At Penguin Books, Victoria Savanh has been promoted to assistant editor. At BlueBottleBiz, Mike Conner has been promoted to chief evangelist, where he will spearhead the company’s member adoption while overseeing his pre-existing sales team. At Westwood Creative Artists, Stephanie Thompson has joined as office manager and literary assistant to Michael Levine. In addition, Jake Babad has left the agency to attend law school. Crystal McCoy has joined little bee books as senior publicist. She was senior account executive at B/HI. Opening sales Nielsen Bookscan announced that UK print sales for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in its first […]
Personnel
People: Hugh Van Dusen Retires, and More
Longtime Harper vp, executive editor Hugh Van Dusen will retire from the company on August 30 “after an astonishing 60 years with HarperCollins.” He first joined what was then Harper & Brothers on June 21, 1956 and helped launch Torch Books, later becoming closely involved with the Perennial paperback imprint and rising to his current position in 1990. Among van Dusen’s authors were Jacques Barzun, Fernand Braudel, Robert Bly, James Hillman, Robert Remini, Trevor Corson, and Harper Lee (including her estate). “It may sound too eccentric or romantic to be believed, but there have been very few mornings in the […]
People: Kuyper Exits BISG, and More
Mark Kuyper has resigned as executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, effective immediately, to “explore other areas of interest.” Kuyper joined the BISG just over a year in June 2015, relocating to New York after serving as president and ceo of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. A search is being conducted to find a replacement. “We wish Mark the very best in all his future endeavors,” said BISG board chair Tara Catogge in the announcement. “As a longtime board member and friend of BISG, Mark will be greatly missed.” Kuyper added: “I am proud of what we accomplished during […]
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster, Tracy Nelson has been promoted to director, retail field sales, and Caitlin Nalven has been promoted to national account manager handling Baker & Taylor, Ingram and Perma-Bound for children’s publishing. Hannah Fergesen has joined KT Literary as an agent, representing speculative adult, young adult, and middle grade fiction. Fergesen was most recently a literary assistant at Trident Media Group. In addition, Renee Nyen has also been promoted to agent. At Red Sofa Literary, Laura Zats has been promoted to literary agent. Publishing attorney Susan Spann has joined Donaghy Literary Group as contracts manager. Former Gotham editor Brooke Carey has […]
People
Andrew Martin has been promoted to senior vice president at St. Martin’s Press, in addition to his current role as publisher of Minotaur Books. Penny Moore has joined Empire Literary as an agent, focusing on young adult. Most recently she was at Fine Print Literary. Andrew Yackira has left his role as editor at Tarcher Perigee to found Pigasus Books, “a full-service writing and publishing consultancy, providing copy editing, proofreading, line editing, literary coaching, and agenting.” At Ten Speed Press, Lisa Westmoreland has been promoted to executive editor, continuing to acquire and edit titles for both Ten Speed and Watson-Guptill. Courtney […]
People, Etc.
Longtime Norton editor James L. Mairs, 77, died July 26 of heart failure, while also battling leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. Mairs first joined Norton as a traveling college sales representative in 1963 and rose through the ranks, promoted to vice president in 1970 and a company director in 1973. Mairs officially retired from Norton in 2002 but continued working at the same office both as editor of additional Norton books, including Jung’s The Red Book in 2009, and as founder and head of his own, one-man publishing house, Quantuck Lane Press, distributed by Norton. Norton president and chairman Drake McFeely […]