Stuart Roberts has been promoted to senior editor at Simon & Schuster.
Lauren Clauss joins Random House Children’s as associate editor (she was assistant editor at Disney Press); and Rachel Chlebowski has been promoted to associate editor.
Mariam Quraishi has joined Chronicle as a designer, children’s. Previously she was junior designer at Viking Children’s.
At Shambhala Publications, Claire Kelley has been promoted to marketing and publicity director, Roost Books; Katelin Ross has been promoted to publicist; and Adria Batt has been promoted to marketing associate.
WH Smith group chief executive Stephen Clarke “has decided to step down” on October 31 after 15 years with the company. “After I leave WH Smith, I have no immediate plans other than to take a break.” As planned, managing director of the High Street business Carl Cowling will take over on November 1. For their fiscal first quarter, High Street sales were down 1 percent.
President Michael Tucker and vp, marketing and human resources Margie Scott Tucker will retire from the Books Inc. group of bookstores in October, Shelf Awareness reports.
Leslie-Ann Reed will join Bloomsbury’s board on July 17. She was cfo of online auctioneer, Go Industry Dove Bid and until May 2018 she was a director at Quarto Group. Jill Jones will resign from the board at the same time.
Obituary
Charles Rue Woods, art director of Grove Atlantic for almost 20 years until his retirement in 2016, died at home on May 15. Over the course of his publishing career, he also worked at Random House, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s, Picador, Turtle Bay Books, and Tricycle Magazine, among others, and held positions in art/design, editorial, marketing, and creative direction. A memorial service is being planned for later in the summer.
Imprints
Chronicle Books is launching Chronicle Chroma, an imprint that will publish books on the visual arts and pop culture in fall 2019. The line will be based in Los Angeles and led by Steve Crist and Gloria Fowler, who were the publishers of AMMO Books for 13 years. Chronicle president Tyrrell Mahoney said in the release, “Chronicle Chroma is led by two brilliant and accomplished publishing pros who bring their unique editorial vision and California aesthetic this new imprint. Chronicle Books is well positioned to expand our publishing program in the US and around the world, and we could not imagine a better team to partner with than Steve and Gloria.”
Awards
Raymond Antrobus‘s The Perseverance won the Folio Prize.
Also in the UK, the Wellcome Book Prize “will be pausing to allow the team to reflect and to plan for the future of the prize.” (That’s a polite way of saying they are suspending the award.)
Distribution
Artbook | D.A.P. has established Artbook International, a set of global sales and distribution partnerships that will expand their sales across the UK, Ireland, Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America.
Wholesale
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is launching Fast Track, a new program to serve independent booksellers impacted by the changes at Baker & Taylor. The program includes: expedited account setup for new accounts that were working with B&T; a special offer on the first order; waived minimum order quantities; and more. Ed Spade, vp, sales and national accounts, HMH Books & Media, said, “We’re glad that we can offer the Fast Track program to streamline new account set up and initial ordering for these valued indie accounts and we’re grateful for the support they provide for our books and authors.”