Cheryl Eissing has been promoted to associate editor at Philomel Books.
Mary Moates has joined St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books as publicity manager. She was previously publicist at Random House.
Bridget Kinsella has joined Stanford University Press as publicist. Most recently, she was publicity manager at Harper One.
Distribution Status
Hachette Book Group reports that their new operating model in the Lebanon, IN warehouse “incorporates social distancing while enabling us to ship over 90 percent of demand to accounts who order directly from HBG.” They are working with Ingram to pick, pack and ship some additional orders “that should allow us to fulfill more than 95 percent of demand.” Those orders are still billed at HBG’s standard terms.
At the same time, however, they are “putting an operational hold on customers in areas where shelter in place and other restrictions have been mandated.” A new web page lets retailers check to see how their shipping status is coded, and accounts can contact the publisher to change their shipping status at AccountsManagement@hbgusa.com.
Free Harry Potter
J.K. Rowling, along with her commercial partners at Audible, Bloomsbury, OverDrive, Pottermore Publishing and Scholastic, announced their Harry Potter At Home initiatives to help during the crisis.
The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, is part of Audible’s free stories collection, available in six languages. The English-language version features the UK recording by Stephen Fry (rather than the US recording by Jim Dale). OverDrive patrons can borrow the title, as an audiobook or an ebook, for free in over 20 languages through the end of April. Earlier, Rowling issued a general read-aloud license for teachers.