Kara Welsh will join Ballantine Bantam Dell as executive vice president, publisher on January 19, reporting to Gina Centrello. Previously Welsh was svp, publisher at the Berkley Publishing Group, after joining NAL as publisher in 2001. Reporting to Welsh are svp, associate publisher and editor-in-chief Jennifer Hershey, and svp, deputy publisher Kim Hovey.
Centrello said in the announcement: “Kara and I both began our publishing careers at Pocket Books, where she rose to vice president, deputy publisher. I loved working with her. Each day, she demonstrated her can-do, solutions-centric publishing sensibility, her open, collaborative, calm work ethic, and her advocacy on behalf of authors. Over the subsequent years, her decisive and astute managerial and publishing skill sets and her empathy and generosity of spirit have become even greater, as her track record illustrates…Appreciating as I do Kara’s tremendous affinity for hardcover, trade and mass-market paperback, and digital publishing formats, and her expertise with managing major publishing imprints, I am confident she will lead our exceptionally talented colleagues and our authors to ever-greater levels of achievement.”
At FSG, Emily Bell has been promoted to senior editor.
Claire Wachtel will leave her position as vp, executive editor at HarperCollins on December 31. Sources had indicated she has been spending limited time in the company’s offices the past few months and working from home, following an internal personnel matter. When asked about the circumstances, Wachtel told us: “It was a difficult decision to make but after 22 years I needed to make a change and take on new challenges. It was my choice to leave.” A Harper spokesperson said “we don’t comment on the specifics of personnel matters.”
Hachette UK chief operating officer Chris Emerson will become chair of the Hachette Livre chief operating officers’ board, which oversees “global initiatives in Hachette Livre’s digital and operational infrastructure.” He fills the position vacated by David Young, who is retiring from the company at the end of this year.
Aram Fox will scout for Italian publisher Giunti as of January 1.
Stephanie Sinclair at Transatlantic Agency will represent rights to titles from Freehand Books around the world outside of Canada.
BEA announced the lineup for the annual Children’s Author Breakfast at next year’s convention, to be held on the morning of May 13. Jamie Lee Curtis will serve as master of ceremonies (her new book is This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From), and the panel will feature:
Sabaa Tahir, author of the forthcoming A Torch Against the Night
Gene Luen Yang, author of the forthcoming Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences
Dav Pilkey, author of the forthcoming Dog Man