Alison Rich has been promoted to the newly created role of senior vice president, author development, Penguin Random House, reporting to Nina von Moltke. She “will take the lead in helping us push further with the author brand development work.”
Rich continues to oversee licensing-business development for the adult divisions, the Out of Print merchandising group, and the Author Portal, which will “look to build functionality and programming.” Newly reporting to her is vp, executive director PRH Speakers Bureau Tiffany Tomlin.
Laura Eckes has been promoted to senior designer for Simon & Schuster Children’s and Paula Wiseman Books. At Atheneum, McElderry, and Beach Lane Books, Becca Syracuse has been promoted to senior designer and Karyn Lee to designer. At Simon & Schuster Children’s Elizabeth Mims has been promoted to production editor; Jeannie Ng to associate director, managing editorial; and Bridget Madsen to senior managing editor.
Rema Badwan has joined Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books as publishing operations and business affairs manager. She was previously at Simon & Schuster.
In the UK, Bartley Shaw joins Orion as publishing operations director in January, reporting to Sarah Benton. He was previously at Harper UK.
Imprints
Public Affairs founder Peter Osnos has started a new imprint, Platform Books, established with his wife, Susan Sherer Osnos. The line launches with Osnos’s memoir AN ESPECIALLY GOOD VIEW: Watching History Happen, spanning his half century in journalism and publishing as well as personal insights and reflections, publishing in May 2021. Platform is distributed by Two Rivers, with Osnos’s longtime colleagues Paul Golob and Lisa Kaufman serving as editors as part of their freelance portfolios.
“There is an element here of getting the band back together for us. Think of it as a reunion,” Osnos writes. As for other titles, “Yes, we are considering other projects but not ready yet to describe them. It’s a start-up for today’s world.” Osnos’s current role as editor-at-large at Public Affairs ends December 31.
Forthcoming
Senator Tammy Duckworth‘s memoir EVERY DAY IS A GIFT will be published by Twelve on March 30, 2021.
Events
The American Booksellers Association formally confirmed that the 2021 Winter Institute, originally scheduled to be held in Cincinnati in early February, will instead be convened as a virtual-only event. The virtual sessions will be run at new dates later in the month, from Thursday, February 18 through Saturday, February 20.
Separately, the ABA also told members their monthly box mailings of galleys and other materials will be sent every other month in 2021, starting with a January box.
Awards
The UK’s Goldsmiths Prize was given to M. John Harrison for The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again (Gollancz).
The Booker Prize virtual ceremony on November 19 will feature Barack Obama as one of its speakers, as well as Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo, and more.