Sheree Bykofsky Associates has taken over the list of DSM Agency, as Doris Michaels “decided to make a transition in her life, which meant finding a new home for her clients.” Colleagues for a long time, they report: “Sheree and Doris realized that they ran their agencies in much the same way and Doris decided to look no further in her search for the perfect home for her list. It has been an extremely smooth transition, and they both feel like this was meant to be.” Sara Weiss has been promoted to editor for both the Grand Central Life & Style and Grand […]
Corporate: Harlequin Sale Gives Cash Influx to Torstar; Second Consecutive Quarterly Increase for Indigo
Harlequin‘s former parent company Torstar announced third quarter results on Wednesday morning, and as previously indicated, Torstar booked a gain of approximately $225 million (CA) on the $455 million sale of Harlequin to HarperCollins, which closed on August 1. President and ceo David Holland said in a statement the company was “pleased to complete the sale of Harlequin in the third quarter and all outstanding debt was retired using a portion of the sale proceeds.” Reporting Harlequin’s results as revenue from discontinued operations, sales for the quarter up until the sale (for the month of July) were $30.2 million. Canada’s dominant bookseller […]
People: Cobb to Retire from WaterBrook Multnomah As Crown Names New Leaders
President and publisher of Crown’s WaterBrook Multnomah Steve Cobb “has decided that he is ready to embark on the next chapter of his life and will be retiring in March 2015,” Crown president Maya Mavjee announced. A founding executive of WaterBrook in 1996, when the imprint was launched as an autonomous evangelical Christian division of then Bantam Doubleday Dell, he “has led and managed a business that has realized consistent profitability while building an extraordinary legacy as a nurturer of author talent.” Crown’s svp, publisher of Christian Publishing Tina Constable wrote to staff that with Cobb’s transition “we are at a […]
People
At Little, Brown Children’s, Alvina Ling has been promoted to vp, editor-in-chief, overseeing the publishing program (excluding licensing). Pam Gruber moves up to senior editor; and Allison Moore is now associate editor. Jennifer McClelland-Smith will join group as marketing coordinator on November 10. She was most recently an administrative assistant temp for HBG’s international sales department. Morgan Doremus has joined Sourcebooks as publicity & marketing manager, Sourcebooks Casablanca. Previously she was marketing manager at Hachette’s Forever imprint. Veterans Maha Khalil and Rodger Weinfeld will join Skyhorse Publishing, as part of the publisher’s “strategic restructuring plan to build teams with expertise to support the overall growth and continued success […]
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Sherlock Holmes Case
On Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear the final appeal from the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle, which claims the Sherlock Holmes characters remain protected by copyright because of 10 original stories published after 1923. A District Court ruled against the estate in late 2013, and this June an appeals court ruling went even further in affirming that the Sherlock Holmes characters and stories written prior to 1923 are in the public domain. The original suit was brought by Leslie Klinger, seeking clarification after the Conan Doyle Estate demanded (and was paid) $5000 in licensing fees for an anthology of new fiction featuring Sherlock Holmes […]
People, Etc.
Christine Kopprasch has joined Flatiron Books as senior editor. Previously she was an editor at Crown. Caitlin O’Shaughnessy has been named marketing manager at Penguin Press, beginning December 8. Previously she was an associate editor at Viking. At Zondervan, Tom Dean has been promoted to vp, marketing. Rob Wall has joined little bee books as senior designer. Previously he held positions at Blue Apple Books and Wiley. Megan Sullivan has joined Penguin as sales representative for New England. Previously she was publicity manager at David R. Godine. In the UK, Sally Dwyer has joined Quarto in the newly created role […]