Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has hired Leigh Zarelli as svp of consumer brands, driving the strategic direction and expansion of direct-to-consumer product offerings. They have also hired Caroline Fraser as vp of program development and acquisition, spearheading new content development for the consumer market and identifying new media channels for HMH’s stable of iconic brands and characters. Zarelli was at AOL; Fraser was at Scholastic Media — and both will report to evp and chief of consumer brands and strategy, CJ Kettler. In the Random House publicity department, Jennifer Garza has been promoted to assistant director; Michelle Jasmine moves up to publicity manager; and Jenna Friedman has been […]
Awards
BEA’s Three Panels of Buzz Books
BEA has announced the fall books to be featured on the convention’s three Buzz Books panels in May. The adult panel is evenly divided between fiction and nonfiction. There’s one debut novel (from Stegner Fellow and Paris Review Plimpton Prize winner Ottessa Moshfegh); one adult debut (YA author Ruth Warburton, writing as Ruth Ware — for the debut title from Gallery’s Scout Press); and one novel that’s been buzzed since it was sold in fall 2013, from Garth Risk Hallberg, already promoted as a Winter Institute buzz book and now back for more: Adult City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg (Knopf) […]
March Bookseller Picks
The March Pennie’s Pick at Costco is Dead Wake by Erik Larson, releasing the 10th. At Amazon, George Hodgman‘s Bettyville — previewed now in our Spring/Summer Publishers Lunch Buzz Books sampler — is their spotlight pick, and Jill Alexander‘s Hausfrau is the featured debut. The other picks for March are Larson, along with: H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald All the Old Knives, Olen Steinhauer Aquarium, David Vann The Last Flight of Poxl West, Daniel Torday Barefoot Dogs, Antonio Ruiz-Camacho The Animals, Christian Kiefer The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot, Blaine Harden Future Crimes, Marc Goodman Apple’s iBooks Store features Torday […]
Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian Tops April Indie Next List
The preview version of the April Indie Next List has Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian as indie booksellers’ No. 1 selection for the month. The list also includes World Gone By by Dennis Lehane; A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley; The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and The Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer, excerpts of which you can read right now in Buzz Books 2015: Spring/Summer, if you have not downloaded your copy yet. The rest of the list features: The Witch of Painted Sorrows, by M.J. Rose At The Water’s Edge, by Sara Gruen What Comes Next and How […]
People, Etc.
In the Riverhead publicity department, Claire McGinnis has been promoted to senior publicity manager; Liz Hohenadel moves up to publicity manager; and Margaret Delaney is now associate publicist. The ABA nominated Pete Mulvihill at Green Apple Books in San Francisco to join the board, with Valerie Koehler (Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston) and Jonathon Welch (Talking Leaves…Books, Buffalo) put up for second three-year terms. As planned, current board vp Betsy Burton (The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City) will move up to president for a two-year term at the end of May, with Robert Sindelar (Third Place Books becoming vice president/secretary), subject to ratification by ABA membership. Deputy director […]
People, Etc.
Sean Shoemaker will take over as president of Publishers Group West, effective April 1, after Susan Reich retires. Shoemaker has been with PGW for the past 20 years. Perseus Client Services president Mark Suchomel writes: “In addition to a strong operations and finance perspective, Sean brings to the role a keen awareness of the needs of PGW’s clients and customers, and the value PGW brings to both. He has a stellar reputation as a straight shooter and is held in the highest regard by clients and his colleagues at PGW and Perseus. Importantly, Sean has the historical perspective and deep understanding of what […]