Mary Pachnos, who has worked in association with Aitken Alexander Associates for the last 20 years, retired at the end of 2016. Her next phase will include volunteering as a guide at London Zoo. Marilyn Dahl has retired as editor of Shelf Awareness for Readers after twelve years with the publication. Dahl is succeeded by Stefanie Hargreaves as editor, effective Tuesday. Greaves has worked as an editor, bookseller, and reviewer for Ballantine, Girl Friday Productions, HarperCollins, Amazon.com and Book Page. Robbin Brosterman is joining Bright USA on January 9 as an agent in in the company’s New York office. Most recently […]
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In the UK, Juliet Mushens and Robert Caskie have formed a new literary agency, Caskie Mushens. Mushens has left UTA and will bring her clients over with her; Caskie had left PFD, where he was chief operating officer as well as an agent, in early 2016, saying he intended to explore new opportunities “in a related industry.” Separately, another former UTA agent Sarah Manning has joined the Bent Agency, based in London. She will expand the UK office’s representation into adult fiction and nonfiction. At Penguin Random House in the US, Debra Polansky has been hired as vp, director of sales for Penguin Children’s, under Felicia Frazier. She previously […]
Briefs
The Costco Pennie’s Pick for January is Amy Stewart‘s Girl Waits With Gun (HMH) while the company’s book club pick for the month is The Tumbling Turner Sisters (Gallery) by Juliette Fay. Updating our very best of the best books of 2016 report, Jacqueline Woodson is represented now by Kathleen Nishimoto at William Morris Endeavor. Also, USA Today weighed in with their top 10 books of the year (now added to our vote count), also naming Colson Whitehead as their author of the year. Announcements The Ward & Balkin Agency is being acquired by Roam Agency as of July 1, 2017, when […]
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Today is our last “scheduled” edition for this year (unless something else happens; “except when not” remains our watchword). We’ll be back as needed next week — at least once, at least for our Publishers Lunch Deluxe audience — with news briefs and more end of year thoughts and stats. And as always, PublishersMarketplace remains in operation 24/7 and will continue to present news, deals, bestsellers, jobs and more as they come in. In the meantime, we are restoring our traditional holiday free trial offer at PublishersMarketplace.com: Join now and check out everything the site has to offer for free through Monday. […]
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Scholastic has hired Kiffin Steurer as managing editor for Klutz (he was at Harper Children’s), Chloe Fraboni as editor, licensed publishing. (she was at Simon & Schuster Children’s); and Kirk Benshoff as art director for readers, branches and nonfiction (he was at HBG). In promotions: Erin McMahon is now senior designer, licensed publishing; Emily Feliberty moved up to associate director of marketing and publicity for Klutz; Jenna Ballard is now associate editor, licensed publishing; Brooke Shearouse moves up to publicist; Hillary Doyle and Emily Clement are both work working as rights manager; Milena Giunco is publicity coordinator; Christine Reedy is marketing coordinator; and Courtney DeVerges is now sales coordinator for Klutz.
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Laura Donnini has been named managing director and publisher of Harper Italia, effective February 1, 2017, responsible for the “day-to-day management of operations, establishing strategic and publishing direction, and for driving business expansion in Italy.” She will take over from Paola Ronchi, who “recently made the decision to leave the company after a successful nine year career with Harlequin/Harper.” Most recently, Donnini was ceo of Rizzoli’s RCS Libri. Harper ceo Brian Murray says in the announcement, “I am delighted that Laura is joining HarperCollins Italia. Her prior experience at Harlequin, Mondadori and Rizzoli makes her uniquely qualified to grow our […]