Janklow & Nesbit Associates announced what they call “a new ownership and management structure.” Luke Janklow, Anne Sibbald, Cullen Stanley, Bennett Ashley, PJ Mark and Dmitri Chitov were all elected partners, and together they comprise the board of directors. Daily management of the firm will be handled by managing directors Sibbald, Stanley, and Ashley, and president Luke Janklow, who says, “This new structure promotes greater expansion for the firm and builds upon our wonderful legacy.”
Founding partners Morton Janklow and Lynn Nesbit will continue to represent their lists. Janklow says, “I am pleased to hand over the operation and further growth of the firm to long-time trusted colleagues.” Nesbit adds, “It is terrific for me to be free from management responsibilities to concentrate completely on my authors, expanding my list and helping the agency flourish.”
Miriam Parker will join Ecco as associate publisher on November 16. She spent the past 15 years at Little, Brown, most recently as marketing director.
After more than 45 years, vp, customer service Flo Langley will retire from Penguin Random House in April 2016, having worked at “every iteration” of the company since 1971. “We knew this day would have to come eventually, but I believe that I speak for everyone when I say we always hoped it would not, because our lives without her as a colleague are almost unimaginable” writes svp, director of fulfillment Annette Danek in the announcement. “Flo is embedded into the fabric of our business, our culture, and indeed into the DNA of our company, past and present. With her equal devotion to both big-scale planning, as well as to the everyday details of our business, she has been a bellwether and beacon for our Sales and Operations Teams. With her bottomless knowledge, account-centric peripheral vision, and business foresight, she always sees how everything we do must connect back to our core mission of unwaveringly providing the best fulfillment service, unmatched in our industry.”
Kevin Callahan has joined the Crown Publishing Group as marketing director for Crown, Hogarth, Tim Duggan Books, and Broadway. Previously he was associate publisher at Harper Design and It Books. In addition, Kelsey Lawrence has also joined the company as marketing manager for Archetype and Three Rivers Press. Previously she was a marketing manager at St. Martin’s Press.
At the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, Ross Harris will be promoted to director of foreign rights. He will also continue to develop and represent his own list of clients.
Rachel Burkot has joined Holloway Literary as a literary agent. Previously she was an editor at Harlequin.
At 2 Seas Agency, Chrysothemis Armefti was promoted to junior agent, as was Melody Haller — who also continues as contracts and royalty manager.
KF Literary Scouting will add children’s and YA coverage in France for Editions Milan (they already work with sister company Bayard). On the adult side, they will scout for Modtryk in Denmark.
Target‘s November Book Club pick is the familiar-sounding The Girl From the Train by Irma Joubert. For the record, this girl was published before 2015’s bestselling Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins — though it was called something else. The original Afrikaans edition was Tussen Stasies (or Between Stations). The title was changed for the Dutch edition, a bestseller when it was published a few years ago.
In France, Mathias Enard won France’s Goncourt Prize for Compass (“Boussole”).
Finally, at a Vroman’s Books event last night at Central Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, two women asked Carrie Brownstein — discussing her memoir HUNGER MAKES ME A MODERN GIRL with Amy Poehler — to marry them. A licensed wedding officiant, Brownstein agreed, and Poehler played “Greensleeves” on the piano. The publisher reports that Brownstein told the young couple, “In the way that we always root for ourselves, in the way that we root for love to always win out over despair, for hope to win out over fear, all of us here are rooting for you.”