Rose Hilliard has joined Audible as executive editor in their Original Publishing division, bolstering their acquisitions of original audiobooks and audio-first projects. She was senior editor at St. Martin's.
Jessica Renheim has been promoted to senior editor at Dutton. Publisher Christine Ball said in the announcement, "As you all know she is one of the hardest workers around and she is part of the Dutton fabric."
At Viking Children's, Kendra Levin was recently promoted to executive editor while Maggie Rosenthal was promoted to assistant editor.
At University of North Carolina Press, Brandon Proia has been promoted to senior editor.
Chris Wellbelove will move to Aitken Alexander Associates as an agent next week, from Greene and Heaton. The longtime head of the agency's film and TV department Lesley Thorne has been appointed managing director, and head of translation rights Lisa Baker is joining the board as a director. The agency says it will "seek to appoint another senior agent later in the year."
Monika Woods has joined Curtis Brown as a literary agent, and will continue to represent literary and commercial fiction, non-fiction, and food projects. Most recently she was at Inkwell Management.
The ABA has nominated two booksellers to join their board for the first time, Kenny Brechner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, ME and Christine Onorati of WORD in Brooklyn, NY. Current vice president Robert Sindelar of Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, WA is set to take over as president for a two-year term, and Jamie Fiocco of Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC has been nominated for a second three-year board term and will serve as vice president/secretary. Departing from the board will be current president Betsy Burton, John Evans, and Matthew Norcross.
Separately, the ABA has expanded their Booksellers Advisory Council and named 10 booksellers to serve on the newly-created Diversity Task Force.
At Workman, James Wehrle has been promoted to the newly-created position of executive director of sales for the Workman and its distribution clients, managing all book trade accounts. For the Workman imprint, Chloe Puton moves up to publicity manager, while Megan Harley has been promoted to promotions manager.
Shawn Metts has been named vice president of sales at Bookmasters. He was vice president of book sales at F+W Media. He takes over the position from Deb Keets, who is retiring after 17 years with the company.
Author, journalist and host of CBC Radio program "The Vinyl Cafe," Stuart McLean, 68, died of melanoma. Viking Canada is his "proud publisher of fourteen books over the past twenty-seven years." His longtime publisher Nicole Winstanley noted "his instantly recognizable voice, wisdom, tender humor, and enormous care."
Acquisitions
Ingram Content Group's VitalSource announced signing a letter of intent to acquire San Francisco-based Verba Software, whose technology supports campus bookstores with web-based tools for course material selection, student price comparison, and providing access to digital materials. The transaction expected to close later this quarter and they expect to retain and grow the San Francisco team.
