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People, Etc.

May 5, 2021
By Erin Somers

Liese Mayer, editorial director, fiction, at Bloomsbury is leaving to freelance edit. She joined the company in 2017. Executive Director and coo Adrienne Vaughan said, “To say we will miss her is a significant understatement.” Nancy Miller has been promoted to publishing director, adult trade, and Mary Kate Castellani to publishing director, children’s trade. As part of this reorganization, the respective art departments will report to Miller and Castellani, along with managing editorial. The company will hire a new adult editorial director to oversee both fiction and nonfiction, reporting to Miller.

At Insight Editions, Simon Fraser has joined the company as chief financial officer (he was previously at DK Publishing in the US); Mike Degler has been hired as publishing director of their new gaming division, Insight Gaming, responsible for licensing and brand development (he was general manager at Prima Games); Vicki Jaeger joins as editorial director and acting managing editor overseeing the Insight Editions imprint (she was development editor at Readerlink); Katie Killebrew joins as editorial director managing Weldon Owen International and Mandala Earth (she was previously associate editorial director at Gibbs Smith Publisher); Sara Miller has been named associate publisher and is responsible for children’s publishing (she was formerly editorial director at Melissa & Doug); Robin Gonci has been named director of marketing and ecommerce; Lara Starr joins as senior publicist and marketing strategist (she was at Chronicle Books); and Jeff Barton has been named senior manager, strategic partnerships.

At Penguin Random House, Rachael Perriello has been promoted to senior director, licensing; Stephanie Bowen to director, author development; and Phil Stamper-Halpin to associate director, author development.

Helen Seachrist has joined Macmillan Children’s as senior production editor. Previously, she was production editor at HMH.

At Scholastic, Raghushri Sankaran has been promoted to senior vice president and chief information officer. Kevin Conklin has joined as senior vice president, corporate operations. He was previously, vice president, operations Americas for Pandora Jewelry.

Controversies
Following Simon & Schuster ceo Jonathan Karp‘s April 20 email stating the publisher will proceed with Mike Pence’s book, employees sent another letter asking, “Where is the editorial line for S&S? What is the company’s criteria for what makes an author too harmful to publish.” Additionally, signatories are displeased with how little of the S&S town hall was devoted to the topic and to employee questions. In response, Karp wrote “we have heard and considered your views… Nonetheless, after much internal discussion, and with the full backing of Simon & Schuster’s senior leadership, we will proceed as outlined in my April 20 letter to the staff.”

Milestones
ReadingGroupGuides.com will host its tenth annual Book Group Speed Dating Event virtually on May 14 at 1 PM Eastern, as representatives from 19 publishers will share selections with booksellers, librarians and book group leaders. Advance signup is required.

Filed Under: Free, Personnel

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