Jennifer Levesque will join Rodale Books on June 17 as editorial director, reporting to Mary Ann Naples. Previously Levesque was editorial director of adult trade books at Abrams. “Over the past 20 years, Jennifer’s list has included a wide range of Rodale-style books—everything from cooking and lifestyle to gardening and sports/active living titles. Her experience with, and passion for, these subjects—along with her strong management expertise—makes Jennifer an ideal leader for the trade editorial team,” Naples said in the announcement. At Red Wheel/Weiser, Kat Salazar has been promoted to publicist and Jordan Overby moves up to associate production director. The […]
Agency News
People, Etc.
Bill Harris has joined BookEnds Literary Agency as director of digital content. Formerly a senior managing editor at Penguin, he has most recently been a freelance editorial and web development consultant. In addition, Beth Campbell has been promoted to literary assistant and rights coordinator. Skyhorse and Start Publishing have finalized their joint acquisition of Night Shade Books, an agreement reached “following a spirited and public debate” among authors, agents, fans, and publishers. According to a statement, Night Shade had net sales in 2012 of approximately $1.5 million. In Denmark, Lindhardt and Ringhof has acquired independent Danish literary house Per Kofod […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Wiley has hired John Kritzmacher as evp, chief financial officer, starting July 1. Current cfo and chief operations officer Ellis Cousens, who previously announced his retirement at the end of fiscal 2014, will “retain responsibility for certain global operations and oversee the company’s $80 million restructuring program.” Kritzmacher, 52, recently served as svp, business operations and organization planning at WebMD and was previously cfo of Lucent Technologies and Global Crossing. On Friday at BEA, the Publishing Hackathon awarded first prize to Evoke — which maps how characters in fiction are emotionally similar to each other as a way of discovering […]
People, Etc.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially has declared Tuesday as “G.P. Putnam’s Sons Day,” in recognition of the publisher’s 175th anniversary. Bloomberg said: “The story of G.P. Putnam’s Sons has it all – entrepreneurship, determination, romance, big dreams. It is a classic New York City story, and on this wonderful occasion, today, we join Putnam’s extended family and many readers across the world in looking ahead to the next exciting chapter.” Michael Foster, who bought control of the UK agency PFD and merged it with his MF Management in 2010 to form The Rights House, has sold his shares back […]
People: Former Twelve Publisher Goldstein Rejoins Karp at S&S
Former publisher at Twelve Cary Goldstein will join Simon & Schuster’s trade imprint as vp, executive director of publicity and senior editor on June 3. In his new role, Goldstein will supervise the S&S publicity department and acquire a select number of fiction and nonfiction titles. “Cary Goldstein brings great intelligence, creativity, and enterprise to every book he works on, as a publicity director and as an editor,” writes publisher Jonathan Karp, who launched Twelve in 2006 with Goldstein as director of publicity and acquiring editor, in the announcement. “I know Cary will thrive at this dual role because I […]
People
Clay Farr will join Basic Books as vp, associate publisher & marketing director later this month. He spent the past nine years at Perseus, most recently as vp, group marketing, and also served on Basic’s editorial board. At Crown, Rachel Meier has been named managing editor for the Crown trade, Broadway Books, and Hogarth imprints. Previously she was marketing manager for Crown Trade. Summer Smith has joined Bloomsbury as associate director of publicity. Previously she was publicity manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Emily van Beek has been promoted senior vice president at Folio Jr., the children’s division of Folio Literary […]