Marnie Cochran will move over to become executive editor at Harmony and Rodale, starting January 1. She has been at Ballantine for over 10 years.
Kerri Kolen has joined Audible as executive editor on their originals team. Most recently she was executive editor at Putnam.
Lucille Rettino has been promoted to the new position of vp, associate publisher, director of marketing and publicity for Tom Doherty Associates. In addition to her existing reports, Melissa Singer will report to Rettino in her scheduling/list management capacity while continuing to report to Patrick Nielsen Hayden for editorial work.
Rachel Richardson is joining Watson, Little as their first-ever rights director. She has been rights director at Rights People.
Susan Yates has announced her retirement from Yates & Yates, where she is office manager, at the end of the year after over 30 years of service.
Awards
The inimitable Seth Godin will receive the annual Jack Covert Award for contribution to the business book industry. Covert says in the announcement, “One name is all you need. He is that influential. And he is just as generous. Talking to Seth is like drinking from a firehose. The ideas that come from the man’s brain seem endless, and we have benefited greatly as a company from our conversations and connection to him. I know for a fact that he has had a similar impact on countless others.”
Godin’s longtime publisher Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio adds, “No other author has challenged us quite so much to up our game. No other author has rewarded us, and his readers, with so many remarkable books of enduring value. Indeed, no other author has guided us, as Seth has, to define what we really stand for.”
Year-End Letters
Penguin Random House ceo Markus Dohle wrote to employees on Thursday expressing gratitude for their efforts in an annual “tradition that holds significant meaning to me.” While “2018 was not an easy year,” it still yielded “continued success for Penguin Random House – both creatively and commercially. Most notably, there was Michelle Obama’s memoir, “which has been brilliantly published and internationally coordinated by our Crown colleagues with our publishing teams in all our territories, plus many more countries and languages…. Total copies currently in print worldwide: more than five million.”
They also “again achieved significant growth in our Audio programs; increased revenues globally; welcomed several publishing houses into our family of imprints in the US, India, Brazil, and Germany; and created a wide range of promising new imprints throughout our territories.”
The letter was once again accompanied by a video, celebrating the company’s belief “in the power of books to connect and transform us.” Dohle writes: “Penguin Random House’s overall success and recognition as the industry leader is inextricably linked to our purpose and social responsibility efforts, which reflect who we are and how we choose to operate. Our shared values and belief in doing good beyond our publishing is a source of strength, pride, and active citizenship for us all.”