The city of Providence braced itself this month as a group of rebellious malcontents descended on its convention center. Independence was on the minds of the booksellers of New England (as it was for their West Coast comrades last year) and, by the end of the weekend, independence they achieved. Through a slight adjustment of…Continue Reading
As we ready ourselves for this year’s capital convention, we’re once again on the look out for that-which-will-make-this-year-stand-out-from-all-the-rest. Rather than focus on the perennial party previews, this year we thought we’d take the astute route, and highlight some of the must-see panels sponsored by the AAR. The one likely to create the most industry ire…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Betsy Groban has been named VP Publisher of Children’s Books at Houghton Mifflin. She had previously been at WGBH and prior to that, at Little, Brown. Earlier this month Linda Magram was promoted to the new position of Director of Marketing for the entire children’s book group, adding responsibilities for such imprints as Kingfisher…Continue Reading
PEOPLE On the heels of news that Emily Loose has left Penguin Press to become a Senior Editor at The Free Press comes news that Ray Roberts is retiring from Viking, after 40 years in the business. Meanwhile, Executive Editor Michael Millman is leaving Penguin, where he focused on Penguin Classics. He may be reached…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Jean Feiwel, Senior VP and Publisher is leaving Scholastic at the end of October after 22 years with the company. Trade Sales Director Jack Perry, who came to Scholastic from Sourcebooks last year, is also leaving. Ann Marie Resnick has been hired for the new position of VP, Marketing and Promotion in the book…Continue Reading
PEOPLE A surprising number of higher profile industry folk moved around this month. The one that garnered the most ink was Jon Karp, who left Random House for — to hear people tell it — any number of places. Bill Barry left DK to return to Doubleday, as Publisher of the religious imprints. That news…Continue Reading
People April is the cruelest month for some; but for others, it’s been a banner one. And for the industry as a whole, there’s been a whirlwind of activity, with enough moves, consolidations, entries and exits to rival a Feydeau or Frayn farce. Sara Nelson, Glamour’s Senior Contributing Editor, Books, and columnist for The New…Continue Reading
PEOPLE We will skip over the Thomas Middelhoff debacle, and move on to some moves that are less well covered, including that by a Middelhoff chronicler: The NYT’s David Kirkpatrick is leaving the Book Beat, to cover media, focusing on AOL Time Warner, along with Vivendi, Bertelsmann, and News Corp. His replacement will be named…Continue Reading
PEOPLE More Random House movement: Craig Virden, who has been President of RH Children’s and before that, BDD Books for Young Readers, is leaving. Crown’s Chip Gibson will take over, with Rich Romano as his EVP. Meanwhile Jenny Frost, now heading up Random Audio (which she will continue to run), will take over Crown Publishing…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
