At Random House, Jeff Weber has been promoted to director, online digital sales and Candace Chaplin moves up to VP and director of sales and marketing, nonfiction brands, a newly created position.
Deb Shapiro has launched Deb Shapiro & Company, a PR/marketing company for authors and books. For the past seven years, she was director of publicity and online marketing at Bloomsbury Publishing.
The late Kim Ricketts’ daughter Whitney confirms that Lara Hamilton will take over running Kim RIcketts Book Events, as the family remains “closely connected to the business.” “Lara shares my mom’s passion for good books, cooking, and gathering people to share good food and good books and new ideas. It was my mom’s wish that Lara take the company forward and she intends to do that with the same fierce passion and curiosity.”
A memorial tribute to literary agent Owen Laster will be held Thursday, May 19 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture (2 West 64th Street at Central Park West), beginning at 5:30, with a reception immediately following.
High school student-in-the-news Gaby Rodriguez is being represented by Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management and Seattle attorney Anne Bremner. Rodriguez had pretended to be pregnant for six months as part of a “social experiment” about stereotypes, which landed her in major media across the country when she revealed the truth. Martin says they have logged over 100 requests from media, networks, film producers and book publishers.
Kathleen Ortiz is joining Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation as the subsidiary rights director, starting May 4. She was previously employed at Lowenstein Associates.
Former longtime Simon & Schuster advertising director Strome Buchanon Lamon, 91, died April 25 after a brief illness. He retired from publishing in 1988.
Yesterday we passed along the Hollywood Reporter’s erroneous citation that SEAL TEAM SIX is coming from Thomas Dunne Books, rather than St. Martin’s. The publisher reported to us last night that they had more than tripled trade account orders for the book in less than 24 hours, up to almost 70,000 copies.