William Wood will join Barnes & Noble as chief information officer, reporting to ceo Ronald Boire. Wood previously served as cio at EZCORP. Boire said in the announcement: “We are thrilled to welcome Bill to Barnes & Noble and are excited to have someone with such broad experience in information technology join the team. Bill is a proven leader in this area and his appointment signals our continued commitment to being a leading omni-channel retailer.”
At Penguin Children’s, Jocelyn Schmidt has been promoted to vp, associate publisher, reporting to new president Jen Loja. Schmidt was executive director of brand management. In the new role she will have “day to day responsibility for the overall publishing schedule of the group, and will work with me to set the priorities of the publishing office. She will serve as a major support to the publishers as they continue to develop their lists, as well as for Sales and Marketing to communicate and jump start the priorities of our publishers. She also will continue to oversee the brand department and those initiatives that now are underway, with Stephanie Sabol, to insure that what she began remains a defining factor in our business.”
Jennifer Udden will join Barry Goldblatt Literary as agent on January 4. She was previously at Donald Maass Literary Agency. She will continue to handle adult science fiction and fantasy, as well as romance and young adult fiction.
Goodreads is “predicting” — or at least hoping — that Kristin Hannah‘s The Nightingale, “based on its trajectory – and the kind of audience it appeals to…will be The Help of 2016.”