As part of the continuing demise of Sterling, veteran children’s book editor Frances Gilbert will leave her position as vp, publisher of Sterling Children’s to join Random House Children’s Books as editorial director, Doubleday, starting June 18.
Gilbert will report to vp, publishing director of the Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group, Mallory Loehr. She will acquire and publish new books in a variety of formats and categories including board books, picture books, narrative nonfiction, novels and ebooks, and will also oversee the backlist publishing program. Gilbert has been at Sterling for 12 years.
Her first list for Doubleday is planned for 2014. Gilbert says in the announcement, “I envision future Doubleday lists to be rich with titles that have a classic and enduring feel—books that are tasteful, uncomplicated and warm.”
In other personnel news, Natalie White is joining AuthorBuzz.com as director of client services
People from across the book publishing world colluded collaborated to raise a new record of over $1 million dollars to support the good works of the UJA-Federation of New York’s on Thursday evening and to honor Sandi Mendelson (with their service award) and Random House ceo Markus Dohle. Emcee (and Crown author) Mindy Kaling joked that she “had the same reaction as everyone” when she was invited: “Markus Dohle, the German guy? The UJA is very progressive.” Dohle was gently but persistently teased for his often-raised “enormous thumbs” and praised for the enthusiasm he brought to reorganizing the company in difficult times and opening up Random House’s corporate culture.
As expected, Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop; Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop; and Jonathon Welch of Talking Leaves…Books have all been elected to three-year terms on the ABA Board. Welch is a brand-new board member; Burton is serving her second term, and Koehler was appointed to the board last spring to fill a vacancy.
Patrick Barry and Brian Moore have been promoted to senior designers at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
At Blake Friedmann, finance manager since 2004 Adrian Clarke now joins the board as finance director, and Ruth Richardson has been promoted to contracts manager.
Biographer C. David Heymann, 67, died after collapsing in his apartment building, believed to have suffered from cardiopulmonary failure. His first celebrity biography, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legend of Barbara Hutton (1983), was recalled and destroyed after factual errors came to light, later republished by Lyle Stuart. His subsequent bestsellers included A Woman Named Jackie and Liz: An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor.
On the May 4 item about the launch of BroadLit and their new online romance hub and publishing lines, the company writes to clarify that Phyllis Grann had no role in developing the new initiative: she was just providing an endorsement quote that BroadLit was billing prominently in their press release. (A later version of the release made it a little clearer that Grann was speaking as someone “who has worked closely over many years with BroadLit’s chief publishing officer Nancy Cushing-Jones.)
In corporate acquisitions, Boston-based Shambhala Publications announced it has acquired Ithaca-based Snow Lion, publisher of Tibetan Buddhist books. Founded in 1980, Snow Lion’s list adds over three hundred titles to Shambhala catalog, including six by the Dalai Lama. National Book Network will continue to sell Snow Lion’s titles to the trade “for the time being” but “by the fall” Shambhala’s distributor Random House will take over.
In the event that Amazon’s forthcoming exclusive license of the seven Harry Potter ebooks for their Kindle Owner’s Lending Library created any questions about the existing availability of those ebooks for traditional lending through libraries, Overdrive spokesperson Mike Lovett has the answer: “We view this news as good news, as another author/publisher sees lending ebooks as a way to maximize exposure and connect with readers. OverDrive has an exclusive distribution agreement with Pottermore to provide Harry Potter ebooks and audiobooks into libraries and schools worldwide, and this is not affected by the Amazon news.”