Alibris parent company Monsoon Commerce has brought in Tommaso Trionfi as their new CEO, as Jim Cruckshank moves over to chairman of the board of directors. Trionfi has served previously as CEO of Merchantry, and Wimba prior to that. He has hired his former colleague Rob Teichman as vice president of engineering. Brooks Sherman will join The Bent Agency on January 27, representing picture books, young adult and middle grade fiction, and adult fiction and select nonfiction. He was previously an agent at FinePrint Literary Management. Veda Kumarjiguda has replaced Sooji Kim as digital marketing coordinator for Simon & Schuster Children’s and will work with Matt […]
Personnel
People, Etc.
Andrea Barzvi recently left ICM Partners after 13 years to start her own agency, Empire literary, where she will continue to represent commercial non-fiction as well as women’s fiction. At Sourcebooks, Nicole Villeneuve has been promoted to assistant publicity manager. Poet Billy Collins, 72, has sold his papers to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, The finalists have been named for the Costa Short Story Award. In bookstore news, Main Street Books in St. Charles, MO — which was set to close on January 31 as the owners retire — is negotiating with a potential buyer. (A separate […]
Two More Nook Executives to Depart Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble employees were told on Friday of two more departures from the Nook executive ranks. VP for digital products hardware engineering in their Palo Alto office Bill Saperstein “is no longer with the company.” Some time in February, vp and general manager for global ebooks as well as managing director of the international Barnes & Noble unit based in Luxembourg Jim Hilt will be leaving as well. (Employees were told he will be working for clothing retailer Express.) Confirming the departures to Publishers Lunch, company spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating wrote that Apple veteran Saperstein “was instrumental in helping […]
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At Crown Archetype, Mary Choteborsky has been promoted to senior editor. At Touchstone, Lauren Spiegel has been promoted to senior editor. At Holt, Allison Adler has been promoted to associate editor and Leslie Brandon has moved up to publicity manager. Elsewhere at Macmillan, Kelsey Albertson has been promoted to sales coordinator, and Hannah Braaten is now assistant editor. At The Lisa Ekus Group, Sally Ekus has been promoted to agency manager. Penguin Random House chairman John Makinson speaks to The Times of India about the merged company. Asked, “What does that scale allow you to do?,” he answers: “It puts us […]
People
President of Baker & Taylor’s Library & Education division since 2000 George Coe has been promoted to ceo of the wholesaler. He takes over from Arnie Wright, who retired after 34 years with B&T. Wright will work as a consultant for the company, and will take the role of non-executive chairman of the board. Nicole Melander has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as svp, digital strategy, reporting to ceo Linda Zecher. Melander was previously chief technology officer at Achieving the Dream, a national reform network dedicated to community college student success and completion. At HMH she will work closely with the […]
People, Etc.
In the Random House Special Markets Group, Christine Dillon has been promoted to senior sales director, premium and proprietary sales. Cathy Serpico moves up to imprint sales manager, and Lauren Helman has been promoted to sales manager, specialty retail. At Transatlantic Literary Agency, Stephanie Sinclair and Amy Tompkins have been promoted to associate agent. The Oscar nominations were announced Thursday morning. Among the book-based films in contention for top honors, Philomena, 12 Years A Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street were all nominated for best picture, and Dirty Wars is nominated for best documentary. Also announced Thursday morning were […]