Former svp, group publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Trade imprints Rubin Pfeffer has joined the East/West Literary Agency, heading up the East Coast office in Boston as a partner, digital strategist, and content agent, a new position “focused on developing and creating content for the 21st -century incarnations of publishing, both electronic and traditional print.”
Pfeffer says, “The value that I hope to offer East/West and the clients that I represent is being nimble and opportunistic about how their intellectual property can be leveraged effectively in this dawn of electronic publishing. There are many more options for writers and illustrators, many more ways to be published. The book is not necessarily the goal; reaching readers is the goal.”
Pfeffer first worked with the agency’s Deborah Warren and Mary Grey James in the 1990s when he ran Harcourt Brace Jovanovich’s trade division. His initial client list at EWA includes Stephen Cosgrove, David Diaz, Richard Jesse Watson, the Lilla Rogers Studio, John Sansevere, Michael J. Rosen, Sonja Lamut, Timothy J. Bradley, and newcomers Lisa Green, Faith Pray, and Dr. Robert Penczak.
He will continue to maintain his affiliation with kidthing.com and serve as a business development consultant for FableVision.
Separately, Dorothy Spencer has joined the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, representing adult fiction and non-fiction in a variety of genres. Spencer has worked in acquisitions and development for more than fifteen years, working with publishers including Watson-Guptill; Van Nostrand Reinhold; Henry Holt; Chronicle Books; Prentice Hall Press; and W.H. Freeman, as well as with book packagers including Read/Write Press and LifeTime Media.
Kerry Donovan has been promoted to editor at NAL. At Career Press, Laurie Kelly-Pye and Michael Pye have been named co-publishers. Michael Pye has been with the company for 6 years and continues to serve as senior acquisitions editor and director of product development. Laurie Kelly-Pye has been with the company for 10 years and continues to serve as director of sales and publicity. Owner Ron Fry remains president and CEO.
In the UK, Rowan Lawton has joined PFD as an agent, focusing on women’s fiction and psychological thrillers. She was at William Morris Endeavor’s London office for over six years (working with Caroline Michel before she left to become chief executive of PFD.)
And Val McDermid has won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Diamond Dagger award for outstanding achievement in crime writing.