Amistad Press founder Charles F. Harris, 81, died December 16. Harris began his career at Doubleday in the 1950s and also worked at Random House and Howard University Press before founding Amistad in 1986, which he sold to HarperCollins in 1999 (and stayed with until 2003.) The NYT covers the growth in personalized children’s books, from UK-based Lost My Name to Sourcebooks‘ Put Me In the Story program and others. But the paper may be a little off-base in dismissing the impact. While 2 percent growth in print units is hailed as a renaissance, adding a percent or two to children’s […]
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At the Random House Publishing Group, Sanyu Dillon, Theresa Zoro, Susan Kamil, and Scott Shannon have all been promoted to executive vice president — comprising the executive leadership team, along with existing evps Bill Takes and Kara Welsh (whose announcement as publisher Ballantine Bantam Dell was noted Thursday) . RHPG president and publisher Gina Centrello said in the announcement: “Through our many organizational evolutions and publishing expansions, these exceptional people have helped me create an unparalleled publishing strategy for the division, while expertly managing their respective departments. Individually and collectively, they are the best of the best in the business, and I […]
People
Tara Parsons will join Touchstone as editor-in-chief on January 4, reporting to Susan Moldow. Previously she was editorial director, fiction at Amazon Publishing. Moldow said in the announcement: “Tara’s range of commercial acquisitions combined with the unique experiences she has gained from working within an array of publishing models will make her a valuable and dynamic leader of the Touchstone editorial team.” Sally Kim had been editorial director at Touchstone until leaving for Putnam earlier this year. It’s the first time Touchstone has used the title editor-in-chief for a number of years. Mark Tavani will join Putnam as vp, executive […]
People: Helen Brann Dies, and More
Literary agent Helen Wetmore Brann, 82, died suddenly on Monday of complications from cancer. In July, Brann “entered into a success plan” with ICM. She started her agency in 1974 — among the first women to open her own agency — after working at the Sterling Lord Agency. Over her career she had represented writers including Julian Barnes, Richard Brautigan, Gerald Clarke, Daniel Yergin, Rod McKuen, Barbara Leaming, Stephen Sondheim, Robert B. Parker and Maya Angelou. A private service will be held at a later date. Donations in her memory can be made to the Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. In other personnel news, Rachel […]
People
Peter Garabedian will retire from Macmillan at the end of the year, after joining the company in 2000 as COO. Dan Schwartz has been promoted to the new position of svp, finance and strategy, and “will drive the divisional strategy process, oversee the data science team, and have responsibility for the US finance organization.” Esther Kim is being promoted to the new position of director of business planning, and will work with Schwartz on topics related to analytics, business development and strategy. At HarperCollins, Shawn Nicholls has been promoted to associate publisher for Avon, Impulse, and Witness, as well as for mass market paperbacks, reporting to Lynn […]
People: Henning Mankell Dies, and More
Henning Mankell, 67, author of Kurt Wallander series of detective novels and over 40 works of fiction and theater, died Monday from complications of neck and lung cancer. Mankell’s crime novels sold more than 40 million copies around the world and were filmed as series for Swedish TV and the BBC (the latter starring Kenneth Branagh.) A spokeperson for his UK publishers Harvill Secker said in a statement: “Beloved by readers across the world, especially for his Kurt Wallander series, it was a privilege to have worked with a man of such talent and passion, and to have been his […]