Perseus Books Group executive Clare Peeters, who has been with the company eight years and is currently vp, corporate strategy & business development, is leaving the company on August 1. She is joining investment firm Axel Johnson as vp, managing director. As coo Joe Mangan notes, “Clare has played an integral role in publishing initiatives, joint ventures, strategic business transactions, and many of our most critical operational issues.” With Peeters’ departure, Sabrina McCarthy is being promoted to the new position of president, Perseus Distribution Client Services and is taking on executive leadership of Argo Navis. Greg Anastas is being promoted to the new position of vp, supply chain & sales operations. Scott Edinburgh will continue to focus on business development, reporting to Mangan.
At Random House Children’s, Chip Gibson announced that Robin Corey will step down from her role as vp, publishing director of Robin Corey Books, effective December 21, “to follow her longtime passion for art history and the fine arts and will be working with New York City museums and their education programs which introduce elementary school students to the arts.” Corey will remain a publishing consultant. Gibson notes that in a 35-year publishing career, “Robin has been a dear friend and valued colleague to many of us who have worked with her not only here at Random House but also at other houses at various points throughout our careers. Always the utmost professional, she has been a great asset over the years: her talent, experience and insights have enriched our program and we have learned so much from her.”
In agency news, Keating Literary and Brick House are “formalizing what has been organically emerging over the past few years as a strong alliance” between the two and joining together to form Union Literary. Trena Keating and Sally Wofford-Girand are joined by Brick House senior agent Jenni Ferrari-Adler and newly promoted agent Kezia Toth under the new banner.
Mark Chait has joined It Books as executive editor. Previously he was a senior editor at NAL/Dutton.
Amanda Pritzker has joined Grand Central as publicity manager. Previously she was a publicist at Portfolio/Sentinel. In addition, Nick Small has been promoted to senior publicist.
At Red Wheel Weiser/Conari, Kat Salazar has been promoted to associate publicist, while Kimberly Ehart moves up to publishing administrative assistant.
At Chronicle Books, Julia Patrick has been promoted to sales material coordinator.
Associate editor at Simon & Schuster Michael Szczerban has won the Ashmead Award, designed to nurture the career of a promising young editor in the field of book publishing. In receiving the award, Szczerban will attend the Yale Publishing Course: Book Publishing: Print and Digital between July 22-27.
As part of a USA Today piece on Oprah Winfrey’s revived, digitally-focused Book Club, Knopf says that Cheryl Strayed’s WILD has sold 185,000 copies since being picked by Oprah, and 270,000 overall (150K print, 120k ebook.)
The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) has announced that Rana DiOrio of Little Pickle Press, Bowker’s Kelly Gallagher, and Deltina Hay of Dalton Publishing have joined the board of directors for three-year terms effective immediately.