Meghan Deans will join Ecco on June 13 as marketing director. She has been at Little, Brown, most recently as director of social media.
At Clarkson Potter, Kim Tyner has been promoted to assistant production director.
Harper Christian reports that longtime employee and vp of custom product development Joseph “Scott” Harvey, 52, died on Friday after a five-month battle to cancer. Harvey joined Thomas Nelson as a national accounts manager in May 2000. SVP of sales Tom Knight says, “Our friendship surpassed just being colleagues, as did most that ever had the opportunity to work with Scott. In addition to Scott’s larger-than-life personality his business acumen was just as large. He had the ability to make a vision come to fruition, and an infectious personality that proved to make him a great leader.”
Forthcoming
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday will publish Pat Conroy‘s posthumous nonfiction collection, A LOWCOUNTRY HEART: Reflections on a Writing Life, on October 25. The collection of “letters, interviews, and magazine articles spanning Conroy’s long literary career, supplemented by touching pieces from Conroy’s many friends” will have an announced 125,000-copy first printing.
In a note to readers to be included with the book, Talese stated: “When Pat Conroy died, we all felt bereft. He had sent me less than 200 pages of his new novel, The Storms of Aquarius, about four male friends and teachers who came of age during the Vietnam War years, which he very much wanted to finish, but that was not to be. We are still searching his journals for more on this novel, and at some point we may have something to share with you. However, because we did not want his faithful readers to be without something from him we gathered together his various nonfiction pieces and we asked his wife, writer Cassandra King, to contribute an introduction.”
Initiatives
HarperCollins has launched weekly programming through Facebook Live starting Monday. Each day has a specific theme, from “Motivational Mondays” (for self-help and other inspirational topics) “Writerly Wednesdays” (for writer workshops) and “Free-For-All-Fridays” (content from HarperCollins employees) and features 15 to 45 minute videos from authors including Lindsey Vonn, Susan Wiggs, Adriana Trigiani, Jessie Burton, and Peggy Orenstein. “We are thrilled to launch daily programming of HarperCollins authors through Facebook Live,” said HarperCollins svp, director of creative development Lisa Sharkey in the announcement. “This is an amazing way for fans to interact with authors and get a look behind the scenes of publishing. We are always seeking new ways to engage readers and expand the reach of our authors and Facebook Live is an exciting new approach.”