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People, Etc.

July 31, 2017
By Erin Somers

Barbara Kline Pope will take over as director of the Johns Hopkins University Press this fall. She has been executive director of the National Academies Press since 1997, recently served as president of the Association of American University Presses, and has been on the management board at MIT Press. Previous director Kathleen Keane retired in April.

At Little, Brown, Ned Rust has been promoted to vice president and publisher for James Patterson, responsible for all aspects of the adult and children’s publishing programs. Jenny Bak has been promoted to editorial director for the children’s line, Jimmy Patterson Books.

Stephanie Buschardt has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as publicist. Most recently, she was a contributor for Kirkus.

Mary Ellen Owens has been promoted to senior production manager for Random House Children’s, while Shameiza Ally has been promoted to associate production manager.

Hachette Book Group national accounts manager Hector Martinez died of cancer on July 27 . He held his position for the last four years, and previously worked at Random House, Simon & Schuster, Follett Educational Services, and Santillana USA. Sophie Cottrell, svp of corporate communications for HBG, says: “Hector was a dear friend and valued colleague. His customers and colleagues adored him, and Hector cherished the people who made work so much more than a job. We will all miss Hector’s kindness, good humor, and steadfast friendship.”

Macmillan Learning CEO Ken Michaels will receive the Book Industry Study Group’s Distinguished Service Award at their annual meeting in September. (He had been chair of BISG’s board.)

At Fabled Films Press, Nicole Wheeler has been promoted to brand marketing and sales manager, while Gisselle Guillen joined as publicity and marketing manager. Previously, Guillen was public relations account manager for Rachel Litner Associates.

Distribution
IPG will distribute Quarto’s new Spanish language imprint Quarto Iberoamericana, launching in October, in the US and Canada, and Editorial Gustavo Gili de Mexico will distribute in Mexico.

Funding
After rebrandifying themselves from Lost My Name to Wonderbly, the UK-based custom publisher announced the closing of a Series B funding round of $8.5 million, led by European puzzle and children’s book publisher Ravensburger. Previous investors also participated, and the company has also lined up a venture debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company has now raised at least $21.5 million in venture capital, which sets a high bar of expectations. According to the most recent Companies House filing, in the year ending April 2016 they had sales of £19.4 million in the fiscal year ending April 2016, with an operating loss of £2.577 million. Wonderbly says they have sold over 2.7 million books worldwide so far. (Even before the latest round of funding, that’s about $4.80 of venture capital per copy.)

 

Filed Under: Free, Personnel

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