At Simon & Schuster, in the marketing and publicity department, senior director of the copy team Maria Tahim will relocate to Germany for the next two years, where she will telecommute part-time from Heidelberg. Rachel Behr has been promoted to senior copywriter starting June 3. Mary Mudd will join as children’s copywriter, starting June 10. She previously worked at Disney/Hyperion. Janice Potter is retiring from her role as senior contracts director on May 31.
James Horobin will join Wellbeck Publishing as group sales, marketing and publicity director near the end of 2019. He was previously with Zaffre.
Cheryl Lew has joined Holiday House as senior publicist. She was previously publicist at Media Connect, the book division of Finn Partners.
Gollancz chair and consultant publisher at Orion Malcolm Edwards will retire on May 31 after starting at Gollancz 43 years ago. Hachette UK ceo David Shelley calls Edwards “a true publishing legend.”
Edwards said: “I feel privileged to have worked with so many great authors, editors and other colleagues across all the imprints at Orion. I can’t omit mentioning what an honor it was to work for more than 15 years alongside George Weidenfeld…and I’d particularly like to thank Arnaud Nourry and Tim Hely-Hutchinson for their years of support.”
Bookselling
Washington Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle is on a mission this season, looking to visiting an independent bookstore on every road stop he makes with the team, sharing those visits on Twitter. “I want to support local businesses,” Doolittle tells the WSJ. “I want to support these places that are active in their communities, that are trying to be supportive and inclusive spaces for their communities.”