At Post Hill Press, Heather King has joined as managing editor and Amy White as accounting and contracts administrator. Holly Pisarchuk has been promoted to director of finance.
April Osborn has joined Mira as editor, acquiring crime/suspense and book club fiction. Previously, she was a senior associate editor at St. Martin’s.
Suzie Sisoler has been expanded her role at Penguin Random House, with the new title of vice president, director, consumer engagement, .
Publisher and ceo and publisher of Manual Moderno in Mexico Hugo Setzer was named the new president of the International Publishers Association, and svp at Elsevier Michiel Kolman, PhD was named vice president.
Portfolio UK is changing its name to Penguin Business. and aims to “acquire more talent and fresh ideas from around the world” in addition to publishing books from the US Portfolio list.
The Bright Agency is launching an in-house film and TV division, hiring Courtney Arumugam as senior creative executive. She was at Mattel Creations, after working for companies including Channel 4, BBC and FremantleMedia. The agency hopes to develop clients’ as joint ventures, co-productions, or full option agreements. Board member Richard Scrivener oversees the new division in his business affairs role.
Sandy Friedman, 75, long-time international sales executive, died on September 28. Friedman sold books to distributors and booksellers on behalf of several US publishers, including NAL/Penguin, and Random House, as a member of its international sales department from 1993-2004. She then worked as a freelance consultant in the field until her retirement.
Forthcoming
Christopher Paolini‘s THE FORK, THE WITCH, AND THE WORM, Tales from Alagaësia (Volume 1: Eragon), will be published by Knopf Children’s on December 31 (and PRH UK on January 1), with an announced US first printing of 500,000 copies. The book features three new stories, set in Paolini’s world of Alagaësia, interspersed with scenes from Eragon’s own unfolding adventure.
Noted/Quoted
Macmillan ceo John Sargent was questioned at Frankfurt’s annual ceo panel on Wednesday. On the still-simmering controversy in Germany over the surprise dismissal of Rowohlt publisher Barbara Laugwitz, which we noted earlier this week, Sargent said: “I’m the guy who offered Barbara the job as publisher of Rowohlt, and I approved the recent management change…I think the world of Barbara and I’m not going to sit here and say anything against her.”
During the session, he also suggested that the illegally posted PDF of Little Brown UK’s edition of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury — which Wikileaks highlighted (and served via Google Drive until they took the file down) likely cost Holt and Wolff lost sales of 400,000 to 500,000 units.