At Little, Brown Children’s, Alvina Ling has been promoted to fiction editorial director, and Julie Scheina is moving up to editor. At Open Road, Lauren Naefe joins the company as senior digital marketing manager, focusing on publishing partnerships and author brand marketing, and reporting to chief marketing officer Rachel Chou. She was at Harper, Doubleday and most recently the National School Climate Council. Allison Myers Underwood will report to Naefe as marketing manager (she was at Knopf Doubleday); Laura De Silva has been promoted to associate digital marketing manager, reporting to Chou; and Justin Mitchell has been hired as assistant […]
Personnel
People: McCullough to Start Imprint at RH Canada, Conville & Walsh Launch Speakers’ Bureau; And More
Publisher of Whitecap Books since 2001, Robert McCullough will join Random House Canada on July 11 as publisher of a new imprint. The line will focus on “the type of lifestyle and food titles for Canada and the North American marketplace that he has published” in the past. The unit will draw on all of RH Canada’s shared services. It’s designed to grow to publish 15 to 20 titles a year. McCullough will remain based in Vancouver, and reports to president Brad Martin. UK literary agents Patrick Walsh and Clare Conville of Conville & Walsh are launching a speakers’ agency […]
Passings: Zev Birger, Lilian Jackson Braun, and Harriette Dorsen
Chairman of the Jerusalem Book Fair Zev Birger died Monday morning after being struck by a motorcycle while crossing the street in Jersualem on Saturday, May 28. His funeral will take place Tuesday. Mystery author Lilian Jackson Braun, 97, died Saturday in a hospice facility. Her longtime editor Natalee Rosenstein at Berkley comments: “She ultimately created a whole new chapter in the American Mystery, and our wonderful working relationship spanned more than two decades. But most of all, it is Lilian the person I will remember–a strong, dedicated, feisty woman who would always speak her mind and not be intimidated […]
People: Another Borders Executive Quits
On Friday, Borders announced via an SEC filing that evp and chief merchandising officer Michele Cloutier resigned on Thursday, June 2. In other Borders news, federal bankruptcy court approved its motion to reject its Seattle’s Best Coffee contract as of July 31. SBC can stop shipping goods and providing services on June 30. Court filing Literary agent Weronika Janczuk has joined Lynn C. Franklin Associates, where she will represent a range of adult literary and commercial fiction, non-fiction, and YA. Janczuk has been at D4EO Literary Agency.
People, Etc.
At Random House, Milena Alberti has been named vp and director of corporate development and strategy for the entire compay, while Ranjana Wingender has been promoted to vp business development for the Crown Publishing Group, a new divisional position. Josephine Hart, the poetry promoter and bestselling author of six novels including DAMAGE and THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE, died Thursday of a rare form of ovarian cancer. She was 67. Guardian Obit Wayne Greenhaw, the journalist and author of 22 novels, died May 31 following complications from open-heart surgery at the University of Alabama-Birmingham hospital. He was 71. His most recent […]
Briefs: EBSCO and H.W. Wilson to Merge; Mirasol Reader is Dead; and More
EBSCO and H.W. Wilson have merged in a deal that combines the two publishing companies’ operations with the intended goal of improving services for libraries. Wilson president and ceo Harry Regan said in a statement: “EBSCO and H.W. Wilson have been engaged as business partners for a number of years and are now officially operating as one. The result will be a broader and deeper range of products and services for the library reference community with significantly added value. Both companies have had separate, distinctive histories, but have always shared a common commitment for the highest order of customer satisfaction.” […]