“It’s the damndest thing — all these people show up,” a genial George Plimpton told reporters at the recent LA Times Festival of Books. “And we’d thought people in LA don’t read books.” Indeed, as 150,000 visitors (plus 350 authors and even some East Coast publishers) swarmed the UCLA campus over two days in April…Continue Reading
PEOPLE After 15 years at Reader’s Digest, most recently as VP Global Director, Global Books & Home Entertainment, Alfredo Santana will be leaving the company. He may be reached via email at siempre@attglobal.net or at (212) 781-0632. Santana tells PT that he will attend Frankfurt this year, his eighteenth. Gerry Helferich, who recently left Wiley,…Continue Reading
When First Lady Laura Bush kicks off the 2nd National Book Festival on Saturday, October 12, on the Capitol’s West Lawn, she’ll be lending the White House imprimatur to the cause of reading in more ways than one. Besides bringing the likes of Ha Jin, Dava Sobel, Jules Feiffer, and Billy Collins, among some 70…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Laurie Brown is leaving FSG, where she was SVP, Director Sales & Marketing. Her duties will be assumed by Jeff Seroy and Linda Rosenberg. . . Gary Gentel has been named VP Sales, Trade Division at Scholastic. He was most recently with Dorling Kindersley. . . John Schline has been made SVP, Corporate Director…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Congrats to Phyllis Grann — and Random House — who have finally tied the knot in what is perhaps the last good news of ’01? Word is that not all publishers there are equally excited, leading to speculation about whether the last card has yet been played. Back at Penguin Putnam, Adrian Zackheim has…Continue Reading
Despite lackluster sales and the death of all things ‘e’, there is continued interest from publishers in ebooks, epublishing, and elearning. So the seventh annual seminar hosted by University of Virginia and the Library of Congress on “Publishing in the 21st Century” was very much web-focused. The keynote was given by Hungry Minds’ CEO John…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Gene Brissie, previously Editor in Chief at Prentice Hall Trade Publishing, has left to become a partner with Bert Holtje in the James Peter Associates Literary Agency. . . . Some changes in the S&S group: BJ Gabriel has been named VP National Accounts, with responsibility for sales of all S&S products, including adult…Continue Reading
