Michael Carley will retire from Simon & Schuster on April 22 after more than 34 years with the company. He started at S&S in 1980 as a field sales manager covering the Pacific Northwest, and added Amazon to his coverage in 1997, the first at S&S to do so. Carley was also the first S&S rep to sell directly to Costco. In a statement, evp, sales & marketing Michael Selleck said that Carley "has always been a passionate reader and his enthusiasm and dedication have been integral to the success of countless books. Michael has been a joy to work with; and not only because he has a true knack for putting exactly the right book in exactly the right hand, but also because of his inherent integrity, his institutional knowledge of both our authors and industry at large, his unflappable calm in the ever-updating immediacy of online retail, and that signature wit which kept us laughing these many years."
As part of a note that Carley was "beloved by booksellers," Elliott Bay Book Company co-owner Rick Simonson added: "He is one by whom others are measured against - what he brought to his sales calls, what he brought to being part of the store and the community. The good times were so many, even when they didn't so much involve books, at least not in a straightforward way."
After having "hemmed and hawed about how to cover genre fiction more consistently," Washington Post deputy editor of the books section Ron Charles announces two separate monthly roundups for sci-fi/fantasy and romance. Nancy Hightower is their sci-fi-/fantasy columnist and Sarah MacLean is their romance columnist.
Sarah Shumway will join Bloomsbury Children's Books as senior editor on March 3. Previously she was senior editor at Harper Children's Katherine Tegen Books imprint.
Kayley Hoffman has joined Simon & Schuster Children's as production editor, managing editorial. Previously she was assistant production editor at Berkley. In addition, Rio Cortez has been named sales manager, primarily responsible for the Field, Telemarketing and Telesales groups. Previously she was assistant manager of sales planning and analysis at Putnam.
Angharad Kowal has been promoted to managing director of Writers House UK, where she will will continue to look after the interests of all Writers House clients throughout the UK and Commonwealth, while continuing to grow her own list of authors.
Bob Podrasky has joined Recorded Books as senior acquisitions editor. He was most recently head of US publishing for AudioGO/Blackstone.
The Cooke Agency International has added Penguin Canada to its roster of clients for whom it will sell foreign rights in markets including the US, the UK, Australia/New Zealand, all foreign-language markets, and the French-Canadian market.
