Janine Barlow and Samantha Zukergood have both been promoted to assistant editor at Thomas Dunne Books.
At Dutton, Jamie Knapp has been promoted to associate director of publicity, and Becky Odell moves up to associate publicist.
James Hegberg has been promoted to senior online marketing manager at Sourcebooks.
At Random House Children’s books, on the licensed & proprietary brands marketing team: Krister Engstrom has been promoted to assistant director, Tara Grieco moves up to associate marketing manager, and Jena Debois is now marketing coordinator.
Sarah Gaydos will join Oni Press as editorial director of licensed publishing. She has been an editor at IDW Publishing.
Rebecca Vnuk has joined LibraryReads as the organization’s first executive director. Previously she was editor for collection management and library outreach with the American Library Association’s Booklist Publications.
Distribution
LSC Communications (the traditional printing and services company spun out of RR Donnelley) has acquired TriLiteral, a logistics provider specializing in the distribution of books for university presses and academic publishers, formed in 2001 as a joint venture among Harvard, MIT and Yale University Presses. Separately, LSC announced a multi-year publisher services agreement with America’s Test Kitchen to provide “print, sourcing, distribution and postal optimization solutions” for their cookbooks and magazines.
Longleaf Services will provide fulfillment and publishing services for University of New Mexico Press starting July 1.
Corporate
UK-based rights, royalty and literary agency software provider Bradbury Phillips International has been acquired by knk Business Software. Bradbury Phillips’s software is best known for its use among UK literary agencies, including United Agents, Andrew Nurnberg Associates, Intercontinental Literary Agency, Rogers, Coleridge & White, Aitken Alexander and David Higham. Founders Alison Bradbury and Anne Phillips “will continue to support their systems and existing and future clients.”
The France Loisirs book club and retail chain, which has been in receivership since last December, is laying off 450 people (from a work force of 1,800) as an “emergency measure.” A court had given the company six months to find new funding and time is running out. Ceo of parent company Actissia Adrian Diaconu says, “No partner has been identified since the beginning of the procedure. But for three weeks we have identified a possible partner who practices in the areas of the Internet, arts and media.”
Bookselling
Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookshop in Ann Arbor, MI will close at the end of August after 26 years in business. The store wrote on their Facebook page: “It’s been a wonderful journey. As in the great Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express there are many culprits for our demise – we are getting older; constant street construction; Amazon; and fierce local competition. We hope you will keep local bookstores vital and alive by patronizing the many exciting stores that remain open.”