Announced right after Lunch mailed yesterday, Touchstone publisher Stacy Creamer will leave the company on November 15 after more than four years at the imprint. Scribner Publishing Group president Susan Moldow said in the announcement that she will serve as publisher of Touchstone “until further notice,” adding: “I am looking forward to taking a more active role in the day-to-day operations of the imprint, and working closely with the top-notch group of editors and publishing professionals she has assembled as we look to build upon their success to date.”
Moldow commended Creamer’s “sharp eye for talent, both on the page and in the office”, and that “her editorial guidance has brought great value and higher list placement to authors as diverse as J.A. Jance and Kurt Eichenwald. Her range and unique style have indelibly shaped the imprint.” But just over a year ago, in a reorganization of the company’s adult imprints, Touchstone was eliminated as a freestanding division of Simon & Schuster (as was Free Press) and consolidated under the Scribner Publishing Group
In other personnel news, Keith Pfeffer has joined Harvard Business Review Press as associate publisher, reporting to publisher Sarah McConville. He will oversee and coordinate commercial operations, and manage the domestic and international sales, marketing communications, and foreign rights and licensing teams. Pfeffer will also work closely with McConville and editorial director Tim Sullivan to “continue the evolution of the Press’ publishing strategy and business model. ” He was formerly senior sales director, digital and print group sales at McGraw-Hill Professional.
Former Atlantic literary editor Benjamin Schwarz has joined Yale University Press as consulting editor, concentrating on history, biography, and cultural affairs titles. Of Schwarz, who is also working on a biography of Winston Churchill for Random House, Yale UP publisher John Donatich said: “Ben’s broad intellectual curiosities and deep editorial experience have made him a widely admired visionary able to bring new voices to bear on big ideas. These skills excite the imagination of what Ben will bring to the Yale list.”
At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Faye Bi has been promoted to the new created role of associate publicist, school, library, and social media outreach.
Author Neil Gaiman will join the theater and performance faculty at Bard College in the spring, teaching an advanced workshop on fantasy writing.
Amazon Studios has given the green light for the production of an hour-long drama pilot of Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling Harry Bosch series and written by Connelly and Eric Overmyer. Bosch will be played by Titus Welliver (Argo, The Good Wife). Customers will be invited to watch the pilots and “provide feedback that will help determine which pilots should be produced as series” for 2014.