Sara Nelson has been named editorial director, Amazon.com books, responsible for “leading our editorial vision for books in the print and Kindle bookstores” a company spokesperson told PW. She was most recently books editor at O Magazine, and prior to that was editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly. Nelson, who will work out of New York starting next month, said in a statement: “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to expand the content on Amazon.com and to bring my voice to this Web site visited by millions of passionate readers.” (We’ve noticed many people in publishing mistakenly think she’s working for Amazon’s little publishing operation; the job as described is for the company’s website.)
At Harper, Julie Will has been named executive editor, effective May 14 and reporting to Karen Rinaldi, focusing on acquiring titles in the health and wellness area. She was most recently executive talent producer for healthy living at OpenSky and before then, at Rodale.
Mary Kole has joined Movable Type Management as senior literary manager in charge of young adult, middle grade, and picture book properties. She was an agent the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
Parul Sehgal will join the New York Times Book Review as a preview editor next month. She is currently books editor for NPR.org, which she joined at the end of 2011.
Commissioning editor at The Westbourne Press Rukhsana Yasmin was named the winner of the UK’s Kim Scott Walwyn Prize, the Bookseller reports. The award honors professional achievement and promise for woman in the first seven years of her publishing career.
Fifty Shades… author EL James indicates to USA Today she has two other novels–one erotic, and the other a young adult paranormal–“stashed away” already. She says, “I’ve got several more good ideas but how do you follow this? I’ve set the bar quite high in terms of storytelling.”
Spanish business book publisher LID has named Karl Weber as chairperson of the company editorial board, where he will help advise on titles for LID’s publication plans, help with the strategy and development of the company in the US, and work with other board members to achieve the successful progress of the company within the business sector. Weber is a writer, editor, and book developer specializing in general-interest non-fiction. In addition, Raquel Avila joins as general manager, additionally responsible for LID’s Speakers Bureau. Previously she was a senior sales manager at Macmillan.