People, Etc. - Publishers Lunch

Beth Polcari has been promoted to president, international, at Scholastic, starting January 1. She succeeds Nelson Hitchcock, who will retire at the end of the year after 15 years. Rose Else-Mitchell is rejoining the company as president, education solutions, and will work with current Scholastic Education president Greg Worrell and Polcari to combine their existing divisions into a single education solutions group over the next six months, which Ms. Else-Mitchell will lead starting June 1. After the transition, Worrell will continue to advise on strategic partnerships until his retirement in December 2021 after 30 years. Polcari, Else-Mitchell, and Worrell will all report to Scholastic chairman and ceo Richard Robinson.

At the Frances Goldin Literary Agency, Caroline Eisenmann has been promoted to senior agent. Jade Wong-Baxter, will join as associate agent beginning January 1. She is currently junior agent and foreign rights associate with Massie & McQuilkin.

Best Of
Katy Waldman at the New Yorker chose her best books of the year.

Salaries
Further to Wednesday’s item about starting salaries at HarperCollins, a Harper Union steward told PL that union representatives will be meeting with management in January to discuss salary increases in line with the raises given by industry contemporaries. “Our bargaining unit has been vocal in support of an across-the-board increase,” they said, “which would bring our lowest-paid members to approximately $45,000 while also addressing wage compression across the spectrum of salaries within the unit.”

The steward continued, “HR is now hiring in at $38k, but this is still well below the new minimums that other Big 5 houses are espousing, and still very low for a person trying to make ends meet in New York City. We hold that our ask of a universal raise is more than reasonable and hope that we can come to an amicable agreement on salary terms with management next month.”

Imprints
Post Hill Press is launching Wicked Son, a new Jewish imprint focused on “publishing sharp-edged political and cultural commentary as well as history, fiction, philosophy and other books of Jewish interest.” Adam Bellow and David S. Bernstein will lead the imprint.

International
A Paris appeals court has reaffirmed an earlier decision to reject calls of major Lagardere investors Amber and Vivendi to hold a special shareholder meeting to vote on new board members. The court further ordered Amber and Vivendi to pay Lagardere 20,000 euros each in legal costs. In a statement, Lagardere welcomed the decision and reiterated “its commitment to a constructive dialogue with all shareholders in the interests of the Group and all of its stakeholders.”

Sales
Penguin Random House announced that Barack Obama’s A Promised Land has sold 3,320,000 units across all formats and editions in the U.S. and Canada in its first month.