Anja Schmidt has joined Oxmoor House as editorial director, reporting to Time Home Entertainment publisher Margot Schupf. Most recently she was US publisher at Kyle Books.
Zack Wagman will join Ecco as executive editor on March 9. Previously he was senior editor at Crown & Hogarth.
Matt Mullin will leave Nook, where he has been senior manager, digital content, at the end of this week and joins start-up book discovery site The Reading Room on March 16 as sales director. Reporting to Mullin at The Reading Room will be newly-hired sales and publishing coordinator Nicole Cunningham, formerly of ICM.
At Holt, Caroline Zancan has been promoted to editor.
At Rizzoli, Casey Whalen has been promoted to manager, special sales and universe calendars. In addition, Shanta Inshiqaq joins the company as international sales director. Inshiqaq was most recently international and field sales director at Bloomsbury.
Patrizia van Daalen is appointed publishing director for Penguin Random House North Asia, based in China.
Penguin Publishing announced changes in the responsibilities of their adult sales, effective with the Winter 2016 lists, which they start selling in June. Sales team will now be aligned according to imprint rather than format. As a result of the realignment, executive director national accounts, paperback sales Don Redpath will be leaving the company.
Lauren Monaco’s paperback group will now sell all formats for Berkley, NAL, Putnam, Dutton, Blue Rider, Plume and Avery. John Lawton’s hardcover group will sell all titles for Penguin, Penguin Press, Viking, Riverhead, Perigee, Tarcher and Penguin Audio — and will oversee sales for the distributed lines from Library of America, Europa and Overlook. Within the two groups, key account responsibilities have been realigned to match the new sales structure.
At HMH Children’s: Amanda Acevedo has been promoted to marketing associate, school & library marketing; and Whitney Leader-Picone has joined the company as senior designer (she was at Charlesbridge).
Paul Von Drasek has retired from his position as trade sales manager at Capstone, which he joined in 2009. He spent over 30 years in book sales, having worked previously at Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt (as well as the merged HMH), Little Brown, and Penguin. Von Drasek says: “I owe a great debt of gratitude to the booksellers who taught me how to be a rep. No one goes to school for this. And of course I thank the many reps I’ve worked with who have shared their success with me, and whose focus and creativity made my work life challenging and exciting.” Among the many testimonials offered, author Jon Scieszka wrote this Limerick for Paul:
There once was a kick-ass bookseller
Sold Bibles, Lolita, Old Yeller…
Please toast this guy Paul,
The best of them all.
For he’s one jolly good feller.