In the UK, Scholastic Children’s Books managing director Hilary Murray Hill is leaving after 8 years at the company to join Egmont UK as managing director in March. Scholastic says they will name a “replacement in due course,” and for now the publishing division will report to co-group managing director Catherine Bell.
Annette Pollert has joined Sourcebooks Fire as editorial manager. Previously, she was an editor at Simon Pulse.
Shannon O’Neill has joined Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as agent. She was previously editorial director and agent at The Sagalyn Agency. O’Neill will remain based in Washington, DC, focusing on narrative nonfiction, popular science, current affairs, and the history of ideas, as well as literary and upmarket fiction.
Brianne Johnson has been promoted to senior agent at Writers House.
Jessica Bromberg will join Quercus Publishing in the US next week as associate director of publicity. Previously she was publicity manager at Grand Central, where she managed the Forever and Forever Yours imprints.
At Macmillan, Malati Chavali has been promoted to ebook channel director.
Emily Krupin has joined Harlequin as assistant editor for the Love Inspired imprint. Previously she was an assistant editor at Oxford University Press.
At David Cook, Alex Field has been promoted to publisher of trade books and multimedia, after nearly 5 years there as deputy publisher.
The second #TwitterFiction Festival, designed to “bring fiction to life on Twitter,” will be held between March 12-16, with the AAP and Penguin Random House as presenting partners along with Twitter itself. Over 20 authors from six different publishing houses, including Anthony Marra, Alexander McCall Smith, Brad Meltzer, and Ransom Riggs, are scheduled to participate in the weeklong event. Andrew Fitzgerald at Twitter says, “the Twitter Fiction Festival is a great way for authors of any level to use Twitter to bring the art of storytelling to life.” A competition, beginning today and running through February 5, invites “everyone..to submit their fiction ideas for the chance to be featured in a showcase alongside these amazing authors.” Nine publishing veterans will judge those submissions and select the additional “featured storytellers,” based on “creativity, unique use of Twitter functionality, and writing talent.”
Finally, as you may have counted for yourself, Penguin Group actually had two titles (not one) on our lists of the top 10 fiction and nonfiction titles of 2013.