Macmillan announced a restructuring of its central digital marketing team. Cristina Gilbert has been promoted to senior vice president, publishing and marketing strategy, reporting to Jon Yaged. Newly reporting to Gilbert will be Cara Chirichella, vp, digital marketing & technology and Jacob Fanning, senior director, email marketing and CRM. The evp, marketing & consumer strategy role is being eliminated, and Jeff Carroll will leave Macmillan.
Hillary Scarbrough has been promoted to vp, business systems. Newly reporting to Scarbrough will be Clark Fife, senior director, metadata services. On the trade finance team, Jason Arvelo, vp, data science & analytics, will now report to Cameron Ackroyd, svp, trade finance & analytics. Additionally, to consolidate the web development teams, Pritpaul Bains, manager, marketing technology operations, and Sara Wentworth, designer/front-end developer, will now report to Rob Guttman, vp, platform development.
Canada’s Indigo hired Peter Ruis as president, effective immediately. Based in London for now and transitioning with his family to Toronto, he was most recently managing director of Anthropologie URBN Group. CEO Heather Reisman tips the continuing shift at what we have known as the country’s biggest book retailer: “We look forward to having Peter bring his wealth of knowledge and expertise to Indigo at this exciting moment in our business as we pivot to a Living with Intention company, providing our customers with the ideas, experts, and products to help them in their quest to live with purpose.”
Lynn Boulger will join the Authors Guild Foundation, its charitable and educational arm, as executive director. For the past 13 years, she served as dean of institutional advancement for the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME. President of the Authors Guild Foundation Laura Pedersen says in the announcement, “Now more than ever, authors struggle to make a sustainable living from their writing. As Executive Director of the Authors Guild Foundation, Lynn will work closely with our Foundation Board of Directors and staff to develop a comprehensive, long-term plan to ensure we can continue to provide the crucial advocacy, support and free or low-cost educational programs that authors desperately need.”
At the Random House Publishing Group, Lulu Martinez joins as marketing director, One World. She previously oversaw marketing and branding for Amistad, Harper Español, and Harper Via. Ebony LaDelle joins as marketing director, brand publishing. She was also previously at Harper Collins. Sarah Bode joins in the new role of marketing and publicity manager for the Random House Group Backlist. Previously, she was a marketer at New York University Press.
Allison Renzulli has been promoted to director of brand, lifestyle, supporting Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press; Allison Schuster to assistant director, Ballantine; Jessalyn Foggy to assistant director, Convergent; Brianne Sperber to assistant director, Harmony Books and Rodale Books; Taylor Noel to senior marketing manager, Ballantine; Kathleen Quinlan to senior marketing manager, Ballantine; Ashleigh Heaton to marketing manager, Del Rey; Madison Dettlinger to marketing associate, Ballantine, Random House and Dial Press; and Monica Stanton to marketing associate, Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed.
Brett Wright has joined Random House Children’s as senior editor. He was previously senior editor at Clever Publishing. Alice Rahaeuser has been promoted to assistant production manager and Jen Jie Li to production manager.
Karlyn Hixson has joined Atria as marketing director. She was most recently director of strategic partnerships at BookPal.
Ernie Chiara has joined Fuse Literary as an associate agent.
Picks
Reese Witherspoon chose The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse as her February book club pick.
Barnes & Noble features Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan as their February book club title. And the chain has named Love In the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez as their first monthly “rediscovered classic.”
Bookselling
The Barnes & Noble in Independence, MO will close on February 6 after 24 years in that location.
French publisher Assouline has opened a boutique bookstore in Houston‘s River Oaks District.
Waterstones staff in the UK have launched a petition asking their owners at Elliott Advisors to pay them the portion of their modest wages not covered by the UK government while on lockdown, after learning that London staff of the investment company received bonuses of more than £93 million (or just under £1 million per person).
Forthcoming
Michelle Obama‘s BECOMING will be published in paperback on March 2 by Crown — accompanied by a young reader edition in hardcover from Delacorte Press.
Awards
United States Artists announced its 2021 USA Fellows, including eight writers: Alexander Chee, Eve L. Ewing, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Dunya Mikhail, Elizabeth McCracken, Natalie Y. Moore, Danez Smith, and Ocean Vuong.