Kim Gray has joined Sourcebooks as director of sales – mass and special markets. She most recently was vp/director of sales for Reader’s Digest/Trusted Media Brands.
At Little, Brown, Elora Weil was promoted to associate publicist (she has been supporting the Spark and Voracious teams), and Erinn McGrath moved up to director of publicity and marketing, James Patterson.
At Little, Brown Children’s, Marisa Russell joins the company as executive director, publicity on June 24. She was publicity director at Penguin Children’s. Siena Koncsol has been promoted to associate director, publicity.
Little Brown UK has been clearer than Dutton in the US in explaining how they have cut ties with author Linda Fairstein; in their case, that means only that “no new titles will be published by Little Brown in the UK.” Fairstein has an op-ed in the WSJ saying, “Ava DuVernay’s miniseries wrongly portrays [the Central Park Five] as totally innocent—and defames me in the process.”
In a 6/6 People item, Simon & Schuster evp, coo, and cfo Dennis Eulau‘s name was misspelled.
Distribution
UK-based Mrs Wordsmith will use Simon & Schuster for sales and distribution to the US and Canada as of September 1.
Picks
Jennifer Weiner‘s Mrs. Everything is Barnes & Noble’s June book club selection.
Office Space
The NYT is charmed and intrigued by book publishers adopting open plan office layouts as many big companies have relocated in recent years: First HarperCollins, then Hachette Book Group, Abrams and now Macmillan. (Even Norton is remodeling their space as they expand at their longtime home at 500 Fifth Avenue.) Executives at many of the publishers discuss the changes with the paper.