vacated by Dan Harvey. He had been VP Sales Director at Random House, responsible for Crown Publishing Group.

Jennifer Perry has been named Editorial Director for Book Publishing at Sesame Workshop. And Kama Einhorn has been named Senior Editor of Sesame Street magazine. They were both at Scholastic.

Anna Stein who handled foreign rights for Donadio & Olson is joining the Susan Golomb Agency in the same position.

Danielle Chiotti has been named Senior Editor at Kensington, reporting to Gene Brissie, Editor-in-Chief of the company’s Citadel Press imprint. She was most recently Senior Editor at Adams Media.

PROMOTIONS

At Clarkson Potter Pam Krauss moves from VP to SVP and relinquishes Editorial Director duties to assume the role of Executive Editor, reporting to Lauren Shakely. She will continue in her present duties until a new Editorial Director is hired.

Rob Weisbach has promoted Kristin Powers to Associate Publisher. Powers had been Director of Production. Last month Judy Hottensen was hired as VP and Publisher. Hottensen was Director of Marketing & Publicity at Grove/Atlantic.

Gotham Books founder Bill Shinker has been promoted to President of the imprint (he remains its Publisher).

At the University of California Press, Sheila Levine was promoted to Associate Director and Publisher, and Anna Weidman and Deborah Kirshman were both promoted to Assistant Director. R. Jill Phillips has joined the press as intellectual property and subsidiary rights Manager.
Lest we go a month without a promotion over there, S&S Children’s Publishing announced that Michelle Nagler has been promoted to Senior Editor, Simon Pulse.

SEPTEMBER EVENTS

The Book Standard and Nielsen BookScan announce “Book Summit & Bestseller Awards 2005,” to take place on September 22 at The Roosevelt Hotel, in NYC. PT is a sponsor of the event.

Panel discussions will include “The State of the Book Industry: 2005 By The Numbers,” “The Big Debate: New Technologies Invade The Book World,” and “Reclaiming Readership: How To Get In Front Of Tomorrow’s Book Buyers … Today.” The day will end with The Bestseller Awards 2005, “the first-ever, Nielsen-data-powered Bestseller Awards Ceremony for books.” For details & online registration visit: www.thebook standard.com or contact Kelly at (646) 654-4643 or kpeppers@billboard.com.

The Book Industry Study Group‘s Annual Meeting of Members takes place on September 28 and will include a preview of the new Used Book Study and an evaluation of Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) for the book industry. Go to www.bisg.org/ conferences/annual_meeting_ 2005.html for more information and for future updates on the agenda and program.

At its September 20 Luncheon, Publishers Advertising and Marketing Association (PAMA)’s guest speaker will be Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review. The time is 12:15 at Crowne Plaza Times Square, 1605 Broadway. Reservations by Monday, September 12, 2005, via e-mail pama_ny@hotmail.com. Space is limited.

DULY NOTED

John Mutter, who had been at PW for most of his career, and Jenn Risko have launched Shelf Awareness (www.shelf-awareness.com), a free e-mail newsletter focused on “books that are out or about to be published (and media for them), wholesaling, bookstores, nontraditional outlets, etc.” Unlike other industry publications, Mutter tells PT, this newsletter concentrates less on deals and publishing, and more on retailing.