Cliff Guren is leaving Bluefire, where he was vp, business development, to relaunch his consulting business Syntopical. Bluefire founder and ceo Micah Bowers said in the announcement: “Over the past five years I have had the pleasure of working with Cliff as we’ve successfully grown our software licensing business…. Cliff has done a fabulous job for us and we hope to find opportunities to work together in the years to come.” Coming soon from Bluefire is their Cloudshelf family of EPUB 3 reader applications and distribution services that will enable businesses and institutions to “deploy digital private libraries and subscription services to their constituent […]
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At Atria, Ariele Fredman has been promoted to assistant director of publicity; Kathryn Santora has been promoted to senior publicist; Tory Lowy moves up to publicist; and Emily Bamford is now associate publicist. The Texas Book Festival has hired Julie Wernersbach as literary director, starting later this month. She has been marketing director at BookPeople for the past five years. Tammy Brown joins the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators as director, community marketing and engagement, based in Los Angeles, starting March 1. Bonnie Bader work for the organization as a consultant, with the title of publishing advisor, based in New York. Kat Meyer recently joined the Book Industry Study […]
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Chris Lupo has joined Chernin Entertainment as the company’s book scout, based in New York, reporting to the head of film and television. Previously he was a senior literary scout at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. At Random House Children’s, Jennifer Moreno has been promoted to production manager; Natalia Dextre moves up to associate production manager; Thomas Marshall has joined as production manager, moving over from the Penguin Random House Audio Group; and production associate Alice Rahaeauser will now work with the Licensed team, newly reporting to Patty Collins. Lithub.com announced a new group of contributors to the site, including: Manager […]
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Former BEA director of education Mark Dressler died December 23 from cancer. Dressler also programmed sessions for the Frankfurt Book Fair, and was co-owner of a wine shop in his home of Traverse City, MI. USA Today named Girl on the Train author Paula Hawkins as their “author of the year.” They write: “Before 2015, no one had heard of Hawkins, 43, who previously wrote chick lit under the pseudonym Amy Silver. Then Train hurtled into bookstores on Jan. 13 and immediately clicked with readers desperate for the next Gone Girl.” Riverhead has sold over 4 million units in the US. But it […]
People: Archer Named President of HMH Trade
Ellen Archer has been hired as president of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing, reporting to ceo Linda Zecher, as of December 7. She takes over from Gary Gentel, “who will retire in 2016.” Archer will be “based primarily” in the New York office, but will also spend time in the company’s Boston headquarters. Archer was president and publisher of Hyperion for 5 years, prior to its sale to Hachette Book Group. Zecher says in the announcement, “For almost a decade, Gary Gentel has led HMH Trade Publishing, spearheading our transition into new media and channels, while building our legacy of award-winning […]
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Mysteries & thrillers editor Dennis Drabelle has retired from the Washington Post after more than 31 years at the paper, Book World editor Ron Charles posted on Twitter. Former vp of books, digital strategy and chief product officer at Barnes & Noble College Jade Roth has joined Flat World as svp, strategy and content. Additionally, former chairman of Pearson Higher Education in the US and Canada Bill Barke has joined the company as executive chairman of the board of directors. Once known as Flat World Knowledge and pitched as an open source textbook developer, the company now calls itself an “enabler of competency-based learning and digital […]