HarperCollins svp, sales analytics and pricing Dan Lubart has joined Hachette Book Group as svp, strategy and publishing operations, reporting to coo Joe Mangan. Lubart will oversee strategic planning, business development, digital media/distribution, and supply chain management functions of all HBG imprints.
His work will include "a focus on business intelligence, enhanced reporting tools that combine sales, marketing, and publicity data, and continued improvement of demand forecasting." He will "also help to identify new business opportunities, strategic partnerships and potential areas of growth and investment."
Mangan says in the announcement, "Dan is a high impact executive with deep skills in publishing, strategy and business intelligence. He has extensive experience in creating data transparency, and crafting information around the key decisions we make in publishing."
Liz Perl has been promoted to executive vice president, marketing at Simon & Schuster. "Liz has made the corporate marketing department a linchpin of our efforts and a valued and reliable partner to our publishing, sales and digital teams, while taking on an ever-increasing workload with great skill, superb judgment and boundless enthusiasm," ceo Carolyn Reidy said in the announcement.
At Metropolitan, Riva Hocherman has been promoted to executive editor.
Ryan Chapman announced that he has left Atavist Books "to take some time off and re-evaluate my next move."
In promotions at Trident Media Group, Meredith Miller will now be responsible for licensing frontlist titles in the UK and the major overseas translation markets and Lauren Paverman moves up to to foreign rights agent. She will license translation rights to backlist titles.
In the UK, Quercus executive director and publisher David North has been promoted to managing director, taking over as the unit's leader, with former chief executive Mark Smith leaving that position. Hodder & Stoughton's purchase of Quercus is expected to be finalized by the end of the month.
In awards news, the 20 stories to win the 2014 O. Henry Prizes were named, comprising the contents of the trade paperback collection that Vintage will publish in September.
Heston Blumenthal's HISTORIC HESTON won the James Beard Awards' top prize as cookbook of the year, also winning the category award for "cooking from a professional point of view," and sharing the award for photography. Though Blumenthal is published by Bloomsbury, Random House imprints claimed 5 of the 13 cookbook awards. Blumenthal's book has a list price of $200 in its current edition, though Bloomsbury has a $65 edition scheduled for publication in October.
The Agatha Awards were also presented over the weekend to honorees in six categories, including Daniel Stashower's THE HOUR OF PERIL: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War for best nonfiction.
In store news, BookHampton (with three stores on Long Island) has warned supporters and the media that "the frozen winter and this very chilly spring caught BookHampton in a grip that has brought us to our knees. We're fighting to have one more Summer, and not to be bowed by the writing on the wall that forced our colleagues to close their doors." They ask supporters to "please take a moment to order just one book right now from BookHampton Any book at all....We'll hold it in store or ship it anywhere!" (Note that they sell online only by a request form rather than a shopping cart.)
