Agent Mary Ann Naples, co-owner of The Creative Culture, has joined startup OpenSky (www.theopenskyproject.com) as vp of development, representing the voices of authors and brands at the company.
Former Scholastic UK managing director (and then briefly chief executive of the Headline publishing group) Kate Wilson is starting a children’s book publisher, Nosy Crow, launching in January 2011. The company is focusing on both traditional printed books as well as books as electronic apps.
Ralph Munsen joins Hachette Book Group today as svp, chief information officer. He was most recently vp, technology at Clear Channel..He will lead HBG’s technology group, and will split his time between their New York and Boston offices.
Jane Fleming is leaving her job as editor at Penguin Press to start freelance editing.
Fast Company‘s new Most Innovative Companies lists include a number of publishing-related enterprises in the “media” category, including:
6. Scribd
8. New World Library
9. HarperStudio
Vook announced a new round of $2.5 million in seed funding last week, from investors including Ron Conway, Kenneth Lerer, Maples Investments, Baseline Ventures and Founder Collective.
A San Francisco Chronicle column focuses on Bay Area bookseller Books Inc.‘s journey from bankruptcy in 1996 to a successful group of 12 stores. The column credits “staying away mostly from malls” and “keeping to a smaller ‘footprint’ – stores measuring more like 3,500 square feet than 35,000 – and locating in neighborhoods with plentiful foot traffic.”
The company made money last year for the first time since 1996–even though sales of $22 million were down 6 percent from 2008.
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