People, Etc. - Publishers Lunch

Sue Ostfield will join Milkweed Editions as sales and marketing director on February 1. Most recently she has been director of national accounts at Publishers Group West.

Former Zondervan associate publisher Angela Scheff has an “exclusive relationship to acquire and develop Christian non-fiction titles” for Thomas Nelson as a freelancer. (Nelson and Zondervan will soon be under the same HarperCollins corporate umbrella.) She will focus primarily on the spiritual growth category.

Granta will shift distribution of their books in the US to Ingram Publisher Services in two phases. Beginning January 1, 2012, IPS will distribute a “select group of books” (including The Granta Book of the African Short Story, Granta Book of the Irish Short Story, and New Granta Book of Travel). Starting April 1, they will distribute all other books for which Granta has US distribution rights. Grove/Atlantic will continue to distribute Granta Magazine. Granta already uses Ingram’s CoreSource to manage and distribute digital assets.

People who want to volunteer to help give away books on World Book Night can apply at this link. Carl Lennertz says: “I most definitely want booksellers, librarians, authors, bloggers, agents, and publishing folks in the mix, partly because so many have said they want to, partly because all those parties have a stake in reading and books. We’re looking for people who want to share their excitement about books and how a love of reading expands and enriches our experience of life.”

Founder of the current version of Paris’s Shakespeare and Company George Whitman died at home above the store, at 98. He suffered a stroke two months ago.
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