Farrin Jacobs will join Little, Brown Young Reader’s Poppy imprint as editorial director on October 15, reporting to Megan Tingley. Jacobs spent the past six years at HarperTeen, most recently as editorial director. Tom Miller has joined the Business Group at McGraw-Hill Professional as executive editor. He was formerly executive editor at Wiley. At Perseus Distribution, Judy Courtade has been promoted to the newly created role of associate director, backlist sales, effective October 15. Jessica Schmidt has been named associate director, client services. She was most recently manager of publisher relations at Audible. Additionally, Ari Brenman joins as manager, client […]
Agency News
People: Hachette Realigns Sales Department
Hachette Book Group has announced a new structure for their sales force under recently-hired evp and chief marketing and sales officer Evan Schnittman that will “bring the sales and marketing functions in line with the changing book market – unifying print and digital sales, and integrating research and analytics into HBG’s overall sales strategy.” The company underscores that they are not “reducing headcount as part of the re-alignmen,” and the new structure creates some new positions to be filled shortly. In the internal announcement, Schnittman explains balancing “changes that allow us to do what we do best – create massive […]
People, Etc.: Remembering Wendy Weil
Wendy Weil, 72, died September 22 at her country home in West Cornwall, CT. Her career as an agent spanned more than 40 years and she was president of the Wendy Weil Literary Agency, which she founded in 1987, counting Rita Mae Brown, Andrea Barrett, Mark Helprin, Alice Walker, Anthony Doerr, Phillip Lopate, and Amity Gaige among the agency’s clients. Donations in her name may be made to Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Plans for a memorial service will be announced in early fall. Emily Forland and Emma Patterson and long-time office manager Ann Torrago remain at the agency and plan […]
VBK To Become Independent; United Agents Negotiates to Acquire AP Watt
There are two big international publishing developments. Dutch and Belgian publishing conglomerate Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) will become an independent company, owned by management and staff, on November 1, buying their freedom from the NDC|VBK Publishing Group. ING Bank is supplying some of the financing and will hold a minority interest in the company. VBK was formed in 2001 with the merger of Peat Publishers Group and Bosch & Keuning, and they merged with Northern Daily Combination (NDC) in 2005. Their units include Ambo Anthos, Atlas-Contact, De Fontein, Kok Ten Have, and Luitingh-Sijthoff, and comprise all of NDC/VBK’s trade publishing […]
People, Etc.
Bloomsbury India will start publishing in November, drawing on titles from the company’s UK and US lists. Rajiv Beri is managing director; Diya KarHazra is trade publisher, and Amit Bhatia is academic and professional publisher. Douglas Markham, recently fired by Books-a-Million from his position as evp and chief administrative officer, alleges through attorney Mark White that “for some time, BAMM has made it known to our client that the company did not support his service to the US Navy.” Markham is a captain, and as BAMM had reported previously, was on leave for part of 2009 while on active duty […]
People: Ash Green, 84, Dies
Knopf announced Wednesday morning the death of Ashbel Green, “a former vice president and beloved senior editor at Knopf,” on Tuesday night, near his home in Connecticut. Sonny Mehta said, “Ash was a prodigious talent, one of the most significant editorial figures in modern publishing, famous for his breadth of reading and grasp of history. Many of us had the good fortune of learning a great deal about the business from him. He was a beloved colleague, and his contributions to our company – an esteemed editorial legacy – are part of what still define us today.” Green started at […]