Hachette Book Group evp, chief marketing and sales officer Evan Schnittman is leaving the company as of December 12, after two and a half years at the company. Schnittman’s position, which was created for him, is being eliminated. Instead, Chris Murphy is being promoted to svp, group sales director and will also join the company’s executive board. CEO Michael Pietsch calls Schnittman “a powerful agent of change and [he] has improved HBG’s sales processes and organization greatly. Evan brought the sales group into closer collaboration with our publishing groups than ever before. He combined digital and physical book sales, created the Sales Strategy and […]
Agency News
People, Etc.: Einstein Thompson Split, and More
Susanna Einstein and Meg Thompson will dissolve the Einstein Thompson Agency after the new year as they have “mutually and amicably decided to strike out on their own” after eight years working together, first at LJK Literary before forming their own agency. The Thompson Literary Agency and Einstein Literary Management will each open for business in January 2015, with both agencies continuing to work with Sandy Hodgman at Hodgman Literary for foreign rights. At Public Affairs, publicity director Jaime Leifer takes on the additional role of vp, associate publisher, reporting to Clive Priddle, recognizing her “growth as a leading voice […]
People, Etc.
Rachel Lodi joins Penguin Children’s as associate digital publicist. She was at Palgrave Macmillan. Ronald J. Domanico has joined the board of Books A Million. He recently retired from HD Supply, where he was svp and chief financial officer. Former Bertelsmann ceo Thomas Middelhoff, 61, was found guilty of 27 counts of embezzlement and three counts of tax evasion by a German court. (He was also a director of the NYT Company until earlier this year.) “If his appeal fails, Mr. Middelhoff will be expected to serve two years of the three-year sentence before being released on parole. He might […]
People: William Morrow to Absorb Harlequin Nonfiction
The first tangible editorial change following HarperCollins’ acquisition of Harlequin has been announced, and Harlequin Nonfiction titles acquired for publication in August 2015 and beyond will become part of the William Morrow list. President and group publisher for the US and Canada Michael Morrison wrote in a memo: “Since the acquisition of Harlequin, we have been looking at ways we can work together in order to be most effective and provide the greatest benefit to our authors. As a result, the one area we have decided to align is nonfiction. We feel that our longstanding expertise and strength in nonfiction publishing will benefit […]
People: Bykofsky Associates Takes Over DSM Agency List
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 […]
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 […]