The first tangible editorial change following HarperCollins’ acquisition of Harlequin has been announced, and Harlequin Nonfiction titles acquired for publication in August 2015 and beyond will become part of the William Morrow list. President and group publisher for the US and Canada Michael Morrison wrote in a memo: “Since the acquisition of Harlequin, we have been looking at ways we can work together in order to be most effective and provide the greatest benefit to our authors. As a result, the one area we have decided to align is nonfiction. We feel that our longstanding expertise and strength in nonfiction publishing will benefit the Harlequin nonfiction authors and titles.”
Three Harlequin editors will be reassigned as part of that realignment. Deborah Brody, who has directed Harlequin Nonfiction, will become an executive editor for William Morrow on December 1, reporting to Cassie Jones. Cara Bedick will join her at Morrow as senior editor, reporting to Brody. Rebecca Hunt will join the Harper Design group on November 10, as senior editor, reporting to Marta Schooler.
Emi Battaglia will join Regan Arts on November 17 as director of marketing and publicity. Most recently she was vp, associate publisher and marketing director at Grand Central.
Sandy Hogdman has left the Einstein Thompson Agency, where she was rights director, to launch Hodgman Literary, which will handle foreign rights for a select group of agencies including Einstein Thompson, The Leshne Agency, and Empire Literary. She may now be reached at sandy@hodgmanliterary.com.
Richard Henning has joined University Press of New England as director, marketing and sales. Previously he was director of marketing at Northeast Foundation for Children.
LID Publishing is opening an office in San Francisco, spearheaded by Mark Brokering, who joins as associate publisher. He was most recently vp, content strategy & acquisition for Safari Books.
Elyse Cheney issued a statement denying any connection to Kevin Podlaski, the attorney Matt Bissonnette is currently suing for malpractice: “The sentence [in the complaint] claiming that Dutton and I referred Podlaski to Matt Bissonnette is not accurate. We have informed the attorney of that fact, and the lawyer has agreed to amend the complaint accordingly.” The full complaint is now online as well.
In updates, Blurb.com‘s new vetted network of recommended freelancers is live now.
In awards news, Joshua Ferris won the International Dylan Thomas Prize for his novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour.