Founding ceo of Bookish.com Paulo Lemgruber is leaving to “pursue other opportunities,” as the high-profile book-focused site is late in launching. Carolyn Marks is taking over as chief executive. In January she was named general manager of parents and lifestyle digital at Meredith, and she was general manager at The Daily Beast.
In other personnel news, Stephanie Swane has been promoted to senior sales manager at becker&mayer! Books, driving the sales strategy for both the juvenile and adult packaging groups. She will focus on selling book proposals to US trade publishers and retailers, while developing new ideas for titles and identifying opportunities within the industry.
RoyaltyShare has hired Marcus Holloway as president and chief operating officer, and the company has received a new round of investment from Trident Capital, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, and PlumTree Partners to support their growth. Founder and managing director of PlumTree Jeff Rich is joining the company’s board.
They are starting a new Enterprise Services division, focused on the needs of large entertainment and media companies. The separate Technology Solutions division will now be led by president Steve Grady.
At Melville House, Kelly Burdick has been promoted to executive editor, overseeing the editorial department. Ellie Robins has been hired as an acquiring editor. Her duties will include overseeing their Neversink Library. (She was managing editor of Hesperus Press in London.)
Paul Oliver has been appointed marketing manager, in charge of academic and library marketing. He will also oversee their HybridBook Project, which he initiated. Kathleen Massara has joined the company as a publicist. Previously she was the literary editor of the Flavorwire culture blog.
Jeremy Tescher has been appointed national sales manager at The Overlook Press. He was previously at Penguin.
Elda Rotor is being promoted to associate publisher of Penguin Classics, while continuing to serve as editorial director as well.
At Chicago Review Press, Lisa Reardon has been promoted to senior editor.
Canadian independent rep group Kate Walker & Company has changed its name to Ampersand Canada’s Book & Gift Agency, effective immediately.
Former literary agent Julian Bach, 97, died September 30 at his home in New York. He founded the Julian Bach Literacy Agency in the 60s with the help of Christopher Shaw, and the agency was sold to IMG in 1992. Services were scheduled for this morning; additional information is in this NYT listing.
Awards News
The just-announced winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics–Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess–are among the primary characters featured in Richard Panek’s THE 4% UNIVERSE: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, which tells the story of the work for which they won the prize. Published in January, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has a trade paperback scheduled for November release.
David Rakoff won the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his book, Half Empty.
David Bezmogzis, Lynn Coady, Patrick deWitt, Esi Edugyan, Zsuzsi Gartner, and Michael Ondaatje have been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The winner will be announced on November 8.
Full list