David Drake has been promoted to president of Crown, and Gillian Blake moves up to publisher. Kara Welsh is promoted to president of a newly-renamed Ballantine Books, which comprises Ballantine, Bantam, Dell, and Delacorte imprints, and Jennifer Hershey moves up to publisher of Ballantine. Chris Jackson is promoted to executive vice president, publisher, One World and RocLit 101.
Also within the Random House Publishing Group, Scott Shannon, executive vice president, publisher of Del Rey, will expand his role to also become director, strategy. Tricia Narwani is now editor-in-chief at Del Rey, and Keith Clayton moves up to vp and publishing director, licensed publishing.
Anchor Books will begin publishing hardcovers, in addition to its paperback line, launching with six to eight titles in spring 2022. The hardcover list will focus on “psychological suspense, mystery, and commercial fiction, as well as popular nonfiction.” Edward Kastenmeier will lead the new program as editorial director, working with editors Anna Kaufman and Caitlin Landuyt.
Patrick Nolan was promoted to publisher of Penguin Books as of the beginning of the year. He is in charge of the full Penguin backlist catalog, and also continue to acquire for his own list. Viking editor-in-chief Andrea Schulz serves as editor-in-chief of Penguin Books as well now. Meg Leder has been promoted to editorial director of Penguin Life, and Amy Sun moves up to editor there. Gretchen Schmid is associate editor for Viking Penguin; and Nidhi Pugalia is assistant editor.
At Portfolio/Sentinel, Helen Healey has been promoted to associate editor; Nina Rodríguez-Marty to assistant editor; Mary Kate Skehan marketing manager; Regina Andreoni to marketing coordinator.
Ilene Schreider has joined Independent Publishers Group as director, special sales. She was previously senior sales manager at Sourcebooks.
Kaiulani Williams has been promoted to director, preK-12 educational marketing, Penguin Random House.
Emily Luedloff has joined Sourcebooks as library marketing associate.
Olga Filina, Ali McDonald, and Cassandra Rodgers launched 5 Otter Literary, a Toronto-based agency, “representing authors and illustrators across a wide range of literary and commercial fiction, non-fiction, and children’s literature.” All three founders were previously at The Rights Factory. Liza Demaison joins as head of rights, also from The Rights Factory.
Léonicka Valcius has been promoted to literary agent at Transatlantic Agency.
Maud Sepult will move up to group rights director at Simon & Schuster UK, starting February 1 and succeeding Stephanie Purcell.
Author Jeffrey Archer has left Pan Macmillan after 18 years at the publisher and will return to Harper UK, with a three book deal. Harper UK and Archer ended their association in 2002 after ten years, following his conviction and imprisonment for perjury. A year ago, Archer sued his agents at Curtis Brown UK, claimed they owed him underpayments since they began representing him in 2002. Archer’s first book with Harper UK will be released in fall of 2021.
Imprints
Bonnier Books UK announced a new digital-first imprint, Embla Books, publishing commercial genre fiction and to be led by publishing director Jane Snelgrove starting January 29. Snelgrove ran Amazon Publishing’s Thomas & Mercer in the UK.
Production company Nacelle Company is starting an imprint that will focus on “pop history, nostalgia and limited edition reprints.” First titles under Nacelle will include The Toys That Made Us Compendium, by Brian Volk-Weiss, based on the Netflix documentary. Ingram Publisher Services is distributing.